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Fruit from Thailand

Look-pling-dorng (pickled bilimbi)ลูกปลิงดอง

Look-pling-dorng is Thai bilimbi pickled in a spiced sugar and wine-vinegar syrup. The fruit is boiled briefly in the strained syrup, then kept under it in the shade for 5 to 7 days. Unlike most Thai fruit pickles it has no salt brine.

Fully documentedFruit5 days – 7 days

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceHome recipe from the JIRCAS Thai fermented-food card, in cups; the card does not say how much fruit this syrup covers.
Large mature bilimbi fruitWashed, stems removed[jircas]
Sugar2 cups[jircas]
Wine vinegar1 cup[jircas]
Water1 cup[jircas]
Nutmeg bark1 piece[jircas]
Clove buds1 teaspoon[jircas]

Total time across the recorded steps: 5 days – 7 days

Start
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What changes: Starting material: large ripe bilimbi, washed and trimmed

Step 1 of 5
Wash and trim the fruit
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

Large mature fruit are chosen, washed and the stems removed.

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-pling-dorng is Thai bilimbi pickled in a spiced sugar and wine-vinegar syrup. The fruit is boiled briefly in the strained syrup, then kept under it in the shade for 5 to 7 days. Unlike most Thai fruit pickles it has no salt brine. Made in 5 steps over 5 days – 7 days. The longest step, keep submerged in the shade, takes 5–7 days (JIRCAS 2026).

Key numbers
Main step5–7 daysReported[jircas]Keep submerged in the shade
AciditypH up to 3.5Set[tcps160]Keep submerged in the shade

What makes this one different

Most Thai fruit pickles sour in a salt brine. Look-pling-dorng is boiled in a sugar and wine-vinegar syrup with nutmeg bark and clove, so it is sweet as well as sour. Morton (1987) describes a plainer bilimbi pickle, in which half-ripe fruit is salted, set in the sun and pickled in brine, and says it can be kept for 3 months [morton1987].

Related ferments

Safety

Thailand's community standard for pickled fruit requires pH 3.5 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 non-sugar sweeteners, and the liquid must show no white film or fermentation bubbles in the pack. Keep the fruit under the syrup.

Hazards the sources name: Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli (the pickled-fruit 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: Look-pling-dorng (pickled bilimbi), read 2026-10-23gov
  2. [tcps160] Thai Industrial Standards Institute 2003, Thai Community Product Standard มผช.160/2546, Pickled fruit (phonlamai dong) (copy on archive.org)spec
  3. [morton1987] Morton J.F. 1987, Fruits of Warm Climates, Miami, entry on the bilimbi (Averrhoa bilimbi), as reproduced by Growablesbook