Family
漬物

Tsukemono

The small dish that ends the meal.

Tsukemono are the pickles of the Japanese kitchen: vegetables preserved in salt, vinegar brine, rice bran, or a miso bed. They are served in a small dish beside the rice, and the word covers two entirely different things, and that is the family's most important boundary: quick pickles where a brine does the work in hours, and fermented pickles where lactic acid bacteria build the acidity and depth over weeks. A gari and a shibazuke share the dish but not the method.

Sensory analysis

Pyramid and character

Aroma

from the jar

tangy
salty
fermented

Taste

on the tongue

salinity
acidity
vegetable

Finish

what lingers

fresh
crunchy
clean

Background

Facts

The name: 漬物 literally means things laid down; at the table they also go by konomono, fragrant things, and oshinko, the new fragrant, names that hint at their role as the meal's refresher
Classification: the methods name the types, shiozuke in salt, suzuke in vinegar, amazuzuke in sweet brine, nukazuke in rice bran, misozuke in miso, kasuzuke in sake lees, asazuke the quick one
Distinction: the decisive line runs not between the vegetables but between brined and fermented; a brined pickle tastes of its brine, a fermented one has built its own acidity, and that is the difference the ferment depth axis measures
History: preservation came before refrigeration, and salt and fermentation were how vegetables were carried across the winter; temple kitchens refined the methods, and in the Edo period pickles became everyday food with local specialties in every region
The role: in the meal model ichiju sansai, one soup and three dishes, tsukemono stand outside the count; they belong to the rice and are served last, as closure and palate cleanser
Outside Japan: in Western supermarkets gari is the easy one to find, while the fermented kinds require a Japanese grocery or a crock of your own

Members of the family