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Vegetables from Miyagi, Japan

Sendai hakusai-zuke (Sendai napa cabbage pickle)仙台白菜の漬物

Sendai hakusai-zuke is the local Matsushima-type napa cabbage, wilted after the mid-November harvest, split in half and packed in a tub with 4–5 % salt and chilli under a heavy weight. After a few days it is turned over and repacked under a lighter weight, and it is good to eat after about two weeks. Kept longer it sours into furuzuke, which is stir-fried in sesame oil.

Fully documentedVegetables17 days – 19 days

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceHousehold recipe for one tub, from the MAFF regional-cuisine page (recipe from the Miyagi food-heritage group's cookbook).
Napa cabbage (Sendai hakusai)10 kgLeft after harvest until limp, washed, cut at the base and split in two by hand[maff]
Salt400–500 g (4–5 %)[maff]
Dried chillies5–6[maff]
Yuzu peel or thin strips of kombuAs likedAdded at the repacking[maff]
Pressing weightAbout 20 kg[maff]

Total time across the recorded steps: 17 days – 19 days

Start
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What changes: Napa cabbage harvested after the November frost is left to go limp

Step 1 of 6
Harvest after frost and leave to wilt
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

The harvested heads are left for a while until limp.

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

Sendai hakusai-zuke is the local Matsushima-type napa cabbage, wilted after the mid-November harvest, split in half and packed in a tub with 4–5 % salt and chilli under a heavy weight. After a few days it is turned over and repacked under a lighter weight, and it is good to eat after about two weeks. Kept longer it sours into furuzuke, which is stir-fried in sesame oil. Made in 6 steps over 17 days – 19 days. The longest step, ripen until good to eat, takes 14 days (MAFF (Ministry of Agriculture 2026). Salt is 4–5 % (MAFF (Ministry of Agriculture 2026).

Key numbers
Main step14 daysReported[maff]Ripen until good to eat
Salt4–5 %Reported[maff]Pack with salt and chilli under a heavy weight

What makes this one different

Unlike kimchi, the cabbage is only salted, with chilli, yuzu or kombu for flavour, and no seasoning paste. The local Sendai cabbage is soft and rich in amino acids, which MAFF says makes it pickle easily, keep a pleasant bite and taste better the longer it pickles [maff].

Related ferments

Safety

General note for Japanese salt pickles, not a test of this pickle: Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare pickle hygiene code (2012 revision) lists hakusai-zuke as a salt pickle. It calls a pickle shelf-stable at room temperature for 7 days or more when it has 4 % salt or more, a pH of 4.0 or below, or 3–4 % salt with a pH of 4.6 or below. Fresh, lightly pickled raw vegetables (asa-zuke) are not shelf-stable under the code and must be handled and stored at 10 °C or below. For fresh pickles it requires washing the vegetables in running potable water, and for all pickles it requires that no mould or film yeast show on the finished pickle.

History and sources

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

Napa cabbage seed came to Miyagi from China after the wars of the 1890s and 1900s, and the Matsushima cabbage bred in the Taishō era was sold nationwide as Sendai hakusai. Its tender leaves bruised in transport and it fell out of use, but after the 2011 tsunami it was revived because it copes fairly well with salt-damaged fields [maff, miyagi]. After the war, lower quality from cross-breeding, competing growers near Tokyo and new easier varieties shrank its cultivation. In the 2011 revival project JA Zen-Noh Miyagi and Miyagi Co-op chose it because it resists salt damage. In Miyagi it was once pickled in large tubs to eat through the winter [alic2012].

Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
Microbes
No study we found names its microbes.
  1. [maff] MAFF (Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries), Uchi no kyōdo ryōri, 仙台白菜の漬物 (Miyagi); recipe from ごっつぉうさん2 (みやぎの食を伝える会), read 2026-10-23gov
  2. [miyagi] Miyagi Prefecture, Sendai Regional Office, 仙台発・食材逸品情報2 (Sendai traditional vegetable Sendai hakusai), page dated 2023-08-17gov
  3. [alic2012] Agriculture & Livestock Industries Corporation (ALIC), 2012, 仙台の復興を願う "仙台白菜", Yasai Jōhō (Vegetable Information), January 2012 issuegov
  4. [mhlw2012] Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (Japan), Notification Shokuan-kan 1012 No. 1 of 12 October 2012, 漬物の衛生規範の改正等について (revised pickle hygiene code)gov