Best Container to Use
It is best to store your pickled foods in an airtight container. It can be plastic or glass.
Before placing your ingredients into the airtight container, you need to sanitize it. Sanitizing it ensures that the pickled foods will not grow mold and will ensure that they preserve properly.
Two Ways to Sanitize Your Container
The first way is to boil the container in boiling water for 30 seconds to sanitize completely. After sanitizing in boiling water, let it air dry on your counter before using it to store your pickled foods.
The second way is the quick cheat way for when you are busy. All you need to do is pour some alcohol like soju or vodka into the container and swish it around inside the container to completely clean it. Let this air dry completely as well before using.
Wash, Prep, & Dry
As your container air dries after sanitizing, you can prep the ingredients for the pickled food.
Cleaning Your Ingredients
Wash the outside of the vegetables well in cold water to remove all visible dirt. If you are pickling a leafy green, then you can soak it for 10 minutes in water or water with some vinegar to remove pesticides and clean it fully. You can also use coarse salt to scrub the outside of other ingredients such as cucumber or peppers to further clean them.
Prepping Your Ingredients
Certain ingredients need special prep before the soy-pickled liquid is poured over them. Check out my post here to learn more.
After Prepping & Cleaning
After cleaning your ingredients, let the ingredients drain off all excess water and dry slightly before pouring the pickling soy liquid onto the ingredients.
Fully Submerge The Ingredients
So now that your ingredients are prepped and placed into an airtight container you can add the pickling liquid. Keep in mind depending on the type of vegetable you may be pouring the liquid boiling or cooled. I talk more about that in a different post.
The most important factor in this is to fully submerge the ingredients in the liquid. To preserve properly, the ingredients should not be in contact with the air.
Some ingredients like garlic, may turn blue if they come into contact with air (if you see this, it is not bad but is an indicator that it wasn’t stored properly/ air touched it). If you do not fully submerge the ingredients, they will not last as long.
Four Ways to Submerge your Ingredients:
- You can ensure this by either weighing down the ingredients with a sanitized plate before adding the lid.
- You can add enough pickling liquid to completely fill the container to the top so that there is no air gap.
- Use a kimchi container with an insert that pushes out all air.
- Add plastic wrap to the jar to push down the ingredients.
Where to Store (Fridge or Outside?)
Korean pickled foods use a certain method for preservation. Salt is important for preservation. When making soy pickled foods, the foods are typically left at room temperature for 1-2 days so that the ingredients brine even more efficiently. It is important that you check your ingredients daily as they brine and turn them over or ensure they are submerged. Each day check their color and flavor and see if they are at the point that you were trying to achieve.
Now salt draws out the water from the ingredients just like when you are brining cabbage for kimchi. To help keep the preservation of the food, after it reaches the brine that you prefer at room temperature, drain only the liquid from the vegetables and boil it for a couple minutes. This is also a good time to check the flavor of the brine and adjust the saltiness level if needed. After boiling the liquid, no matter the type of vegetable, let the liquid cool completely. Once it is cooled, add it to the vegetables again and store it in the fridge.
Over time in the fridge, keep an eye on your vegetables, every so often (after a week/weeks) you may want to do the “reboiling method” again to extend the shelf life. Because remember more and more water will be drawn out and so boiling will help preserve it longer.
Basic Timeline for Re-Boiling Method
- Leafy vegetables should be reboiled every week.
- perilla leaves, lettuce, spinach, chives
- Denser vegetables can be re-boiled every 1-2 weeks.
- garlic scapes, peppers, garlic, cucumber, radish, bell pepper
If you want to ensure no chance of mold growth on your pickles, you need to make sure you have enough salt at the beginning to account for the liquid that will be released during brining. Adding soju can help with preservation and preventing mold growth.
Typically you can leave your pickled foods at room temperature for 1-2 days and it will be fine. The length of brining time is up to your desired texture and flavor.
Some people will put the pickled foods right into the fridge to brine and then after 2-3 days take it out, do the reboiling method and then return it back to the fridge.
It is better to throw away pickled foods that form any mold.
When Can I Eat The Pickled Foods?
Based on the ingredient that you choose to pickle you may eat your pickled dish sooner or later.
In general, it is best to wait a minimum of 5 days up to 2 weeks before eating your pickled side dish.
Some thick ingredients like Jerusalem artichoke (돼지감자) may take more time to fully absorb the pickling liquid and have a nice flavor. So, when it comes to thicker ingredients, you can wait about 5 days and then taste it. If you think it needs more time let it sit, if you love the flavor then feel free to enjoy your side dish.
Some more tender ingredients like lettuce (상추) will pickle faster. These kinds of ingredients may have enough flavor within a day or so of being pickled.
My advice to you would be to monitor your pickled foods and taste them overtime until they are the best texture and flavor for you. Remember that overtime you may want to do the re-boiling method as it stores.
When your pickled foods are ready to eat, then serve them cold on the table.
How Long Can You Store Your Pickled Foods?
Pickling was used to preserve seasonal ingredients to eat at a later time. The ingredients you pickle, can last up to a year or more based on which ingredient you pickled.
- Siberian onion or green plums can last longer than a year
- Onions, peppers, garlic, or cucumber should be eaten within a year.
There are a couple things to keep in mind.
- Based on the amount of salt that you added to your pickling liquid your pickled food will last either a few weeks or months. The more salt that you used the longer it will last.
- Adding soju to your pickled foods can help to extend their shelf life in the fridge.
- Re-boiling your pickling liquid every so often can help to extend the shelf life. As salt draws out the water from the vegetable, reboiling the liquid helps to evaporate excess moisture. You can also add more salt (soy sauce) if needed after tasting the liquid again after some time has passed.
- Something to keep in mind, is that nutrients are lost the longer you pickle the ingredients. So even though you may be able to store your pickled foods for up to a year or more, it is best to make them fresh often and eat them within 2 months to get all the nutrients from the ingredients.
If you want the most nutrients, then make a new variety of 장아찌 each season using seasonal ingredients.
