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making kimchi (fermenting vegetables)
- Thread starter Killed_by_Death
- Start date
I've made a batch of sauerkraut about a month and some change ago. The nice thing about fermenting stuff is that 9/10s of it is just letting it do itself - this is as true of vegetables as it is with kombucha and barley. It's easy to do yourself, and you can make it both cheaper than you can buy it and you can make it just the way you like it.
It's just cabbage and salt - pickling salt, sea salt, kosher salt, whatever is good as long as it's not iodized and it's just plain old salt. I topped up the jar with water, too, but that's not necessary. I know kimchi has spices in it, but it's not altogether different.
Good on you for learning new stuff, I like hearing about it
It's just cabbage and salt - pickling salt, sea salt, kosher salt, whatever is good as long as it's not iodized and it's just plain old salt. I topped up the jar with water, too, but that's not necessary. I know kimchi has spices in it, but it's not altogether different.
Good on you for learning new stuff, I like hearing about it
Love me some nice fermented veges from time to time. A small batch recipe would great! I haven't had Kimchi since I lived in Japan but beetroot based sauerkraut from supermarket is da bomb too. Typing this is making my mouth water!
My partner just made two big jars.. it's nice... fyi it ferments better at lower temperatures, that's why they bury it in the ground in Winter in Korea (traditionally)
Kimchi is different to sauerkraut, it uses napa cabbages which are only cut in quarters, other vegetables and chili powder and seasonings are made into a paste which is rubbed in between all the leaves of the quartered cabbages. Then pressed into jars. It's ready when you can't smell the individual ingredients.
Kimchi is different to sauerkraut, it uses napa cabbages which are only cut in quarters, other vegetables and chili powder and seasonings are made into a paste which is rubbed in between all the leaves of the quartered cabbages. Then pressed into jars. It's ready when you can't smell the individual ingredients.
Hmm, buried in the ground is probably warmer than in a shed in wintertime Korea, stopping it from freezing, then brought out for winter 'fresh' veges when none are ( before inventing kimchi) traditionally available?
Traditional Kimchi Recipe (Napa Cabbage Kimchi) - Korean Bapsang seems pretty much anything goes for pickling cabbage
Yep.. apparently it keeps it at a balmy 1 degree Celcius.
Not feeling much like driving up North for the Korean radishes (daikon), so I'll probably just throw in extra scallions, that's the part I like best anyway.
Recipes warn against using 'regular' chili flakes, because it's too spicy, I say "Challenge Accepted!".
The thing about the gochujang I got for bulgogi was that it was sweet! At that time I had the idea to make kimchi, but then forgot all about it.
Big Jars are pricey, I was looking online this arvo at $26, DOH! I could buy a lot of pre-prepared kimchi for that much.
Going out now to have a look in person, & buy the cabbage, ginger, & sea salt. Everything else we already have. (even the powdered glutinous rice)
Recipes warn against using 'regular' chili flakes, because it's too spicy, I say "Challenge Accepted!".
The thing about the gochujang I got for bulgogi was that it was sweet! At that time I had the idea to make kimchi, but then forgot all about it.
Big Jars are pricey, I was looking online this arvo at $26, DOH! I could buy a lot of pre-prepared kimchi for that much.
Going out now to have a look in person, & buy the cabbage, ginger, & sea salt. Everything else we already have. (even the powdered glutinous rice)
Dear old mum saved the day again, got a 1 Gallon pickle-jar from her & a 5 quart tub for soaking the cabbage in brine tonight.
