It is super easy to make a large batch of the pickling liquid and use that liquid with various vegetables to make many long-term pickled side dishes.
Pickling Liquid Steps:
- After prepping all your ingredients (vegetables etc.) place the measured amount of soy sauce, sugar, and water into a pot and bring to a boil on high heat until the sugar dissolves. You don’t need to boil it for a long time just until everything mixes. If you plan on adding flavoring additives like the ones listed here, then you can simmer your liquid for the amount of time it needs to extract the flavor from what you choose to add.
- Once it’s combined, take the soy liquid off the heat, add the vinegar and soju (if using), and mix. If you boil the vinegar the flavor of the vinegar will go away.
This next step is dependent on the type of vegetable you are pickling. You will either keep the liquid hot or let it cool completely. So how do you know what to do?
Denser vegetables benefit from hot pickling liquid because the hot liquid helps to keep the crunchy texture. Some examples are pepper, onions, lotus root, cucumber, radish, garlic, Jerusalem artichokes, Japanese Angelica Tree Shoots, Sweet Potato Stems, and garlic scapes.
Leafy vegetables should use completely cooled picking liquid. If hot pickling liquid is used, the color and texture of the tender leafy greens will be ruined. Some examples are perilla leaves, lettuce, dried seaweed, tender greens, mushrooms, large green onion.
If you want to know further prep related to specific ingredients look here.
3. So based on your vegetable, pour the liquid over the ingredients and into your sanitized container. Make sure the ingredients are fully submerged and then let them brine at room temperature for 1-2 days before staining the liquid from the vegetables, reboiling, cooling completely, then pouring other the vegetables again. Now your pickled foods are ready for the fridge.
