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Vegetables from Northeast China

Northeast suan cai (Dongbei sauerkraut)酸菜

Northeast suan cai is cabbage that is pretreated, immersed in a 0.5–3.5 % salt solution and left at ambient temperature for about a month to ferment naturally. In three Dalian households the pH fell to about 3.3, and Weissella was the most common bacterium throughout.

Fully documentedVegetables33 days

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceHousehold practice. The only amount is the brine strength that Yang et al. 2020 give as general practice.
Cabbages, pretreated[yang2020]
Brine to cover0.5–3.5 % salt solution[yang2020]
Starterspontaneous

Total time across the recorded steps: 33 days

Start
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What changes: The cabbages are pretreated before they go into the salt solution

Step 1 of 4
Pretreat the cabbages
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Weissella
Lactobacillus
Leuconostoc
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

Northeast suan cai is cabbage that is pretreated, immersed in a 0.5–3.5 % salt solution and left at ambient temperature for about a month to ferment naturally. In three Dalian households the pH fell to about 3.3, and Weissella was the most common bacterium throughout. Made in 4 steps over 33 days. The longest step, ferment about a month, takes 30 days (Yang X 2020) and runs at 18–20 °C (Yang X 2020). Salt is 0.5–3.5 % (Yang X 2020). Weissella, the most abundant genus in all three households and Lactobacillus, high in one household do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step30 daysReported[yang2020]Ferment about a month
Temperature18–20 °CReported[yang2020]Ferment about a month
Salt0.5–3.5 %Reported[yang2020]Immerse in a light salt solution in a jar
AciditypH 3.2–3.3Measured[yang2020]Ferment about a month

What makes this one different

Suan cai is cabbage immersed in a 0.5–3.5 % salt solution and kept at ambient temperature for about a month, with no starter. Household batches differ widely in their bacteria and flavour [yang2020].

Related ferments

Variants

  • Inoculated suan caiAdding Lactobacillus curvatus or Leuconostoc mesenteroides lowers the pH faster; L. curvatus then dominates.

Safety

Nitrite peaks in the first days (up to 29.50 mg/kg at day 3, above the 20 mg/kg limit Yang et al. cite) and falls very low by the end, so eat it fully fermented. Some household batches carried Clostridium and Enterobacter.

Hazards the sources name: Clostridium in two households and Enterobacter in one.

History and sources

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

Yang et al. 2020 say sauerkraut has been widely eaten in northern China for hundreds of years in their introduction (their abstract says thousands), and that it is usually still homemade in northeast China, relying on spontaneous fermentation.

  1. [yang2020] Yang X., Hu W., Xiu Z., Jiang A., Yang X., Saren G., Ji Y., Guan Y., Feng K. 2020, Microbial community dynamics and metabolome changes during spontaneous fermentation of northeast sauerkraut from different households, Frontiers in Microbiology 11:1878paper
  2. [wu2015] Wu R., Yu M., Liu X., Meng L., Wang Q., Xue Y., Wu J., Yue X. 2015, Changes in flavour and microbial diversity during natural fermentation of suan-cai, a traditional food made in Northeast China, International Journal of Food Microbiology 211:23–31 (abstract via Europe PMC)paper
  3. [yang2016] Yang H., Wu H., Gao L., Jia H., Zhang Y., Cui Z., Li Y. 2016, Effects of Lactobacillus curvatus and Leuconostoc mesenteroides on suan cai fermentation in Northeast China, Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology 26(12):2148–2158 (abstract via Europe PMC)paper