Fermented & preserved ── Tsukemono (pickles)
Senmai-zuke
Senmai-zuke — thin-sliced turnip pickled in kelp and vinegar, a Kyoto winter classic
Thin-sliced turnip pickled with kelp and vinegar, one of Kyoto's "three great pickles." Unlike most tsukemono it isn't made for long storage but for a delicate, fresh finish — devised, tradition says, by a cook at the imperial court.
- Origin: Kyoto Kameoka (Shino)
- About 390 km west of Tokyo
Lineage
What it's made of
The turnip used is Shogoin kabu, said to be Japan's largest turnip variety at 4 to 5 kilograms. Thin slices go into a vinegar pickle with kelp and chili. Some accounts say it was originally a salted, lactic-fermented pickle, but today it's made without long storage or fermentation in mind, aiming instead for a delicate texture. Some cooks tuck in karasumi or smoked salmon for a modern twist.
How it's made
The turnip is thickly peeled, sliced about 2mm thin, salted and weighted overnight, then drained. It's layered with kelp and chili in a vinegar, sugar, and mirin marinade and is ready after a day and a night. From around November, when Shogoin turnips come into season, the sight of large barrels being filled is said to mark the start of a Kyoto winter, and households still make their own batch around harvest time too.
Why it took this shape
Tradition credits Oto Tozaburo, a cook at the imperial court, with devising it in the Edo period, after which he is said to have gone into the pickle trade. The Shogoin turnip itself is said to trace to a Sakyo-ku farmer who brought back Omi turnip seed and began growing it locally; today, Kameoka's Shino district is the main growing area behind most of the senmai-zuke sold in Kyoto. Its origin with a court cook still shows in how delicately the pickle is finished.
Before you go
- How to shop at a supermarketHow to choose prepared foods, sashimi, and packaged sushi, when discount stickers tend to appear, region-only specialties, buying by weight, the checkout and bagging flow, and sampling etiquette at a local supermarket.
- How to shop in a depachika (department store food hall)A guide to browsing prepared foods and bento, choosing wagashi as a gift with a good shelf life, sampling etiquette, end-of-day discounts, asking for cold packs and wrapping, and finding your way around a depachika floor.
- Enjoying a bussanten (regional products fair)A guide to what's sold at a bussanten (regional products fair), how to find one, when it gets crowded, shelf life and taking food home, and how to fit one around a trip.
Dishes in the same style
- Bettara-zukeDaikon salted first, then pickled sweet in rice malt and sugar — said to descend from a lightly pickled daikon once sold at Edo's ebisu-kō market. The rice malt gives it a natural sweetness, and it still headlines Nihonbashi's autumn "Bettara Market."
- Fukujin-zukeSeven kinds of vegetables — daikon, eggplant, lotus root among them — diced and steeped in a soy-based marinade. Said to have originated in Tokyo, it's best known today as curry rice's standard side.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Related lineage
- Shiba-zukeEggplant and cucumber salted together with red shiso, one of Kyoto's "three great pickles." The shiso bleeds a deep purple and sourness into the vegetables — a color and taste said to trace to a dish once offered to the retired Empress Kenreimon-in at Ohara.
- Suguki-zukeA turnip called suguki, salted alone and left to sour through fermentation — one of Kyoto's "three great pickles." Cultivation is said to trace to shrine families at Kamigamo Shrine, who once presented it to the imperial court.
- Mibuna no Karashi-aeMibuna, a Kyoto heirloom green from the city's Mibu district and a relative of mizuna, is boiled, chopped, and dressed with ground sesame and hot mustard. Sharper and more bitter than mizuna, it is said to be known too as the customary garnish for senmai-zuke turnip pickles.
Contrast
- KaburazushiA Kanazawa New Year dish: salt-cured turnip sandwiching fatty yellowtail, fermented in a sweet rice-koji malt. Neither sashimi nor a pickle, its tang gives way to malted sweetness underneath.
- TaikaburaShogoin turnip, among Japan's largest, simmers with sea bream trimmings in dashi — a winter Kyoto dish and a classic 'deaimon,' the pairing of two in-season ingredients. Cultivation of the turnip is said to have spread after senmai-zuke pickles made from it became widely known in the Tenpo era.
Also from Kyoto
- Chirimen SanshoChirimen-jako simmered sweet-salty with fresh sansho peppercorns in sake, soy sauce, and mirin — a Kyoto side dish said to have begun as a cook's gift in the mid-Showa era. The peppercorns leave a sharp, fragrant aftertaste.
- Ebiimo to Bodara no TaitanEbi-imo, a striped Kyoto heirloom taro named for its shrimp-like ridges, simmers together with bodara, cod dried in Hokkaido. Gelatin from the dried cod is said to keep the taro from falling apart, while the taro's bitterness softens the cod — a textbook 'deaimon' pairing.
- Fushimi no SakeSake from Fushimi in Kyoto, a district fed by groundwater from the Momoyama plateau. Its water is said to be softer than Nada's, giving a round mouthfeel and gentle, full sweetness that overlaps with the profile recognized under the GI Kyoto geographical indication.
- GanmodokiTofu mixed with vegetables, rolled into balls, and fried. Known in Kyoto as hirousu or hiryōzu, thought to have taken this form through the vegetarian temple-cooking idea of a filling dish made without meat.
- Hamo no YakimonoPike conger, riddled with fine bones, is scored with the skilled honekiri cut and then grilled — teriyaki-glazed or salted — in Kyoto cuisine. Said to have taken root in landlocked Kyoto because the hardy fish could be carried in alive, it is also a festival food for Gion Matsuri, nicknamed the 'hamo festival.'
- Kamonasu DengakuKamonasu, a round Kyoto heirloom eggplant over 10cm across sometimes called the 'queen of eggplants,' is sliced and pan-fried in plenty of oil, then topped with a sweet miso reduced with sake and mirin. It is said to have long been grown on the alluvial fan of Kamigamo.