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Vegetables from Northern Thailand

Phak gard dong (pickled mustard green)ผักกาดดอง

Mustard greens are washed, wilted in the sun, cut, kneaded with salt and packed under rice-washing water to sour for about three days. Karen and Shan versions reach about pH 4.3–4.6, led by Weissella or Lactobacillus.

Fully documentedVegetables3.5 days – 11 days

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceHousehold and market practice with no fixed amounts, except FAO's 3 % sugar solution.
Mustard greens (Brassica juncea)[yongsawas2022]
Sea salt, kneaded in[yongsawas2022]
Rice-washing water (nam-sao-khaw), to coverSalt gives sodium and the rice water gives sugar for the bacteria[yongsawas2022]
Sugar solution, in FAO's account in place of rice water3 %[fao134]
Starterspontaneous

Total time across the recorded steps: 3.5 days – 11 days

Start
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What changes: Mustard greens are washed, wilted in the sun and cut small

Step 1 of 4
Wash, partly sun-dry until wilted, and cut
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Weissella
Pediococcus
Lactobacillus

Output: wilted, cut greens.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

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

Mustard greens are washed, wilted in the sun, cut, kneaded with salt and packed under rice-washing water to sour for about three days. Karen and Shan versions reach about pH 4.3–4.6, led by Weissella or Lactobacillus. Made in 4 steps over 3.5 days – 11 days. The longest step, ferment, takes 3–10 days (Yongsawas R 2022). Weissella (W. hellenica), 54.2 % of bacteria in Karen and 65.0 % in Lawa samples and Lactobacillus, 79.1 % in Shan samples do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step3–10 daysReported[yongsawas2022][fao134][jircas-kaat]Ferment
AciditypH 4.3–4.6Measured[yongsawas2022]Ferment

What makes this one different

Phak gard dong ferments for about three days in rice-washing water in the 2022 study. The Lawa blanch and dry the greens and mix in cooked rice instead, and their pickle stays far less acid (pH 5.95 at day 3).

Related ferments

Variants

  • Lawa styleCut greens are blanched in hot water and dried, mixed with salt and cooked rice, packed and fermented 3 days; pH 5.95 ± 0.12 at day 3, Weissella 65.0 %.
  • Karen and ShanSame method, different leading bacteria (Weissella for the Karen, Lactobacillus for the Shan).

Safety

The Lawa style stays at pH 5.95 after 3 days and carried Enterobacteriaceae and Staphylococcus in the 2022 study. Use clean water and greens, and keep the greens under the brine. WHO says C. botulinum does not grow below pH 4.6, so on day 3 the Lawa batches (pH 5.95) were well above that line, the Shan batches (pH 4.63 ± 0.03) were at it, and only the Karen batches (pH 4.33) were below it. Homemade pickled mustard greens are among the foods reported in botulism events in Xinjiang, China.

Hazards the sources name: Enterobacteriaceae, Staphylococcus and Bacillus, notably in Lawa samples.

History and sources

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

Yongsawas et al. (2022) name phak-gard-dong, with miang, nam phak and tua nao, among the indigenous fermented foods associated with the Lanna people of northern Thailand, and say fermented vegetables and fermented soybeans are part of the daily diets of all three ethnolinguistic groups they studied (Karen, Shan and Lawa). They sampled Karen and Lawa households and a Shan market in Mae Hong Son. The 1995 book The Traditional Fermented Foods of Thailand, as summarised in the JIRCAS database, already lists the pickle as pak-kaat-dorng.

  1. [who-botulism] World Health Organization, Botulism, fact sheetgov
  2. [danai2026] Danai A., Huang J., Su J., Meng W., Lin Y., Yuan Y., Ma X. 2026, Analysis of the epidemiological characteristics of foodborne botulism in Xinjiang, China from 2016 to 2024, BMC Infectious Diseasespaper
  3. [yongsawas2022] Yongsawas R., Inta A., Kampuansai J., Pandith H., Suwannarach N., Lamyong S., Chantawannakul P., Chitov T., Disayathanoowat T. 2022, Bacterial communities in Lanna phak-gard-dong (pickled mustard green) from three different ethnolinguistic groups in northern Thailand, Biology (Basel) 11(1):150paper
  4. [fao134] Battcock M. and Azam-Ali S. 1998, Fermented fruits and vegetables: a global perspective, FAO Agricultural Services Bulletin 134, chapter 6.1.3gov
  5. [jircas-kaat] JIRCAS Database of Fermented Foods of Thailand, Pak-kaat-dorng (after The Traditional Fermented Foods of Thailand, 1995, ISBN 9679932249), read 2026-10; lists mustard greens, salt, cooked rice or rice-wash water and palm sugar, fermentation of 3–10 days and storage of 1 month to 1 year by methodgov