Pickles · FFET10299
Dongbei suan cai (Northeast Chinese sour cabbage)
Chinese cabbage salted and pressed in a crock, soured by its own microbes, and used in the Northeast to stew white pork and blood sausage.
A deep white porcelain bowl holds sour Chinese cabbage immersed in clear brine, its pale yellow leaves interspersed with thick, creamy white cabbage stems, with a pair of wooden chopsticks resting beside the bowl.
Vegetables kept by salting or fermenting: sour cabbage, brined pickles and salted greens.
Dongbei suan cai is a pickle of the Northeast: Chinese cabbage is washed, dried, salted, packed into a crock and sealed under a weight, with no starter. Its own microbes sour it, usually taking 3 to 4 weeks in home recipes. It is often stewed with white pork, blood sausage and frozen tofu. In Jilin, suan cai stewed with white pork and blood sausage is locally regarded as a traditional Manchu food, once the main dish for relatives and friends at the Spring Festival. In July 2025, Xinmin in Shenyang had more than 60 suan cai makers and annual output above 700 million jin. No dated record of Dongbei suan cai was found, so this entry gives no year.
What
Dongbei suan cai is sour cabbage made from Chinese cabbage. In the Northeast, cabbage is placed in a crock under a stone and soured through lactic fermentation, with no added starter; the microbes already on the cabbage do the work.1,2
When
No dated record of Dongbei suan cai was found. The Qimin Yaoshu is mentioned in a discussion of pickling cabbage in general, not the Northeast crock, so this entry gives no year.2
Where
The Northeast. In July 2025, Xinmin in Shenyang had more than 60 makers and was a production center. Other regions make different sour vegetables: jiangshui cai in the Northwest and mustard-green suan cai in the South.1,3
How
Cabbage is washed, dried, salted and sealed in a jar with no starter; yeast, lactic and acetic microbes act in turn, nitrite peaks during weeks 1 to 2 and falls below 20 mg per kilogram after about 20 days. One recipe uses salt at 2 to 3% of the cabbage’s weight, rubbed in for about 20 minutes, rested overnight, packed with its juice and fermented for 3 to 4 weeks. Another Northeast home recipe dips cabbage in boiling water for a few seconds, covers it with rice-washing water under a stone and ferments it in a cool, shaded place for 21 days to 4 weeks. Factories use pickling pools; one park has 142 pools.2,3,5,6
Why
The listed sources do not explain why suan cai is made. In a local Jilin account, suan cai stewed with white pork and blood sausage is a traditional Manchu food, once the main dish for relatives and friends at the Spring Festival and now eaten year-round; the account gives no date or storyteller and is retained only as a local account. Many northerners pickle their own.4,7
Impact and influence
In July 2025, Xinmin had more than 60 makers, annual output above 700 million jin and sales above 2 billion yuan. It was selected in 2023 as a location for a local specialty food cluster.3
No tale about this food has been found.
Grandma Li
This is a simplified home version, not the traditional restaurant method.
This is the Dongbei suan cai I make at home from Chinese cabbage, simplified to one glass jar. The amounts follow a recipe from a source that names no individual author (salt at 2 to 3% of the cabbage’s weight, packed in a jar, topped up with brine, three to four weeks of fermentation). The other is a signed recipe whose author says the Northeast is home and who blanches the cabbage for a few seconds and covers it with rice-washing water, but it gives no weight of salt, so I use just its steps and fermentation time. Turning the percentages into grams of salt, and the brine into grams per liter, is my own estimate.
Ingredients
- Chinese cabbage about 3 kg, washed, dried and quartered
- Iodine-free salt 2 to 3% of the cabbage’s weight, about 60 to 90 g (my conversion)
- Brine enough to cover the cabbage: 20 to 30 g of salt per liter of water (my conversion)
Steps
- Wash and dry the cabbage, cut it into quarters and weigh it.
- Weigh out iodine-free salt at 2 to 3% of that weight, rub it into the cabbage for about 20 minutes, cover it and leave it overnight.
- The next day, press the cabbage and the juice it has given off tightly into a sterilized glass jar.
- Pour in brine to cover the cabbage, weigh it down with something clean so it stays under the liquid, and close the lid.
- Keep it in a cool, shaded place for three to four weeks, until it is sour.
- When it is ready, chill it in the refrigerator for three to four days before eating; what is left can also be frozen.
Tips
- Before stewing, I slice the suan cai, rinse it and squeeze it dry; a recipe for sour cabbage stewed with glass noodles treats bought suan cai the same way.
- The science explainer says nitrite peaks during weeks one and two and falls below 20 mg per kilogram after about 20 days, so I do not open a jar early.