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Vegetables from Thailand

Look-niang-dorng (pickled djenkol bean)ลูกเนียงดอง

Look-niang-dorng is the green djenkol bean, cracked out of its brown kernel and soured for 10 days in the shade under a brine of about 10 % salt with a little sugar. The brine turns cloudy, and the beans keep 2 to 3 months. Djenkol beans carry djenkolic acid, which can harm the kidneys.

Fully documentedVegetables10 days

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceHome method from the JIRCAS Thai fermented-food card, with salt as a share of the bean weight.
Djenkol beans, brown kernels cracked off[jircas]
SaltAbout 10 % of the bean weightDissolved in water with a small amount of sugar, enough to cover[jircas]
Rice-wash waterOptionalGives a better aroma but a shorter fermentation and storage life[jircas]

Total time across the recorded steps: 10 days

Start
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What changes: The brown kernels are cracked off and the green beans washed

Step 1 of 3
Crack off the brown kernels and wash the beans
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
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

Look-niang-dorng is the green djenkol bean, cracked out of its brown kernel and soured for 10 days in the shade under a brine of about 10 % salt with a little sugar. The brine turns cloudy, and the beans keep 2 to 3 months. Djenkol beans carry djenkolic acid, which can harm the kidneys. Made in 3 steps over 10 days. The longest step, close and ferment in the shade, takes 10 days (JIRCAS 2026). Salt is 10 % (JIRCAS 2026).

Key numbers
Main step10 daysReported[jircas]Close and ferment in the shade
Salt10 %Reported[jircas]Cover with salted, lightly sweetened water

What makes this one different

Look-niang-dorng ferments for 10 days and keeps 2 to 3 months, while look-riang-dorng takes 3 to 5 days and keeps 15 to 20 days. The sugar in the brine leaves it slightly sweet.

Related ferments

Safety

Djenkol beans hold 0.3–1.3 g of djenkolic acid per 100 g wet weight [bunawan2014]. A clinical review calls djenkolism an uncommon but important cause of acute kidney injury. It says the syndrome is sporadic and does not seem to depend on the quantity eaten or how the beans are prepared, and it proposes crystals of the acid in the urinary system as one mechanism [bunawan2014]. No source we read shows that pickling removes the risk, and none measures djenkolic acid in the pickle. A second review links djenkolism to nitrogen compounds and to crystals of djenkolic acid in the urinary system, which can cause acute kidney failure [john2025].

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.
Microbes
No study we found names its microbes.
  1. [jircas] JIRCAS, Database of Fermented Foods of Thailand: Look-niang-dorng (pickled djenkol bean), read 2026-10-23gov
  2. [bunawan2014] Bunawan N.C., Rastegar A., White K.P., Wang N.E. 2014, Djenkolism, case report and literature review, International Medical Case Reports Journal 7:79–84paper
  3. [john2025] John O.D., Surugau N., Kansedo J., Panchal S.K., Brown L. 2025, Plant-based functional foods from Borneo, Nutrients 17(2):200, doi:10.3390/nu17020200 (section 5.11, jering beans)paper