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Vegetables from Korea

Bineul kimchi (fish-scale-cut radish kimchi)비늘김치

Bineul kimchi is a whole radish scored all over in overlapping cuts like fish scales, salted, and stuffed with seasoning between the scales. It was packed among whole-cabbage kimchi at kimjang, sometimes wrapped in a salted cabbage leaf. This entry is a reconstruction from cookbooks and a 1969 newspaper account, with no measured values.

Fully documentedVegetables

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedHousehold kimjang practice with no fixed amounts.
Radish, medium-sized, native typeWashed and scored, whole or cut in half[nfm-bineul]
SaltFor salting the scored radish[nfm-bineul]
Green onion, garlic, ginger and chilliThe seasoning filling[nfm-bineul]
Salted yellow corvina sauce (jogi-jeotguk)Mixed into the seasoning in the 1969 account[nfm-bineul]
Salted cabbage leavesTo wrap the stuffed radish in the 1954 cookbook[nfm-bineul]
StarterKimchi is fermented spontaneously, without added starter cultures (Jung et al. 2011, on kimchi in general).
Start
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What changes: A whole radish is cut all round in slanting slits that overlap like fish scales

Step 1 of 5
Score the radish like fish scales
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Leuconostoc
Lactobacillus
Weissella

The 1969 account cuts the surface obliquely all round, like a pine cone. Output: radish cut into overlapping scales.

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

Bineul kimchi is a whole radish scored all over in overlapping cuts like fish scales, salted, and stuffed with seasoning between the scales. It was packed among whole-cabbage kimchi at kimjang, sometimes wrapped in a salted cabbage leaf. This entry is a reconstruction from cookbooks and a 1969 newspaper account, with no measured values. Leuconostoc, Lactobacillus and Weissella, which dominated industrial napa-cabbage kimchi does most of the fermenting.

What makes this one different

Unlike kkakdugi or seokbakji, the radish is not cut into pieces. It is scored and stuffed whole, like a radish sobagi, and ripened inside the cabbage kimchi.

Related ferments

Safety

Kimchi can pick up pathogenic or spoilage bacteria if it is contaminated during preparation. South Korea's food-safety ministry sets limits for kimchi. Salmonella, Listeria monocytogenes and Vibrio parahaemolyticus must be absent from 25 g samples, and Bacillus cereus is capped at 10,000 CFU/g in fermented foods such as kimchi. This is general kimchi guidance; the sources for this page give no safety figures for it.

History and sources

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

The first record is Bang Sin-yeong's Joseon yori jebeop (1917), under whole-cabbage kimchi. Her 1954 cookbook names it bineul kimchi. A 1969 Dong-A Ilbo article called it a winter staple of western South Chungcheong.

Process times
The sources we found give no figure for how long any of its steps take.
Temperature, salt and pH
The sources we found give no temperature, salt or pH figure for any of its steps.
  1. [nfm-bineul] National Folk Museum of Korea, Encyclopedia of Korean Folk Culture, Korean Food, Clothing and Housing (한국의식주생활사전), 비늘김치; cites Bang Sin-yeong 1917/1954 and Dong-A Ilbo 1969-11-22; KOGL type 2, facts only; read 2026-10book
  2. [kowiki] Korean Wikipedia, 김치 (종류, 모양 section), read 2026-10wiki
  3. [shim2024] Shim Y., Lee J.Y., Jung J. 2024, Effects of kimchi-derived lactic acid bacteria on reducing biological hazards in kimchi, Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology 34(12):2586-2595 (introduction cites the Korean ministry's microbial limits for kimchi)paper
  4. [jung2011] Jung J.Y., Lee S.H., Kim J.M., Park M.S., Bae J.-W., Hahn Y., Madsen E.L., Jeon C.O. 2011, Metagenomic analysis of kimchi, a traditional Korean fermented food, Applied and Environmental Microbiology 77(7):2264-2274 (industrial napa-cabbage kimchi, 29 days at 4 degrees C)paper