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Vegetables from Thailand

Kra-tiam-dorng (pickled whole garlic)กระเทียมดอง

Kra-tiam-dorng is whole garlic bulbs, trimmed and peeled of their outer skin, kept under a boiled and cooled mix of sugar, vinegar, salt and water in the shade for about a month. The bulbs turn yellowish white in a clear pale-yellow liquid and taste salty, sour and slightly sweet. The JIRCAS card gives them a year of keeping, with no pH measured.

Fully documentedVegetables30 days

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceHome recipe from the JIRCAS card for 1 kg of prepared garlic bulbs.
Fresh garlic bulbs1 kgRoots cut off, about 3 inches of leaf left, outer skin peeled[jircas]
Sugar1 1/2 cups[jircas]
Vinegar1 cup[jircas]
Salt3 tablespoons[jircas]
Water2 cups[jircas]

Total time across the recorded steps: 30 days

Start
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What changes: Garlic bulbs are trimmed, leaving a short stub of leaf, peeled, washed and packed

Step 1 of 5
Trim, peel and wash the bulbs
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

The standard also allows soaking in limewater or a firming salt before pickling.

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

Kra-tiam-dorng is whole garlic bulbs, trimmed and peeled of their outer skin, kept under a boiled and cooled mix of sugar, vinegar, salt and water in the shade for about a month. The bulbs turn yellowish white in a clear pale-yellow liquid and taste salty, sour and slightly sweet. The JIRCAS card gives them a year of keeping, with no pH measured. Made in 5 steps over 30 days. The longest step, cover the garlic, close and ferment in the shade, takes 30 days (JIRCAS 2026).

Key numbers
Main step30 daysReported[jircas]Cover the garlic, close and ferment in the shade
AciditypH up to 4.5Set[tcps285]Finished pickle

What makes this one different

Unlike the Thai brine-and-rice pickles, the garlic starts in a sweet vinegar brine, and the card gives it a year of keeping. It has its own community standard, with a looser pH limit (4.5) than the pickled-ginger standard (4).

Related ferments

Variants

  • Kra-tiam-dorng sam-rot (three-flavour)A label name the standard gives as an example [tcps285].
  • Kra-tiam-tone-dorng (single-clove garlic)Made from single-clove garlic; another example name in the standard [tcps285].
  • Herbal pickled garlicWith herbs; also named as an example in the standard [tcps285].

Safety

Thailand's community standard for pickled garlic requires pH 4.5 or below, total microbes at most 1 × 10^4 per gram, no Staphylococcus aureus in 0.1 g, E. coli below 3 per gram (MPN) and yeasts and moulds at most 100 per gram. It bans synthetic colours, borax and artificial sweeteners, and the liquid must show no white film or bubbles from fermentation [tcps285]. As a general hazard, a US extension sheet notes that a garlic clove is low in acid (typically pH 5.3 to 6.3) and can support botulinum toxin growth, and that a whole clove can take from 3 days to more than a week to acidify [wsu-garlic]. The JIRCAS card gives neither the vinegar's strength nor a finished pH, and it dilutes the vinegar with twice its volume of water, so nothing shows this jar meets that limit. A Colorado State extension sheet on pickled peppers says acid must be uniform throughout a pickled product to stop botulinum growth, and to use only recipes with tested proportions and vinegars of known acidity [csu-peppers]. This card is not such a recipe. Unless the pH has been measured at 4.5 or below, do not leave the jar out. Keep it in the refrigerator from the start, and do not rely on the card's month in the shade or its one-year keeping time.

Hazards the sources name: Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli (the pickled-garlic standard sets limits for both).

History and sources

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

History
The sources we found do not record its history.
Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
  1. [jircas] JIRCAS, Database of Fermented Foods of Thailand, Kra-tiam-dorng (pickled garlic bulbs) card, read 2026-10-23gov
  2. [tcps285] Thai Industrial Standards Institute 2004, Thai Community Product Standard มผช.285/2547, Pickled garlic (kratiam dong) (copy on archive.org)spec
  3. [wsu-garlic] Powers-Hammond L. and Schneck C., Garlic storage and preservation (botulism warning and pickled garlic), Washington State University Extension, Benton-Franklin countiesgov
  4. [csu-peppers] Hill M. and Kendall P., Making pickled peppers, Colorado State University Extension fact sheet 9.314, revised 8/12 (copy on a University of California extension site)other