I got ahead of myself & ground up the chili paste already:
chili flakes
shallot
garlic
fish sauce
ginger
glutinous rice powder
sugar
It tastes just like I'd expect a powerful kimchi to taste!
much better than my original thought of using gochujang paste
Tomorrow I'll drain it, add the paste, radishes, scallions & put in that big-ass jar.
apparently it takes 3 days at room-temperature to start fermenting & then you toss it in the fridge
I got ahead of myself & ground up the chili paste already:
chili flakes
shallot
garlic
fish sauce
ginger
glutinous rice powder
sugar
It tastes just like I'd expect a powerful kimchi to taste!
much better than my original thought of using gochujang paste
Tomorrow I'll drain it, add the paste, radishes, scallions & put in that big-ass jar.
apparently it takes 3 days at room-temperature to start fermenting & then you toss it in the fridge
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It wasn't nearly as time-consuming as making jerky:
The cabbage loses almost half its volume after being soaked in brine. The chili paste is about 50% more than what recipes suggested:
part of the paste is also the white ends of the scallions, I just smashed them right up
This might completely replace jerky, as I'm usually craving something savory at night.
However, the smell of garlic is strong whenever I come back in from being outdoors
TBH my eyes were burning while pounding out the paste
add:
the recipes tell you wear gloves while mixing it, but as long as you wash your hands before you touch yourself like Chrissy Amphlett, you'll be alright
R.I.P. Chrissy:
The cabbage loses almost half its volume after being soaked in brine. The chili paste is about 50% more than what recipes suggested:
part of the paste is also the white ends of the scallions, I just smashed them right up
This might completely replace jerky, as I'm usually craving something savory at night.
However, the smell of garlic is strong whenever I come back in from being outdoors
TBH my eyes were burning while pounding out the paste
add:
the recipes tell you wear gloves while mixing it, but as long as you wash your hands before you touch yourself like Chrissy Amphlett, you'll be alright
R.I.P. Chrissy:
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I love fermented foods. Especially good kimchi. I don't know about your stomach but if I have more than a sensible portion, very unpleasant things happen.
Instructions read to wait three days & tap the side of the container while looking for bubbles, but there were no bubbles.
Other instructions read to test the taste, if it's not sour enough to wait longer. It's just about right, so in back of the fridge it went, after topping up the brine.
It's spicy alright, but not intolerably so, then again most would think it's too spicy!
I see myself eating a nice helping at nights, most likely it's healthier than other nighttime snacks, except perhaps popcorn.
Other instructions read to test the taste, if it's not sour enough to wait longer. It's just about right, so in back of the fridge it went, after topping up the brine.
It's spicy alright, but not intolerably so, then again most would think it's too spicy!
I see myself eating a nice helping at nights, most likely it's healthier than other nighttime snacks, except perhaps popcorn.
Can confirm. Lived in Korea for ten years, and the traditional way is to bury the clay pot in the ground. For people that can't (i.e. live in an apartment, etc) putting it in a sealed clay pot outside is okay. Huge regional differences between kimchi, then factor in particular "family recipes," and people will go to blows arguing over which kimchi recipes are "best." I like fresh kimchi, but a lot of people like it more fermented and older (when it's soggy and slimy).
It's a good thing I saved a pickle jar full of brine, because I've topped up the brine in the jar twice since the weekend. Half of the pickle jar so far.
I just happened to have finished a jar of pickles & thought it would be a waste to pour out the "juice", so half that brine is pickle juice.
I just happened to have finished a jar of pickles & thought it would be a waste to pour out the "juice", so half that brine is pickle juice.
It was 'ripe' yesterday & we've sampled it twice. I like it a lot, the more I eat, the more I like it. It's kind of like Lay's potato chips, you just want to keep eating.
I had a serving this large before bed last night w/o any ill effects, but it does make my nose run & sweat a little:
I'm draining the leftover 'juice' into our *Nahm-Plah Prik jar.
*most Thai kitchens will have Nahm-Plah Prik = fish-sauce with chilis
the main ingredients: fish sauce, chilis, lemon juice, garlic
This is what ours looks like:
I had a serving this large before bed last night w/o any ill effects, but it does make my nose run & sweat a little:
I'm draining the leftover 'juice' into our *Nahm-Plah Prik jar.
