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Vegetables from Gaeseong

Bossam kimchi (wrapped kimchi)보쌈김치

Bossam kimchi is salted radish and cabbage cut into squares, mixed with pear, chestnut, jujube, pine nuts, octopus, abalone, mushrooms and seasoning, and wrapped in long salted cabbage leaves like a parcel. Each parcel is packed in its own small crock with salted corvina sauce poured over and eaten within a short winter season.

Fully documentedVegetables

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedHousehold recipe with no fixed amounts. Each parcel is built in a wide bowl lined with 2–3 salted cabbage leaves.
Napa cabbage, saltedLeaves salted whole for wrapping; stems cut into 3 cm lengths and salted[ek-bossam]
Radish, apple and pearCut flat and square[ek-bossam][nfm-bossam]
Chestnut and jujube, cut in strips; pine nuts[ek-bossam]
Octopus, abalone, rock tripe (seogi) and shiitake[nfm-bossam]
Watercress, leaf mustard and green onion[nfm-bossam]
Chilli powder, jeotgal, minced garlic and gingerSalted shrimp in the encyclopedia recipe[nfm-bossam][ek-bossam]
Salted yellow corvina sauce (jogi-jeotguk)Poured over each packed parcel[nfm-bossam]
Start
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Close-up: salt moving into a piece

What changes: Salt softens the cabbage leaves for wrapping and the cut stems for the filling

Step 1 of 5
Salt the cabbage
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

Output: salted whole leaves and 3 cm stem pieces.

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

Bossam kimchi is salted radish and cabbage cut into squares, mixed with pear, chestnut, jujube, pine nuts, octopus, abalone, mushrooms and seasoning, and wrapped in long salted cabbage leaves like a parcel. Each parcel is packed in its own small crock with salted corvina sauce poured over and eaten within a short winter season.

What makes this one different

Bossam kimchi is built parcel by parcel in long cabbage leaves and kept one parcel to a crock. Its rich, lightly seasoned filling makes it a short-keeping winter kimchi. A 1995 survey of winter kimchi in Seoul and Chungcheong, which included bossam kimchi, found a favoured salt of 2.3–2.74 % NaCl for the group; it gives no figure for bossam kimchi alone (Kang 1995).

Related ferments

Variants

  • Restaurant bossam kimchiSince the 1990s, the sweet, crunchy kimchi served with boiled pork (bossam) in restaurants is often called bossam kimchi, though it is a different dish.

Safety

With much seafood and only light seasoning it is good to eat for a short time, and air getting into the crock spoils the taste, so each parcel has its own crock. It was made only in cold places and only in winter.

History and sources

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

It probably appeared after the late 1800s, when semi-heading cabbage was grown in Korea. The oldest record is a 1924 Chosun Ilbo article in which An Sun-hwan of Myeongwolgwan described the court method; Bang Sin-yeong's 1934 cookbook lists it as ssam kimchi. In Gaeseong the word bossam is avoided, since it is said to come from a dark folk custom, and the dish is called ssam kimchi (Academy of Korean Studies).

Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
Microbes
No study we found names its microbes.
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-bossam] National Folk Museum of Korea, Encyclopedia of Korean Folk Culture, Korean Food, Clothing and Housing (한국의식주생활사전), 보쌈김치; KOGL type 2, facts only; read 2026-10book
  2. [ek-bossam] Lee H.-J., 보쌈김치, Encyclopedia of Korean Culture (한국민족문화대백과사전), Academy of Korean Studies; read 2026-10book
  3. [kang1995] 강근옥, 이성희 and 차보숙 (Kang, Lee and Cha) 1995, A study on the material ratio of kimchi products of Seoul and Chung Cheong area and chemical properties of the fermented kimchis, Korean Journal of Food and Cookery Science 11(5), 487–493 (abstract)paper