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Vegetables from Romania

Murături (Romanian brined pickles: varză murată and green tomatoes)murături

Murături are the pickles Romanian households put down in late autumn for the cold months. The main one is varză murată, whole cabbage heads soured in brine in a barrel; green tomatoes are also pickled in jars in a lightly vinegared marinade. In the cabbage, lactic bacteria do the souring.

Fully documentedVegetables35 days – 2.3 months

Recipe

Murături (Romanian brined pickles: varză murată and green tomatoes), a photo from Wikimedia Commons
Photo: Bogdan29roman, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Amounts from a sourceThe cabbage brine is a traditional household ratio. The marinade amounts are one laboratory batch of green-tomato pickles from Galați, split into three parts of five jars each.
Non-iodised salt, for the cabbage brine1.5 tablespoons per litre of water[agerpres]
Water, boiled, for the green-tomato marinadeAbout 1.5 L[mocanu2022]
Vinegar (9° acetic acid)150 g[mocanu2022]
Sugar112.5 g[mocanu2022]
Celery leaves105 g[mocanu2022]
Onions60 g[mocanu2022]
Sunflower oil37.5 g[mocanu2022]
Garlic6 g[mocanu2022]
Bay leaves, allspice and black peppercorns0.3 g, 0.6 g and 0.6 g[mocanu2022]
Salt (sodium chloride)9 g per third of the marinade[mocanu2022]
Starterspontaneous

Total time across the recorded steps: 35 days – 2.3 months

Start
Drag the bar or press Play
shapes, not to countL. mesenteroidesLactobacillus plantarumLactic acid bacteria

What changes: Whole cabbage heads go under brine in a barrel, weighted with a stone

Step 1 of 4
Put down whole cabbage heads in a barrel
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
L. mesenteroides
Lactobacillus plantarum
Lactic acid bacteria

Some households leave the heads outside about 15 days after harvest first. The cored heads are filled with salt and packed core up with dill, thyme, horseradish, corn kernels and quince or apple, then covered with brine.

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

Murături are the pickles Romanian households put down in late autumn for the cold months. The main one is varză murată, whole cabbage heads soured in brine in a barrel; green tomatoes are also pickled in jars in a lightly vinegared marinade. In the cabbage, lactic bacteria do the souring. Made in 4 steps over 35 days – 2.3 months. The longest step, sour the cabbage, racking the brine, takes 7–42 days (AGERPRES (Business OTS section) 2026) and runs at 18–22 °C (AGERPRES (Business OTS section) 2026). Salt is 0.6 % → 0.74 % (Mocanu G.-D 2022). Leuconostoc mesenteroides in the first 3–5 days of the cabbage ferment, then Lactobacillus plantarum and Lactic acid bacteria at 4.11–4.63 log CFU at day 28 of the green-tomato ferment, across the NaCl, KCl and MgCl2 versions of the pickle do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step7–42 daysReported[agerpres]Sour the cabbage, racking the brine
Temperature18–22 °CReported[agerpres]Sour the cabbage, racking the brine
Salt0.6 % → 0.74 %Measured[mocanu2022]Pickle green tomatoes in jars

What makes this one different

Murături put whole cabbage heads into a barrel of brine, with the brine racked weekly, and also pickle green tomatoes in jars. Some green-tomato recipes add vinegar and sugar to the brine, so they are partly acid pickles rather than purely lactic ones.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Varză muratăWhole cabbage heads in a barrel of brine; see whole-head sour cabbage.
  • Green pickled tomatoesGreen tomatoes in jars, in a lightly vinegared marinade with salt.

Safety

In the green-tomato study the NaCl pickles held 0.55–0.74 % salt, with vinegar in the marinade (Mocanu 2022).

History and sources

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

In Romania cabbage is traditionally put down between St Demetrius' Day (26 October) and St Andrew's Day (30 November). Green pickled tomatoes are described as a traditional product for the cold months.

  1. [agerpres] AGERPRES (Business OTS section), Varza murată românească, tradiție, fermentare și utilizări, 23 January 2026web
  2. [mocanu2022] Mocanu G.-D., Nistor O.-V., Constantin O.E., Andronoiu D.G., Barbu V.V. and Botez E. 2022, The effect of sodium total substitution on the quality characteristics of green pickled tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum L.), Molecules 27(5), 1609paper
  3. [ciric-bucharest] Ciric A., Begea M., Moisac A. and Vacaru D., Traditional Sour Cabbage – An Ancient Probiotic Food from Wallachian Plain, poster abstract, University Politehnica of Bucharestpaper