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Vegetables from Korea

Donggwa kimchi (wax-gourd kimchi family)동과저 (冬瓜菹)

Donggwa kimchi is a family of old Korean kimchi made from wax gourd. An early form, in the Eumsik dimibang of 1670, is wax gourd cured in salt alone; later cookbooks mix the gourd with seasonings and salted fish as seokbakji. No modern study of it was found.

A short entry: the sources we found record only what is said here about Donggwa kimchi itself.

Short entryVegetables

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedHistorical recipes with no amounts recorded in the sources read.
Wax gourd (donga)[kowiki]
SaltThe only seasoning in the Eumsik dimibang version[kowiki]
Start
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Close-up: salt moving into a piece

What changes: Salt draws water out of the wax gourd

Step 1 of 3
Salt the wax gourd
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
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

Donggwa kimchi is a family of old Korean kimchi made from wax gourd. An early form, in the Eumsik dimibang of 1670, is wax gourd cured in salt alone; later cookbooks mix the gourd with seasonings and salted fish as seokbakji. No modern study of it was found.

What makes this one different

Made from wax gourd rather than radish or cabbage; an early recorded form (1670) uses salt alone.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Donggwa-jeo (동과저)Plain wax-gourd kimchi [LL1990].
  • Donggwa eomchimchae (동과엄침채)Salt-soaked ('eom') form [LL1990].
  • Donggwa seokbakji / Donga sukbagi (동과섞박지, 동아숙박이)Mixed seokbakji with salted fish [LL1990].

History and sources

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

The Eumsik dimibang (1670) records wax gourd cured in salt as a kimchi, and the Yorok (late 17th century) lists wax gourd among 11 kinds of kimchi, with radish, cabbage, bracken and green soybean.

  1. [kowiki] Korean Wikipedia, 김치 (history and kinds of kimchi), read 2026-10-23wiki
  2. [LL1990] Lee Hyo-ji, Lee Hye-kyung 1990, 김치문화의 변천에 관한 문헌적 고찰 (a literature review of changes in kimchi culture), Korean Journal of Heritage History and Science 23:107–133paper