PURPOSE: To produce pickles having excellent taste, by adjusting the pH of soy malt or bean curd refuse to ≤4.7 with an acid, inoculating and growing the malt and using the obtained bean curd refuse malt as a pickling bed.

CONSTITUTION: A soy malt or bean curd refuse malt having strong protein decomposition capability is used as a main component of the objective pickling bed. Bean curd refuse malt can be produced by quickly heating and sterilizing bean curd refuse separated from soya milk or by lowering the pH of the refuse with an acid to prevent the proliferation of sundry germs. Any non-toxic organic or inorganic acids can be used in the above process and the pH of the bean curd refuse is preferably about 4.5W3.5. Any kind of malt may be used in the above process provided that the malt is non-toxic fungus. The amount of the seed malt to be scattered is about 0.002W0.1% of the bean curd refuse and the malt is cultured at about 10W35°C for about 2W4 days by standing culture, aerobic culture, etc. Although the bean curd refuse malt produced by the above process may be used as it is, it is preferable to mix with salt or salt solution to attain a salt concentration of 1W7% and to use the mixture as a pickling bed.