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Vegetables from Yangzhou, Jiangsu, China

Yangzhou jiangcai (Yangzhou sauce pickles)扬州酱菜

Yangzhou jiangcai is a family of vegetables pickled in sauce, among them Chinese artichoke, baby cucumber, young ginger, radish heads and lettuce stem. They are known as fresh, sweet, crisp and tender, and taste different from Beijing sauce pickles. Lactic acid bacteria have been isolated from pickles made by the Sanhe Simei company.

A short entry: the sources we found record only what is said here about Yangzhou jiangcai itself. Its own sources do not record how it is made, so the steps and scenes below are those of Jangajji (vegetables aged in soy sauce, doenjang or gochujang), the closest documented vegetables ferment, shown as a guide to the method, not as a record of Yangzhou jiangcai.

Short entryVegetables

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedWhat goes in. No source gives amounts for this ferment.
Chinese artichoke (宝塔菜)
baby cucumbers (乳黄瓜)
young ginger
radish heads
lettuce stems
mixed vegetables (什锦菜)

Total time across the steps of Jangajji (vegetables aged in soy sauce, doenjang or gochujang): 32 days – 2 months

Start
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Close-up: salt moving into a pieceSalt 6–12 %

What changes: Salt draws water out of the vegetable

Step 1 of 4 · steps of Jangajji (vegetables aged in soy sauce, doenjang or gochujang)
Salt the vegetable to draw out water
Time
2 days
Reported
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
6–12 %
Reported
Acidity
Not documented

The National Folk Museum's encyclopedia says the vegetable is pretreated by salting or by sun-drying before it goes into jang, jeotguk, vinegar or lees. Output: firmer, less watery pieces.

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

Yangzhou jiangcai is a family of vegetables pickled in sauce, among them Chinese artichoke, baby cucumber, young ginger, radish heads and lettuce stem. They are known as fresh, sweet, crisp and tender, and taste different from Beijing sauce pickles. Lactic acid bacteria have been isolated from pickles made by the Sanhe Simei company. Leuconostoc fallax, Lentilactobacillus buchneri and Pediococcus pentosaceus does most of the fermenting.

What makes this one different

Yangzhou sauce pickles are known for a fresh, sweet, crisp taste that differs from Beijing sauce pickles.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Beijing jiangcaiThe northern sauce pickle that Yangzhou's is compared with.

History and sources

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

Said to be more than 1,000 years old; legend says the monk Jianzhen carried sauce pickling to Japan in the Tang dynasty. In the Qing dynasty it was a palace side dish, and it won prizes in 1903 and 1931 (Chinese Wikipedia).

  1. [zhwiki] Chinese Wikipedia, 扬州酱菜, read 2026-10-23wiki
  2. [tang2026] Tang C., Qian Y., Chen J., Fang G., Chen J., Xu J. 2026, Genomic and functional insights into Pediococcus pentosaceus B1-3 from Yangzhou pickles and its application in pork preservation, Food Chemistry Molecular Sciencespaper