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Vegetables from Meizhou and Huizhou, Guangdong

Meigan cai (mei cai)梅干菜

Leaf mustard is wilted, salted and packed into jars, where lactic bacteria sour it, then it is steamed and sun-dried, three times over in the Hakka way, into dark, fragrant dried leaves. A 2026 paper gives it a two-year shelf life at room temperature. It is cooked with pork in mei cai kou rou.

Fully documentedVegetables12 h – 14 days

Recipe

Meigan cai (mei cai), a photo from Wikimedia Commons
Photo: Sjschen, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Amounts from a sourceThe ratio is from home-made Shaoxing meigan cai in a 2026 study (mustard to salt 25:1). Hakka makers in Meizhou vary the salt, which is one reason a group standard is being written.
Fresh mustard greens25 parts by weightPotherb mustard in the Shaoxing study; fresh leaf mustard in Meizhou[jiang2026mg][meizhou-std]
Salt1 part by weightThe Shaoxing ratio of mustard to salt[jiang2026mg]
Starterspontaneous

Total time across the recorded steps: 12 h – 14 days

Start
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What changes: Fresh leaf mustard is spread out to wilt in the sun

Step 1 of 4
Wilt the fresh mustard in the sun
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Weissella
Latilactobacillus
Lactobacilli
Levilactobacillus brevis

Output: limp mustard.

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

Leaf mustard is wilted, salted and packed into jars, where lactic bacteria sour it, then it is steamed and sun-dried, three times over in the Hakka way, into dark, fragrant dried leaves. A 2026 paper gives it a two-year shelf life at room temperature. It is cooked with pork in mei cai kou rou. Made in 4 steps over 12 h – 14 days. The longest step, ferment in the jars, takes 12 h – 14 days (Jiang X 2026) and runs at 20–30 °C (Jiang X 2026). Weissella early, then Latilactobacillus and other lactobacilli and Levilactobacillus brevis and Weissella hellenica among the core species do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step12 h – 14 daysReported[jiang2026mg][meizhou-std]Ferment in the jars
Temperature20–30 °CReported[jiang2026mg][meizhou-std]Ferment in the jars
AciditypH 5.5 → 4.6Measured[jiang2026mg]Ferment in the jars

What makes this one different

Meigan cai is soured like other Chinese salted mustards, then steamed and dried. Unlike suan cai, which stays moist, it is steamed and dried after souring.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Hakka meigan cai (Meizhou, Huizhou)Short ferment and three rounds of steaming and sun-drying.
  • Shaoxing meigan caiPotherb mustard packed with salt and fermented about two weeks before drying.

Safety

The drafters of the Meizhou group standard limited the fermentation time and temperature partly to keep nitrite low; in the Shaoxing study nitrite stayed at 0.83–6.33 mg/kg, under the 20 mg/kg Chinese limit the authors cite. That study's sealed, salted stage started at pH 5.5, held about 3.45 % salt and only levelled off at about pH 4.6, with no margin below the limit WHO gives for Clostridium botulinum, and WHO says homemade fermented foods are a common source of botulism. The study did not look for the bacterium or its toxin, so do not store the wet leaves in sealed jars. Dry the leaves fully; the dried leaves are reported to keep about two years at room temperature (Jiang 2026), which is a keeping figure, not a safety test.

History and sources

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

Meigan cai is a traditional Hakka preserve and a geographical-indication product of Meizhou.

  1. [jiang2026mg] Jiang X., Xu H., Zhou H. et al. (Liu Z.) 2026, Exploring dynamic changes in microbial succession and flavor-active metabolites during pickled and dried mustard fermentation of traditional fermented vegetables, Foods 15:3486, doi:10.3390/foods15193486paper
  2. [meizhou-std] Guangdong Vegetable Industry Association, explanatory note to the group standard 梅州梅菜加工技术规程 (Technical code for processing Meizhou meicai), draftother
  3. [s1] Wikipedia, Meigan caiwiki
  4. [who-botulism] WHO, Botulism fact sheetgov