The Pickle Shop Reusing Sake Lees from Local Breweries

The founder, Mr. Chouemon Honma, was originally striving to become a master sake brewer. After going to the town of Nada to become a sake brewery apprentice, he discovered “Narazuke” (Nara pickles) that’s made by repeatedly pickling salted pickling melons in sake lees. He then realized that an ample amount of sake lees and local vegetables are available in Tsuruoka, and decided to switch from becoming a brew master to a Nara pickle maker. Due to the prevalence of sake breweries, they were naturally able to easily obtain the sake lees. The birth of Nara pickles that combine sake lees, a byproduct of sake brewing, with local Tsuruoka vegetables must have been a sensational discovery for the region.

“Nara pickles are made by pickling salted-pickling melons in sake lees that are highly salty. The melons are gradually transferred to sake lees that have less sodium content. Through this process, the melon’s water content becomes removed due to the salt content, and the melon absorbs the umami flavors from the sake lees. Since reduced sodium food has become popular over the years, we’ve increased the number of times the melons are transferred over, while maintaining the original preparation method. We are actually making more time and effort than the previous generations in making our products. Brewing fine sake involves thoroughly milling the rice, which produces refreshing and delicious sake lees without any bitterness, but the sake lees of a second-grade sake that uses more unrefined rice retains more of its umami flavors, which is better suited for making Nara pickles.”

Sake lees are a byproduct of brewing a sake. At Shonai, a byproduct of soy sauce called “Shoyunomi” (soy sauce pellets) is a seasoning that’s used daily in cooking. The spirit of not wasting anything (even a byproduct) and maximizing usage may be rooted in these regions. The vintage wooden containers used at Honcho to make the Nara pickles were actually handed down from another sake brewer, which had been used to make sake in the past, and are still being used since their inception. The spirit of not taking anything for granted is deeply rooted here.

“It was around 1990 when I first discovered the Fujisawa turnip. At the time, the only person making Fujisawa turnip was some lady in the neighborhood. She cultivated them on a small-scale in a small field with a size of about 3 to 4 tatamis, and kept picking its seeds every year. I got interested in them after learning from a local newspaper column that Fujisawa turnip was about to become extinct. I contacted the author of that news column right away to get introduced to a producer of Fujisawa turnip, and visited their field. After taking my first bite, I noticed how delicious it was, and how its skin is thin, which differ from a regular round turnip. I thought that we shouldn’t’t let such delicious crop go extinct, so I said that I would buy all of them so that they can continue to sow the seeds.”

While the F1 vegetables, which cannot retain its seeds through the modern market, are becoming prevalent, many traditional crops such as the Dadacha beans, Atsumi turnips, Moso bamboo shoots and Shonai persimmons are still being produced using ancient methods in Tsuruoka, where the importance of preserving seeds through the teachings of Dewa Sanzan has been retained, and its concepts are deeply rooted in the region. The culture of Dewa Sanzan, which prays for the abundance of food, still lives within people’s livelihood to this day.