*most Thai kitchens will have Nahm-Plah Prik = fish-sauce with chilis
the main ingredients: fish sauce, chilis, lemon juice, garlic
This is what ours looks like:
I'm not into kimchi (at least the chili pepper aspect that seems default) but I make sauerkraut somewhat regularly, not infrequently with some other stuff tossed in with the cabbage. Some research indicates that eating fermented vegetables might be a good thing for the present pandemic, so might as well if you enjoy them anyway.
Assuming moderately fresh cabbage, just split, cut out the core, slice thin, weigh carefully, mix in 1.5-2% by weight salt, stir it around with your clean hands and wait 30 minutes (or "massage it 30 minutes" for the "let's make this more work than it is" crowd) and then pack it into a jar unless you have a fancy crock. I fooled around with weighting it down with (clean) ceramic tiles to be "sort of like the ceramic weights in a proper fermentation crock" but have gone to "plastic bag full of brine" as a better weight. There should be no need to "make brine" (other than to fill that bag, if using) with fresh cabbage - all the water needed for the brine is in the cabbage when you start. (yes, I have seen other recipes that use brine, but I don't follow them. If you want to make real fermented dill pickles, you'll need brine, and I would too.) If the cabbage is old and dried out you might need to add water if it won't make enough brine on its own. You really pack it into the jar, (I have 7lbs in a gallon jar as I write this, with a little headspace for bubbling) and then the weights keep it from rising up above brine level when it gets going. I suspect not weighting it down might be part of KbD's need to add pickle-juice.
If the vegetables poke up above the liquid, they tend to mold, or get Kahm yeast. The container should be airlocked (the ferment makes CO2 and oxygen is problematic for causing various spoilage), but I'm down to plastic wrap and a rubber band (or using a mason jar lid and not cranking it down too hard - they will self vent, they do not need to be "cracked daily" as the same folks that make it too hard like do say.) Keep it in the dark unless you use an opaque crock, keep it in the basement or someplace cool-ish if you have one (unless you want to follow a co-worker's Korean Mother-in-Law's advice and bury the crock in the garden in the fall, and dig it up in spring.) Somewhere down in the 60's F or 15-20C is a good range - much above 75F and it's liable to be excessively soft/slimy and/or have off-flavors.
Food safety-wise, the stock quote is that there have been zero cases of food poisoning from fermented vegetables (that does not mean they can't go bad, but it does mean that evidently is not a subtle thing and you'll probably choose not to eat it.) I'm presently eating some that's been in the basement for ether a year and a half or two and a half years, though that is not ideal (it was lovely red/pink kraut, and now it's more brown than is appealing to look at) but it's not spoiled either. Better to eat it within 6 months, but I figure I'm no worse off an a scurvy-free German sailor a couple of years into a voyage. By 6 weeks or so it should be done and you can refrigerate for better long-term condition. If warmer (75F range) 3 weeks should do it. If you get something you enjoy after 3 days, that's fine, too, but the "full ferment" is far from over by that point. But given it's the height of summer in the Northern hemisphere, you may be better at 3 days if you don't have a cool basement/cellar.
The salt creates an environment where the lactic bacteria (no, not milk, don't... more web idiocy) that are naturally present are favored, and the lactic bacteria make lactic acid which makes the ferment unappealing to Bad Things such as botulism. Most US sources suggest 2% at a minimum, some German source go as low as 0.75% (but you'd better be pretty darn clean in your process for that.) Brine (not simply extracted from cabbage by the salt) complicates the math because you're bringing in water as well as salt with brine.
Some folks like seasoning with caraway seeds - I don't, though fennel seeds are fine by me. An amusing point is that I dislike cabbage cooked or fresh - sauering makes it into something I enjoy eating (but that's also part of the reason I don't sample mine early - that, and avoiding contamination of an ongoing ferment.)
