All-Purpose Jangajji (Pickling) Sauce · Paik Jong-won

Make the sauce first. Put the water, soy sauce and sugar into a pot — but NOT the vinegar — and bring to a boil.

💡 Remember the ratio rather than the grams: soy 2 : vinegar 1⅓ : sugar 1½ : water 2, all by cup. Scale it up or down for however much vegetable you have.

Stir now and then until the sugar has completely dissolved and the brine is clear rather than grainy at the bottom.

Once it boils, turn off the heat and let the steam die down. Then stir the vinegar in.

💡 Vinegar goes in off the heat, and this is the one rule that matters. Boil vinegar and its sharpness evaporates — you would be left with a sweet soy sauce, not a pickling brine.

Let the brine cool until it is no longer steaming at all before it touches any vegetable.

💡 Warm brine cooks the vegetable it lands on and you lose the snap. This is the most common way home jangajji goes soft.

CUCUMBER VERSION — the easiest. Scrub the cucumbers clean under running water.

Cut the cucumber into bite-size pieces, put them in an airtight container, and pour over enough sauce to submerge them. Leave at room temperature for 1 day, then move to the fridge.

SPINACH VERSION — wash the spinach thoroughly, then blanch it very briefly in boiling water and cool it straight away in cold water.

Squeeze the water out of the spinach, lay it neatly in an airtight container, and pour over enough sauce to submerge it. 1 day at room temperature, then refrigerate.

💡 Squeeze it properly. Water left in the leaves dilutes the brine and the whole batch goes slack and spoils sooner.

CHERRY TOMATO VERSION — wash the tomatoes and pull off the stems.

Drop them into boiling water for about 10 seconds, then cool them straight away in cold water.

💡 Ten seconds, no more. You are only splitting the skins so they peel — any longer and the flesh turns to mush.

Slip the skins off the tomatoes and rinse them lightly. Slice the lemon into 0.5 cm coins.

Pack the peeled tomatoes into an airtight container with the lemon slices, pour over enough sauce to submerge them, and ripen in the fridge for about 1 day.

Serve any of them cold, in small amounts, as banchan alongside rice.