Senmaizuke

Kyoto's 'thousand-slice pickle': great Shogoin turnips shaved paper-thin and layered with kombu, chilli, and a sweet-sour brine

Origin: Kyoto, Japan

From the journey of Turnip.

Senmaizuke, the 'thousand-slice pickle', is one of the three great pickles of Kyoto and a delicacy of the deep winter, made from the Shogoin turnip, the giant white kabu of the old capital that can grow to the size of a dinner plate and several kilograms in weight. The huge root is peeled and shaved into translucent rounds, which are layered in a tub with strips of kombu seaweed, a scatter of dried chilli, and a gently sweet-sour brine, and pressed under a weight until the slices turn supple and glassy and take on the umami of the kelp. The name, 'thousand slices', is for the many fine rounds a single great turnip yields. The pickle was created in Kyoto in the mid-nineteenth century and remains a seasonal speciality, sold in the elegant pickle shops of the city through the winter months and prized for its delicacy: faintly sweet, lightly sour, savoury with kombu, and warmed with the merest heat of chilli, the slices almost melting on the tongue. It belongs to the refined Kyoto tradition of tsukemono, the pickles that are an art form in Japan, and shows the turnip, the plainest of the world's roots, treated with the greatest finesse.

Ingredients

Pickle

  • 1 kg large white turnip (Shogoin if available, otherwise the largest turnips you can find), peeled

Salting

  • 20 g salt (about 2 per cent of the turnip weight)

Brine

  • 10 g kombu (dried kelp), cut with scissors into fine strips
  • 100 ml rice vinegar
  • 3 tbsp sugar
  • 1 tbsp mirin
  • 1 dried red chilli, deseeded and sliced into fine rings

Method

  1. Slice the peeled turnip as thinly as you possibly can into rounds, ideally 1–2 mm, using a mandoline for even, translucent slices.
  2. Layer the slices in a bowl with the salt, tossing gently, and leave for 1 hour. The salt will draw out water and soften the slices.
  3. Drain off the liquid and gently squeeze the slices to expel more water, without tearing them. Pat lightly dry.
  4. Warm the rice vinegar, sugar, and mirin together just until the sugar dissolves, then cool completely.
  5. In a tub or deep container, layer the turnip slices with the kombu strips and chilli rings, pouring a little of the cooled brine over each layer. Press the surface with a plate and a weight (or a zip-top bag of water).
  6. Refrigerate under the weight for 2–3 days, until the slices are translucent, supple, and savoury. Serve the slices in small mounds, with a few threads of the kombu, as a pickle alongside rice and a Japanese meal.

Notes

Senmaizuke is best within a week of being ready, while the slices are still glassy and fresh; keep refrigerated in the brine. The kombu is essential, lending the umami that distinguishes the pickle from a plain sweet-sour turnip; the strips soften and are eaten along with the turnip. Ordinary turnips make an excellent pickle even without the giant Shogoin; simply use the largest you can find and slice them across into the widest rounds. A little yuzu peel added with the chilli gives a fragrant Kyoto touch.

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