Assuming moderately fresh cabbage, just split, cut out the core, slice thin, weigh carefully, mix in 1.5-2% by weight salt, stir it around with your clean hands and wait 30 minutes (or "massage it 30 minutes" for the "let's make this more work than it is" crowd) and then pack it into a jar unless you have a fancy crock. I fooled around with weighting it down with (clean) ceramic tiles to be "sort of like the ceramic weights in a proper fermentation crock" but have gone to "plastic bag full of brine" as a better weight. There should be no need to "make brine" (other than to fill that bag, if using) with fresh cabbage - all the water needed for the brine is in the cabbage when you start. (yes, I have seen other recipes that use brine, but I don't follow them. If you want to make real fermented dill pickles, you'll need brine, and I would too.) If the cabbage is old and dried out you might need to add water if it won't make enough brine on its own. You really pack it into the jar, (I have 7lbs in a gallon jar as I write this, with a little headspace for bubbling) and then the weights keep it from rising up above brine level when it gets going. I suspect not weighting it down might be part of KbD's need to add pickle-juice.
If the vegetables poke up above the liquid, they tend to mold, or get Kahm yeast. The container should be airlocked (the ferment makes CO2 and oxygen is problematic for causing various spoilage), but I'm down to plastic wrap and a rubber band (or using a mason jar lid and not cranking it down too hard - they will self vent, they do not need to be "cracked daily" as the same folks that make it too hard like do say.) Keep it in the dark unless you use an opaque crock, keep it in the basement or someplace cool-ish if you have one (unless you want to follow a co-worker's Korean Mother-in-Law's advice and bury the crock in the garden in the fall, and dig it up in spring.) Somewhere down in the 60's F or 15-20C is a good range - much above 75F and it's liable to be excessively soft/slimy and/or have off-flavors.
Food safety-wise, the stock quote is that there have been zero cases of food poisoning from fermented vegetables (that does not mean they can't go bad, but it does mean that evidently is not a subtle thing and you'll probably choose not to eat it.) I'm presently eating some that's been in the basement for ether a year and a half or two and a half years, though that is not ideal (it was lovely red/pink kraut, and now it's more brown than is appealing to look at) but it's not spoiled either. Better to eat it within 6 months, but I figure I'm no worse off an a scurvy-free German sailor a couple of years into a voyage. By 6 weeks or so it should be done and you can refrigerate for better long-term condition. If warmer (75F range) 3 weeks should do it. If you get something you enjoy after 3 days, that's fine, too, but the "full ferment" is far from over by that point. But given it's the height of summer in the Northern hemisphere, you may be better at 3 days if you don't have a cool basement/cellar.
The salt creates an environment where the lactic bacteria (no, not milk, don't... more web idiocy) that are naturally present are favored, and the lactic bacteria make lactic acid which makes the ferment unappealing to Bad Things such as botulism. Most US sources suggest 2% at a minimum, some German source go as low as 0.75% (but you'd better be pretty darn clean in your process for that.) Brine (not simply extracted from cabbage by the salt) complicates the math because you're bringing in water as well as salt with brine.
Some folks like seasoning with caraway seeds - I don't, though fennel seeds are fine by me. An amusing point is that I dislike cabbage cooked or fresh - sauering makes it into something I enjoy eating (but that's also part of the reason I don't sample mine early - that, and avoiding contamination of an ongoing ferment.)
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I also simply will not consume cabbage any other way. I'm not a fan of sauerkraut, however. I won't even put it on a chili-dog.
KBD,
Here's a way to try cabbage. My wife hates the stuff with a passion, but likes it as follows:
Shred 1 small head into fine shred. Julianne a large sweet onion. Saute together in an electric skillet on medium heat until the onion is well carmelized. Use about a half stick of butter in the skillet. Takes about 30-45 minutes to cook. Serve with a smoked sausage.
Doesn't sound good, but it is.
Here's a way to try cabbage. My wife hates the stuff with a passion, but likes it as follows:
Shred 1 small head into fine shred. Julianne a large sweet onion. Saute together in an electric skillet on medium heat until the onion is well carmelized. Use about a half stick of butter in the skillet. Takes about 30-45 minutes to cook. Serve with a smoked sausage.
Doesn't sound good, but it is.
