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Their high salt content invited criticism of pickled vegetables as a foodstuff liable to contribute to high blood pressure and other deleterious conditions, but thanks to recent technological advances, salt content has been reduced to about a third of previous amounts. Now tsukemono are once more being lauded for their health benefits, which include high vitamin content, supply of minerals such as calcium, potassium and iron, enhancement of smooth bowel movements as a result of high fiber content, and overall improvement of digestive performance through the actions of lactobacilli.
Tsukemono production methods have undergone few major changes in any region, but there are some noticeable changes in the way that pickles are utilized in Japan. Unlike Western pickles, Korean kimchi and Chinese zatsai, which are all often used as ingredients in cooking, Japanese tsukemono have traditionally always been served up as a side-dish at meals or as snacks to accompany drinks. However recent years have seen the appearance of dishes in which tsukemono are increasingly used as cooking ingredients, such as a pickled plum pasta sauce, and yellow pickled radish sushi. It will be interesting to see how traditional tsukemono, the product of centuries of history, contribute to the Japanese diet of the future.
Courtesy of Kyotsukemono-Nishiri.
Reference: Tsukemono to Nihonjin (Pickles and the Japanese) by Toshio Ogawa.
Story compiled under the supervision of Dr. Toshio Yokoyama, Kyoto University Institute for Research in Humanities. |
