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Vegetables from Tsugaru

Tsugaru akakabu senmaizuke (red-turnip thousand-slice pickle)赤かぶの千枚漬け

Tsugaru red turnips, red in skin and flesh, are sliced 2 to 3 mm thin, salted at 3 % under twice their weight for a week, then repacked with coarse sugar, vinegar and toasted kombu under a light weight. The vinegar brings out a bright red, and the pickle is ready about a week after repacking. It is made in late autumn and eaten through the winter until early spring.

DocumentedVegetables14 days

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceMAFF regional-cuisine recipe for one 18 L pickle barrel, taken from an Aomori prefecture food culture guidebook; the page notes that recipes vary by area and household.
Red turnips10 kg[maff-aomori]
Salt300 g[maff-aomori]
Coarse sugar (zarame)800 g[maff-aomori]
5x-strength vinegar160 ml[maff-aomori]
Kombu, lightly toasted and cut in 1 cm squaresAbout 15 cm length[maff-aomori]

Total time across the recorded steps: 14 days

Start
Drag the bar or press Play

What changes: Red turnips are sliced 2 to 3 mm thin

Step 1 of 3
Slice the turnips thin
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
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

Tsugaru red turnips, red in skin and flesh, are sliced 2 to 3 mm thin, salted at 3 % under twice their weight for a week, then repacked with coarse sugar, vinegar and toasted kombu under a light weight. The vinegar brings out a bright red, and the pickle is ready about a week after repacking. It is made in late autumn and eaten through the winter until early spring. Made in 3 steps over 14 days. The longest step, salt under a heavy weight, takes 7 days (MAFF うちの郷土料理 (Our regional cuisines) 2026). Salt is 3 % (MAFF うちの郷土料理 (Our regional cuisines) 2026).

Key numbers
Main step7 daysReported[maff-aomori]Salt under a heavy weight
Salt3 %Reported[maff-aomori]Salt under a heavy weight

What makes this one different

The Tsugaru pickle borrows the senmaizuke name but uses a local turnip that is red right through, and vinegar turns it bright red. It gets a full week of salting under a heavy weight before the sweet vinegar stage; in the MAFF Kyoto recipe the 2 mm slices of Shogoin turnip are salted for one day and night and soaked in the sweet vinegar for another.

Related ferments

History and sources

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

Iwaki pickles were once a known local brand, and an Iwaki pickle-transmission project now runs classes, recipes and videos (MAFF).

  1. [maff-aomori] MAFF うちの郷土料理 (Our regional cuisines), 赤かぶの千枚漬け (Aomori), recipe from the Aomori prefecture guidebook 食の文化伝承ガイドブック, read 2026-10-23gov
  2. [maff-kyoto] MAFF うちの郷土料理 (Our regional cuisines), 千枚漬け (Kyoto), the named Kyoto turnip picklegov