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Vegetables from Korea

Jangajji (vegetables aged in soy sauce, doenjang or gochujang)장아찌

Jangajji are vegetables and fruits that are first salted or dried, then buried in gochujang or doenjang or steeped in soy sauce for weeks to months. The jang, already fermented, brings salt and flavour into the vegetable. In a study of persimmon jangajji the pH fell over 60 days, to 4.5 in gochujang and 4.0 in brine.

Fully documentedVegetables32 days – 2 months

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedHousehold and village tradition with no fixed amounts. The numbers below come from laboratory batches of cucumber and persimmon jangajji and from a survey of 90 village products.
A vegetable or fruitPersimmon, garlic, cucumber, radish, Codonopsis root (deodeok) and Japanese apricot in gochujang; perilla leaf in doenjang; chilli in doenjang or soy sauce[jeong2006]
Salt or brineTo draw water out before the jang goes in[jung1995]
Gochujang, doenjang, soy sauce or rice-wine lees[jeong2006]

Total time across the recorded steps: 32 days – 2 months

Start
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Close-up: salt moving into a beanSalt 6–12 %

What changes: Salt draws water out of the vegetable

Step 1 of 4
Salt the vegetable to draw out water
Time
2 days
Reported
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
6–12 %
Reported
Acidity
Not documented

The National Folk Museum's encyclopedia says the vegetable is pretreated by salting or by sun-drying before it goes into jang, jeotguk, vinegar or lees. Output: firmer, less watery 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

Jangajji are vegetables and fruits that are first salted or dried, then buried in gochujang or doenjang or steeped in soy sauce for weeks to months. The jang, already fermented, brings salt and flavour into the vegetable. In a study of persimmon jangajji the pH fell over 60 days, to 4.5 in gochujang and 4.0 in brine. Made in 4 steps over 32 days – 2 months. The longest step, bury in jang or steep in soy sauce, takes 30 days – 2 months (정순택 1995) and runs at 15 °C (신동주 2000). Salt is 6–12 % (정순택 1995).

Key numbers
Main step30 days – 2 monthsReported[jung1995][shin2000]Bury in jang or steep in soy sauce
Temperature15 °CReported[shin2000]Bury in jang or steep in soy sauce
Salt6–12 %Reported[jung1995]Salt the vegetable to draw out water
AciditypH 4–5.4Measured[shin2000][oh2016]Bury in jang or steep in soy sauce

What makes this one different

Jangajji is cured in a finished jang rather than fermented from scratch, so its salt and flavour come from the paste or sauce, and the calcium in the jang moves into the vegetable.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Ganjang jangajjiSteeped in soy sauce; the saltiest kind in the Sunchang survey.
  • Doenjang jangajjiBuried in soybean paste, for example perilla leaves.
  • Gochujang jangajjiBuried in chilli paste, for example persimmon, garlic, cucumber, radish and deodeok; the sweetest kind.
  • Sukjangajji (cooked jangajji)The vegetable is salted, then stir-fried or simmered in soy sauce. The National Folk Museum's encyclopedia says it keeps for a shorter time than the cured kind [nfm-jangajji].
  • Uloe jangajji (in rice-wine lees)Cured in rice-wine lees (jubak), like Japanese narazuke.

Safety

Jangajji is salty; a survey of 90 village products found 3.56–9.15 % salt, highest in soy sauce kinds. Bacillus cereus was among the bacteria found in persimmon jangajji, and the yeast Candida glabrata swelled vacuum packs, so the cured product needs clean handling and cold storage once packed.

Hazards the sources name: Bacillus cereus, found in persimmon jangajji making.

History and sources

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

A 1988 review of Korean kimchi literature from 1976 to 1987 counted 23 kinds of jangajji. The National Folk Museum's encyclopedia says the Gyuhap chongseo records vegetables cured in jang, such as jang-ga (eggplant) and jang-hwanggwa (cucumber), and in salt mixed with lees [nfm-jangajji].

Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
  1. [jung1995] 정순택, 이홍열 and 박현진 (Jung, Lee and Park) 1995, The changes in firmness, Ca content and polygalacturonase and pectinesterase activities during oyijangachi preparation, Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition 24(5), 796–802 (abstract)paper
  2. [shin2000] 신동주, 김광호, 손규목, 이승철 and 황용일 (Shin et al.) 2000, Changes of physicochemical properties during preparation of prepersimmon pickles, Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition 29(3), 420–424 (abstract)paper
  3. [jeong2006] Jeong D.-Y., Kim Y.-S., Lee S.-K., Jung S.-T., Jeong E.-J., Kim H.-E. and Shin D.-H. 2006, Comparison of physicochemical characteristics of pickles manufactured in folk villages of Sunchang region, Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety 21(2), 92–99 (abstract)paper
  4. [oh2016] Oh C.-H. and Oh N.-S. 2016, Quality characteristics of apple jangachi cured with different types of traditional Korean sauces, Korean Journal of Organic Agriculture 24(1), 87–98 (abstract)paper
  5. [chung1995] Chung D.-O. and Chung H.-J. 1995, Associated microorganisms and chemical composition of persimmon pickles, Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture 10(3), 133–137 (abstract)paper
  6. [jo1988] Jo J.-S. and Hwang S.-Y. 1988, Standardization of kimchi and related products (2), Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture 3(3), 301–307 (abstract)paper
  7. [nfm-jangajji] Jo S. (조숙정), 장아찌, National Folk Museum of Korea, Encyclopedia of Korean Folk Culture, Korean Food, Clothing and Housing (한국의식주생활사전); KOGL type 2, facts only; read 2026-10-31book
  8. [s1] Korean Wikipedia, 장아찌 (etymology, types), read 2026-10-16wiki