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Vegetables from Korea, South Jeolla

Gat kimchi (leaf mustard kimchi)갓김치

Gat kimchi is made from Korean leaf mustard (Brassica juncea), salted in brine and coated with chilli powder, garlic, ginger, glutinous rice paste and anchovy sauce. Its main pungent volatile is allyl isothiocyanate, which falls as the kimchi ripens, and in a 1995 trial it ripened slowly in the cold.

Fully documentedVegetables6.2 days – 3.2 months

Recipe

Gat kimchi (leaf mustard kimchi), a photo from Wikimedia Commons
Photo: kimsco, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Amounts from a sourceThe amounts are the lab recipe of the 2019 study (Table 1), made to a desired salinity of 2.5 %.
Leaf mustard, salted1500 gSoaked in 10 % brine first; the table gives the salted weight[lee2019]
Red pepper powder120 g[lee2019]
Garlic30 g[lee2019]
Ginger30 g[lee2019]
Glutinous rice paste225 g[lee2019]
Sugar30 g[lee2019]
Anchovy sauce (myeolchi-aekjeot)150 gLeft out of the blank group of the study[lee2019]

Total time across the recorded steps: 6.2 days – 3.2 months

Start
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Close-up: salt moving into a grainSalt 10 %

What changes: Brine wilts the mustard leaves

Step 1 of 4
Soak the mustard in brine
Time
3 h
Reported
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
10 %
Reported
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
L. plantarum
L. mesenteroides
Levilactobacillus brevis
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

Gat kimchi is made from Korean leaf mustard (Brassica juncea), salted in brine and coated with chilli powder, garlic, ginger, glutinous rice paste and anchovy sauce. Its main pungent volatile is allyl isothiocyanate, which falls as the kimchi ripens, and in a 1995 trial it ripened slowly in the cold. Made in 4 steps over 6.2 days – 3.2 months. The longest step, ripen slowly in the cold, takes 6 days – 3.2 months (박삼수 1995) and runs at 4–20 °C (박삼수 1995). Salt is 10 % (Lee J.-H 2019). Lactiplantibacillus plantarum and Leuconostoc mesenteroides among isolates from pa and gat kimchi that make no biogenic amines and Levilactobacillus brevis, which made tyramine, putrescine and cadaverine in some strains isolated from pa and gat kimchi do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step6 days – 3.2 monthsMeasured[park1995]Ripen slowly in the cold
Temperature4–20 °CReported[park1995]Ripen slowly in the cold
Salt10 %Reported[lee2019]Soak the mustard in brine
AciditypH 4.6–4.8Measured[park1995]Ripen slowly in the cold

What makes this one different

In a 1995 trial gat kimchi reached its best ripeness, pH 4.6–4.8, after 78–96 days at 4 °C. Its main volatile is allyl isothiocyanate, the mustard heat, which decreases during fermentation.

Related ferments

Safety

In a 2019 survey of 13 market samples, 2 held about two to four times the 100 mg/kg histamine level suggested as safe and 6 were over that level for tyramine. One sample held 720.82 mg/kg putrescine, putting its total biogenic amines over 1,000 mg/kg. Anchovy sauce appeared to be an important source.

Hazards the sources name: Biogenic amines (histamine, tyramine, putrescine), found above suggested limits in some market samples.

History and sources

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

Old cookbooks record sangat kimchi, the prototype of gat kimchi, made without salting and ripened until hot (Korean Wikipedia).

Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
  1. [park1995] 박삼수, 장명숙 and 이규환 (Park, Jang and Lee) 1995, Effect of fermentation temperature on the physicochemical properties of mustard leaf (Brassica juncea) kimchi during various storage days, Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition 24(5), 752–757 (abstract)paper
  2. [lee2019] Lee J.-H., Jin Y.H., Park Y.K., Yun S.J. and Mah J.-H. 2019, Formation of biogenic amines in pa (green onion) kimchi and gat (mustard leaf) kimchi, Foods 8(3), 109paper
  3. [jeon1995] 전순실, 최옥자, 조영숙, 박석규 and 박정로 (Jeon et al.) 1995, Changes in pungent components of Dolsan leaf mustard kimchi during fermentation, Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition 24(1), 54–59 (abstract)paper
  4. [kowiki-gat] Korean Wikipedia, 갓김치, read 2026-10wiki