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Sauces and condiments from Sichuan and Guizhou, China

Paojiao (Sichuan pickled chillies)泡椒

Whole fresh chillies are sunk in salted brine, often with sugar, liquor, ginger and garlic, and left sealed for weeks to months while lactic bacteria and yeasts sour them. Aged brine from earlier batches is often added. The chillies lose hardness and pungency and turn sour and salty.

Fully documentedSauces and condiments30 days – 3 months

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceBrine recipe of one laboratory study of Guizhou pickled peppers; household and factory recipes vary.
Whole fresh ripe chilliesWashed and air-dried; Xiaomila and Zhuzijiao in the Guizhou study[huang2025]
Salt, in the brine9 %[huang2025]
Sugar, in the brine2.5 %[huang2025]
Chinese liquor (baijiu), in the brine1 %[huang2025]
Minced ginger and garlic, in the brine1 % each[huang2025]
Aged brine from earlier batches (optional starter)Brines kept going for 5 to 50 years were tested in a Sichuan study[wang2026][zhang2022]
Starterspontaneous, or backslop with aged brine from earlier batches

Total time across the recorded steps: 30 days – 3 months

Start
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What changes: Starting material: fresh whole red chillies

Step 1 of 5
Wash and dry whole chillies
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Weissella
Yeasts

Output: clean whole chillies.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
bright red

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Whole fresh chillies are sunk in salted brine, often with sugar, liquor, ginger and garlic, and left sealed for weeks to months while lactic bacteria and yeasts sour them. Aged brine from earlier batches is often added. The chillies lose hardness and pungency and turn sour and salty. Made in 5 steps over 30 days – 3 months. The longest step, ferment, takes 30 days – 3 months (Huang Q 2025) and runs at 20–30 °C (Huang Q 2025). Salt is 9 % (Huang Q 2025). Lactobacillus, rising to 77.76 % of bacteria by day 63 in one variety (42.76 % in the other); Weissella, 8.31 % and 15.54 % on day 7 and under 4 % by day 63 and Levilactobacillus (dominant), Weissella, Lactiplantibacillus, Companilactobacillus and Pediococcus in aged-brine ferments do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step30 days – 3 monthsReported[huang2025][zhang2022]Ferment
Temperature20–30 °CReported[huang2025][zhang2022]Ferment
Salt9 %Reported[huang2025]Make the brine
AciditypH 3.3–3.4Measured[huang2025]Ferment

What makes this one different

Paojiao ferments whole chillies in a liquid brine, like Sichuan paocai, so the chillies keep their shape. Chinese chilli mash is chopped or ground with dry salt into a paste and is much saltier.

Related ferments

Safety

The brine reaches about pH 3.3. Nitrite peaks in the first week and then falls.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

Zhang and colleagues (2022) say pickle jars, porcelain ones in particular, are the traditional fermenting vessels for vegetables, and call pickled chilli one of the most typical fermented vegetables of south-west China. Because a jar holds little, industry moved to large fermentation pools where the chillies are pressed under nets and boards and the brine is pumped round.

  1. [huang2025] Huang Q., Li C., Wu Y., Tong S., Zhang L., Jin J., Zhu Q., Yan Y. 2025, Impact of pepper varieties on microbial succession and correlation with physicochemical properties and volatile compounds during pickled pepper fermentation, Food Chemistry X 28:102551, doi:10.1016/j.fochx.2025.102551paper
  2. [wang2026] Wang C. et al. 2026, Aged pickle brine influences flavor and bacteria characteristics of pickled chili peppers, Foods 15(14):2564, doi:10.3390/foods15142564paper
  3. [zhang2022] Zhang S., Xiao Y., Jiang Y., Wang T., Cai S., Hu X., Yi J. 2022, Effects of brines and containers on flavor production of Chinese pickled chili pepper (Capsicum frutescens L.) during natural fermentation, Foods 12(1):101, doi:10.3390/foods12010101paper
  4. [ye2022] Ye Z. et al. 2022, Dynamic analysis of flavor properties and microbial communities in Chinese pickled chili pepper (Capsicum frutescens L.), a typical industrial-scale natural fermentation process, Food Research International, doi:10.1016/j.foodres.2022.110952 (abstract)paper