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Vegetables from Thailand

Tooa-ngork-dorng (pickled mung-bean sprouts)ถั่วงอกดอง

Tooa-ngork-dorng is mung-bean sprouts blanched for a few seconds, covered with salt, a little vinegar and boiled water, and left closed in the shade for 1 to 2 days. The vinegar makes it partly acidified from the start. Thailand's community product standard requires pH 4.0 or below.

Fully documentedVegetables24 h – 2 days

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceAmounts for 2 kg of sprouts, from the JIRCAS Thai fermented-food card.
Mung-bean sprouts2 kgSkins and roots removed[jircas]
Salt1 cup[jircas]
Vinegar1/2 cup[jircas]
Boiled water2 cups[jircas]

Total time across the recorded steps: 24 h – 2 days

Start
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What changes: The skins and roots come off the sprouts and they are washed well

Step 1 of 3
Clean the sprouts
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactobacillus plantarum
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

Tooa-ngork-dorng is mung-bean sprouts blanched for a few seconds, covered with salt, a little vinegar and boiled water, and left closed in the shade for 1 to 2 days. The vinegar makes it partly acidified from the start. Thailand's community product standard requires pH 4.0 or below. Made in 3 steps over 24 h – 2 days. The longest step, cover with the salt and vinegar liquid, close and ferment in the shade, takes 24 h – 2 days (JIRCAS 1995). Lactobacillus plantarum does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step24 h – 2 daysReported[jircas]Cover with the salt and vinegar liquid, close and ferment in the shade
AciditypH up to 4Set[tcps319]Cover with the salt and vinegar liquid, close and ferment in the shade

What makes this one different

Unlike tooa-li-song-dorng, which is mixed with dry salt, the brine has vinegar in it from the start, so the sprouts are partly acidified before fermentation begins. It ferments for 1 to 2 days against 2 to 3 for the peanut-sprout pickle.

Related ferments

Safety

Thailand's community standard for pickled bean sprouts (mung bean and peanut) requires pH 4.0 or below, total microbes no more than 1 × 10^4 per gram, no Staphylococcus aureus in 0.1 g, E. coli below 3 per gram (MPN) and yeasts and moulds no more than 100 per gram. Calcium firming salts are capped at 1000 mg/kg. The FDA says sprouts served raw or lightly cooked can carry Salmonella, Listeria and E. coli, because the warm, humid conditions of sprouting let a few bacteria on the seed grow to high levels. It says children, older adults, pregnant women and people with weak immune systems should avoid raw or lightly cooked sprouts. This pickle blanches the sprouts for only a few seconds [fda-produce].

Hazards the sources name: Staphylococcus aureus; Escherichia coli (the standard sets a limit).

History and sources

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

Thailand's Industrial Standards Institute issued Community Product Standard 319 for pickled bean sprouts in B.E. 2547 (2004), whose definition names mung beans as a suitable sprout.

Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
  1. [jircas] JIRCAS, Database of Fermented Foods of Thailand: Tooa-ngork-dorng (pickled mungbean sprouts); microbes cite The traditional fermented foods of Thailand (1995); read 2026-10-23gov
  2. [tcps319] Thai Industrial Standards Institute 2004, Thai Community Product Standard มผช.319/2547, Pickled bean sprout (tua-ngok dorng) (copy on archive.org)spec
  3. [fda-produce] US Food and Drug Administration, Selecting and Serving Produce Safely, read 2026-11-05gov