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Vegetables from Korea

Baechu kimchi (napa cabbage kimchi)배추김치

Napa cabbage is soaked in brine until the leaves bend, rinsed, and coated leaf by leaf with a paste of chilli, garlic, radish and salted seafood. It starts at room temperature for a day or two, then ripens cold until it is sour and fizzy.

Fully documentedVegetables11 days – 13 days

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceThe amounts are the Colorado State University Extension recipe (Brown and Carlson; recipe by HyoJung Kang) for chopped-cabbage kimchi from 2 medium heads, which salts the cabbage 3 to 6 hours and ferments it 1 to 2 days at room temperature or 3 to 4 days in the refrigerator. The steps below show the traditional way, with whole quarters soaked in brine.
Napa cabbage2 medium heads (about 6–8 lb)Quartered, cored and chopped into 2-inch pieces[csu-kimchi]
Coarse non-iodized salt1½ cups½ cup in 1 gallon of cold water for a brief dip, and 1 cup massaged into the cabbage[csu-kimchi]
Cold water1 gallon + ½ cupThe gallon for the brine dip, the ½ cup to cook the rice paste[csu-kimchi]
Sweet rice flour2 TbspBoiled with ½ cup water and cooled to make a paste[csu-kimchi]
Garlic1–10 clovesDepending on taste[csu-kimchi]
Fresh ginger rootAbout 3 slicesAbout 0.2–0.4 oz[csu-kimchi]
Korean red pepper powder1 cupThe kind made for kimchi[csu-kimchi]
Korean radish or daikon½ radish (about 1–1.5 lb)Cut into matchsticks about 1 inch long[csu-kimchi]
Green onions10Cut into matchsticks about 1 inch long[csu-kimchi]
Asian pear1Optional[csu-kimchi]
Fish sauce1 tspOptional[csu-kimchi]
Finely ground salt2 tspOptional, added only as needed[csu-kimchi]
Starterspontaneous

Total time across the recorded steps: 11 days – 13 days

Start
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What changes: A cut line splits each head into quarters so the brine can reach every leaf

Step 1 of 6
Halve or quarter the cabbage
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria
Leuconostoc
Weissella
L. mesenteroides
L. plantarum

FAO's flow chart cuts each head into four so the brine reaches every leaf. Output: cabbage halves or quarters.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Napa cabbage is soaked in brine until the leaves bend, rinsed, and coated leaf by leaf with a paste of chilli, garlic, radish and salted seafood. It starts at room temperature for a day or two, then ripens cold until it is sour and fizzy. Made in 6 steps over 11 days – 13 days. The longest step, ripen cold, takes 10 days (Lee M.-E 2015) and runs at up to 5 °C (Snyder A 2020). Salt is 8–15 % → 2 % (Battcock M. and Azam-Ali S. 1998). Leuconostoc mesenteroides and Weissella do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step10 daysReported[lee2015]Ripen cold
Temperatureup to 5 °CReported[snyder2020][lee2015]Ripen cold
Salt8–15 % → 2 %Reported[fao134]Soak in brine until the leaves bend
AciditypH 4.2–4.4Measured[song1995][csu-kimchi][lee2015]Ripen cold

What makes this one different

Sauerkraut is dry-salted and ferments in its own juice. Baechu kimchi is brined first, rinsed, then seasoned leaf by leaf with a chilli, garlic and seafood paste, and it ripens cold for weeks, so Leuconostoc stays in charge longer.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Bossam kimchiNamed with tongbaechu kimchi as one of the main pickled cabbage kimchis (FAO).
  • GeotjeoriFresh salad-type kimchi, seasoned and not fermented (Surya and Nugroho 2023).
  • KimjangThe winter batch; the wrapped cabbages were kept in large clay onggi jars outside the house, sometimes buried underground (Surya and Nugroho 2023; see kimjang-onggi-burial).

Safety

Kimchi depends on its pH falling steadily below 4.6. That limit holds back Clostridium botulinum and lets the acid reduce E. coli O157:H7 and Salmonella, so Snyder et al. make it the one critical control point, and Western Australia's health department uses the same limit. Snyder et al. say to discard a batch that fails to reach it or whose pH stops falling, and that lightly fermented batches may carry more risk. Store kimchi covered at 5 °C or below; the Colorado State University Extension recipe says to keep it refrigerated and eat it within about a week.

Hazards the sources name: Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Salmonella, reduced as the pH falls but able to survive in lightly fermented batches; Clostridium botulinum, held back once the pH is below 4.6; Staphylococcus aureus, reported in kimchi products.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

A 2023 review traces fermented vegetables in Korea to the Three Kingdoms period and calls Kyubo Lee's 13th-century poem Gapoyukyeong the first literature on them, with pickled radish as a common Goryeo food. On cabbage the accounts disagree. The review reports claims that cabbage kimchi developed only in the 19th century and that red kimchi dates from the 1592 Japanese invasion, but it argues from the Samguk Sagi (1145) and from the cabbage word sung in texts of 1241 to 1497 that cabbage kimchi and Korean red pepper are much older (Surya and Nugroho 2023). Joseon cookbooks recording kimchi include the Suunjapbang (1540) and the Sanlimkyungje (1715).

  1. [csu-kimchi] Brown C. and Carlson R., Understanding and making kimchi (recipe by HyoJung Kang, edited by Laura Bauer), Colorado State University Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition Extension, as published by Master Food Preservers of Humboldt and Del Norte Counties, UC Cooperative Extensiongov
  2. [snyder2020] Snyder A., Breidt F., Andress E.L. and Ingham B.H. 2020, Manufacture of traditionally fermented vegetable products, best practice for small businesses and retail food establishments, Food Protection Trends 40(4), 251–263paper
  3. [fao134] Battcock M. and Azam-Ali S. 1998, Fermented fruits and vegetables, a global perspective, FAO Agricultural Services Bulletin 134, section 6.2.3 Kimchigov
  4. [song2021] Song H., Moon E.W. and Ha J.H. 2021, Application of response surface methodology based on a Box-Behnken design to determine optimal parameters to produce brined cabbage used in kimchi, Foods 10(8), 1935paper
  5. [song1995] Song J.-E., Kim M.-S. and Han J.-S. 1995, Effects of the salting of Chinese cabbage on taste and fermentation of kimchi, Korean Journal of Food and Cookery Science 11(3), 226–232paper
  6. [lee2015] Lee M.-E., Jang J.-Y., Lee J.-H., Park H.-W., Choi H.-J. and Kim T.-W. 2015, Starter cultures for kimchi fermentation, Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology 25(5), 559–568, doi:10.4014/jmb.1501.01019paper
  7. [wahealth] Department of Health, Western Australia, Risk assessment and legislative requirements for fermented foods, guide for Food Act 2008 authorised officers (kimchi and kombucha)gov
  8. [surya2023] Surya R. and Nugroho D. 2023, Kimchi throughout millennia, a narrative review on the early and modern history of kimchi, Journal of Ethnic Foods 10, 5paper