Tsukemono
Tsukemono
Tsukemono β Japanese pickled vegetables β occupy a unique and essential position in the Japanese meal. They appear alongside rice and miso soup at virtually every traditional Japanese breakfast, serve as palate cleansers between courses at kaiseki meals and provide the sharp, salty, acidic contrast that balances the richness of fried foods and grilled meats. The variety of tsukemono in Japan is extraordinary: from the vivid pink of pickled ginger (gari) served with sushi, to the pungent fermented depth of nukaduke rice bran pickles, to the quick bright crunch of salt-pressed cucumber β each style offers a completely different sensory experience.
Japanese pickling methods fall broadly into several categories. Shiozuke (salt pickling) is the simplest and most immediate β vegetables pressed under salt for minutes to hours until they soften and release liquid. Suzuke (vinegar pickling) produces a cleaner, brighter flavour and includes the vinegared ginger and sushi accompaniments. Shoyu-zuke uses soy sauce as the pickling medium, producing deeply savoury results particularly suited to root vegetables. Misozuke buries vegetables in miso paste for days or weeks, drawing out moisture while imparting a complex, fermented flavour. Nukaduke ferments vegetables in a bed of seasoned rice bran kept alive with daily stirring β the most time-intensive method but also the most rewarding, producing pickles with genuine probiotic depth.
The tools in this collection cover the equipment for these different approaches: pickling presses for salt and weight-based methods, nukaduke containers with tight-fitting lids, ceramic crocks for longer fermentations and the peelers and slicers needed to prepare vegetables in the correct formats. Pickling mixes, salt, vinegar and the nukaduke starter bases are available in the ingredients section.
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Use our peelers and slicers for prep, and serve on our plates.
Tsukemono: Japan's ancient art of pickling vegetables β salt, vinegar and nukaduke techniques explained.
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