🍱 Bettara-zuke

Bettara-zuke is pickled radish that is pre-pickled in salt and then pickled in rice malt and sugar. The origin of bettara-zuke is the lightly pickled radish that was sold at Ebisuko in the Edo period. It is said that it originated when a young man swung the pickles he had bought and tied a rope around to carry them around at a woman, saying, “It will stick.” Pickles made from radish, such as iburi-gakko in Akita and tsubo-zuke in Kagoshima, are found all over the country, and while the pickle culture of each region has been passed down, takuan and bettara-zuke were the pickles loved by the common people in Tokyo. In particular, it is said that the pickle culture flourished during the Edo period, and most people living in the urban areas of Edo no longer made pickles at home, so it was common to buy them at pickle shops. It is said that large households and wealthy merchants' houses made contracts with farmers in Nerima Village to have them prepare a year's worth of pickles and deliver the required amount as needed. Speaking of radishes in Tokyo, Nerima daikon and Tokoji daikon, which inherited the trend, are famous. Both of them are very spicy and slightly bitter, so it was common to turn them into dried radish for takuan or to use them to make bettara-zuke. Bettara-zuke, which uses plenty of rice malt, has an elegant sweetness, and even today, it can be said to be an essential pickle for people's dining tables.