Preserving Garlic in Soy Sauce

This recipe isn't difficult, but it takes a lot of time. First the garlic has to pickle in vinegar (our homemade white wine vinegar in this case) and then it is allowed to pickle in a mixture of soy sauce and sugar.

I tried the garlic pickles tonight (their pickling time was finally up) and was amazed at how crisp the garlic cloves are especially considering how much the soy sauce seemed to be fermenting in the jar. Yup, they were crisp and fresh tasting!

They taste exactly like you'd expect, like soy flavored garlic with a hint of sweetness. I just didn't expect them to be so crisp.

I don't like these nearly as much as the Honey Garlic Pickles and I probably won't make them again. But having a bit of garlic flavored soy sauce might be kind of fun while it lasts. The pickles will certainly get used in as many Asian dishes that I can think to put them in. And it's definitely an interesting way to preserve garlic.












Ninniku Shoyu-Zuke
Garlic in Soy Sauce
from Tsukemono: Japanese Pickling Recipes by Ikuko Hisamatsu

10 whole garlic bulbs
2 cups rice vinegar (we didn't have any so used our homemade White Wine Vinegar)
1 1/4 cups soy sauce
2 TBS sugar

"Quite a few people dislike the strong smell of garlic. I learned this recipe in Korea and now it's everyone's favorite since the vinegar-pickling process reduces the characteristic odor."

The recipe reduces the odor of the garlic considerably as claimed by the book, but this is replaced by the unmistakable smell and taste of soy sauce.

Choose round bulbs so they will form pretty plum blossoms when cut horizontally in half.

Peel the outer skin with your hands leaving only one layer of skin. (Okay, this part was a pain.)

Trim away the stems for tight packing.

Sterilize a small pickling jar in boiling water. Pack it with garlic bulbs.

Pour rice vinegar to cover. Let stand in a dark place for two weeks.

Remove 2/3 amount of vinegar. Save this vinegar for salad dressings as it will have a nice garlic flavor to it now.

Mix soy sauce and sugar until the sugar dissolves.

Pour over the garlic and cover with the lid. Let this jar sit in a dark place for a minimum of two months (not the refrigerator).

Just before serving cut horizontally in half.












I can't imagine serving garlic like this. I don't know how garlic is served in Japan, I can't imagine just eating it straight. Chopped up in something, certainly, but to serve it like the above photo? Really? This is a traditional recipe by a Japanese, um, pickler, so I can only imagine that some Koreans (where the author got the recipe) as well as Japanese must sometimes eat garlic straight along with a meal.

Not me! I'll be using it in stir-fry, fried rice, Asian style soups, and who knows what else. But not straight.

Delightful Surprise!

I just updated the blog entry about taste-testing the Ninniku Hachimitsu-zuke. You'll have to Click This Linky to read the update--it's the final paragraph.

You see, today I tasted the garlic from the jar, straight, all by itself and I got quite a delightful shock! And now I'm inspired to make two more batches of it. Yes, ol' Ikuko Hisamatsu is right. These pickles are good stuff. And I never want to be without garlic honey.

By the way, the Killer Enchilada Sauce recipe got some images added to it today since I had to make the sauce and an enchilada casserole today. I'll blog the enchilada casserole very soon.

Taste Testing

I finally taste tested the Ninniku Hachimitsu-zuke and was very surprised. At first sniff I thought, "Oh man, no way." The smell of the garlic was so stingingly strong. But I dutifully warmed up half a cup of water and added three spoonfuls of the honey to it. The honey poured from the spoon. It's viscosity is entirely different with the garlic in it, very thin and pourable. The taste was of diluted honey and the garlic was only a mild aftertaste. The smell of the garlic was strong, but not the taste. It's hard to explain except to say it's not horrible. I could easily see myself drinking this concoction a few times a day if I found myself down with a cold. Hubby decided he could handle it too.... if it had a little hooch in it.

I've drunk worse things for my health.

I used the Ninniku Hachimitsu-zuke in some brown sauce for Egg Foo Yung the other day and it was excellent! Saved me having to mince garlic and provided the necessary sweetness for the sauce. I think I'll always have a jar of this stuff around if for no other reason than using it in Stir-Fry sauce.

7-13-08 Update: I am making some stir-fry with leftover lime and pepper roasted chicken and while making the sauce I broke down and tasted the Ninniku Hachimitsu-zuke garlic, straight up, all by itself, and was shocked! It's so good! Now, keep in mind that they were refrigerated because I'd used all the honey from the jar and was worried about the garlic going bad with no honey to float in. Honey and garlic both are antiseptic and anti-many other things. That's why honey almost never goes bad and why "Cookie" always added plenty of garlic to the beans on the cattle drive--it kept the beans from going bad when they got re-heated over and over again throughout the long, hot day. So, back to the refrigerated garlic honey pickles. DELICIOUS! And the texture reminded me of crystallized fruit. Lip smacking good! Yeah, I can smell the garlic, but I don't taste it. It's more like some kind of honeyed candy. YUM!!!!!!!! I can't wait to make two more batches of this. One with just garlic and one with GINGER in it too!

Honey, is that ew?

This is Ninniku Hachimitsu-zuke. It is a type of Japanese "sweet pickle." According to my new-to-me Japanese Pickling Recipes book (Tsukemono), garlic in honey is an unexpectedly pleasant way to eat garlic. The honey in which the garlic cloves are pickled makes a great drink if thinned with hot or ice water.......... It [garlic] warms up your body, improves blood circulation and weak respiratory and digestive systems. This honey version is also used for a cold remedy: when catching a cold with chills, take several spoonfuls of this honey thinned with hot water, before going to bed.

According to the recipe, I can sample the honey in as little as three days but need to wait at least one month before I try the garlic. No mention is made of how sweet pickled garlic should be served.

What you see here is, quite simply, garlic cloves that have been shucked, rinsed, and thoroughly dried then placed in honey and weighted down with a sterilized river rock (the jar and lid were also sterilized). I made a very small batch. Shucking garlic cloves is slow work if you don't want them mashed at all. I used more honey than needed just in case the honey turns out to be tasty. Although I'm finding it difficult to imagine that it will, but am hoping to be very surprised!

I'll let you know how this garlic in honey experiment goes. I was dying to pickle something Japanese style and this was one of the few recipes I had all the ingredients for. It's not like I can run out and buy burdock, shiso, daikon radish, or lotus root, after all. And that sucks because I bet lotus root is delectable.

Note: [taken directly from book] The word tsukemono means soaked or marinated (tsuke) things (mono). Most Japanese titles of this book have "-zuke" as suffix, which is a changed form of "tsukemono". For example, Shoyu-zuke means something marinated in soy sauce, Hakusai-zuke means pickled hakusai, or Chinese cabbage, and Osaka-zuke means Osaka-style pickls.

From what I'm gathering in this book, Japanese pickles could mean anything from a vegetable (usually fruits or veggies but meats are included in many recipes) rubbed with salt before serving to a vegetable that has been marinating for several hours to several days. Most of these recipes call for the food to be marinated for less than a few hours before serving.

THE LONG AWAITED RESULT: It's good! The honey itself is actually quite tasty. The smell of the garlic will knock you over but the taste is mild and the honey is much thinner--very easy to pour or measure out a bit for use. The garlic cloves are delicious. I've been using the honey in stir-fry sauces and the garlic cloves in Asian dishes that require a sweet element--which is nearly all of them. I made more garlic honey pickles after this recipe--I don't ever want to run out of it. The garlic honey is so good in stir fry sauce and saves me having to prepare fresh garlic--I love cooking with it.