The pickling of turnips, known as ‘senmaizuke,’ began in Kyoto on Tuesday, the first day of winter according to the traditional Japanese calendar. One of the city’s culinary specialties is made from shaved ‘Shogoin’ turnips. The turnips get sweeter as nighttime temperatures start to drop around this time of year. Workers at a pickle factory peeled the turnips, which are 20 centimeters in diameter and weigh about 2 kilograms each, and shaved off slices as thin as 2.6 millimeters using special planes. They arranged the shaved turnips in wooden barrels in fan shapes, and then sprinkled salt on them. The turnips are taken out of the barrels after 3 days and soaked in a soup stock with kelp. A typhoon in September delayed the seeding of the turnips, but a good harvest came in this year. The factory’s foreman says the work is hard because the entire process must be done by hand. He says he hopes that the pickles will become more delicious as temperatures drop and sweeten the turnips. The peak of pickling will come next month.
Pictured from left: spherical Shogoin daikon (giant radish named after a Kyoto temple famous for its vegetables); Shogoin kabura (giant turnip); and karashi daikon (not daikon at all, but a form of horse radish usually used in grated form).
Article from NHK World, with thanks to Tania Coke, Tokyo WK Correspondent.
