2019-10-23: Made some Cabbage Kimchi (Baechu Kimchi)

Autumn is a super time to make cabbage kimchi. Most of the necessary ingredients are available fresh at the local organic farmers market: Napa cabbage, Korean radishes, garlic, onions, and carrots. And all of the remaining ingredients are in my pantry anyways: Ginger, green onions, rice flour, sugar, fish sauce, Korean red pepper flakes and pickling salt. So, lets get started.

This is the coarse pickling salt brand I use. It took me a while to realize that what I really needed for all my ferments was a plain pickling salt without add-ons (like anti-caking additions or iodine health-additions that are typical for table salts) and where to find it. I also use pickling salt whenever a recipe suggests to use kosher salt (I think kosher salts are also add-on free, but I don't know for sure). Pickling salt is also called canning salt or preservation salt.

Korean red pepper flakes on the left and fish sauce on the right. Korean red pepper flakes are not very spicy and I also use them in some Indian dishes, some Thai curries and even some Latin American dishes. Fish sauce is often used in Vietnamese and Thai dishes as well. 

The ginger, carrots, onion, garlic bulbs and green onions I used making this kimchi.

The first step is cutting the cabbages in half and then make a slit at the bottom (to semi-quarter them). Once that is done, I try to put some pickling salt between every layer of the cabbage leaves from both sides of the half, top to bottom (the idea is to get some pickling salt everywhere). Then I put the cabbage halves into a big bowl for 3 to 4 hours and let the salt do its job. Every hours or so, I press the cabbage halves a bit or rearrange them so that the top ones go to the bottom and vice versa. Sometime I spray a bit of water from a spray bottle onto the cabbage to dissolve the salt a bit, so it can migrate into the cabbage easier. Overall I used about 3.4kg of Napa cabbage.

The Napa cabbage halves after the salt was added into the various slits between the leaves.

Then I peeled the Korean radishes (I used 3 smaller ones) and cut them into 3 to 5cm rounds. The rounds are then quartered or cut into sixth's and put into another large bowl. Then I add pickling salt again, mix it with my hands into the radish pieces and let time do its job for about 2 to 4 hours (more or less in parallel with the cabbage). Please note that this year, the farmer experimented a bit with his radishes: Normally they are white, but this year he is selling some with a pink-white color variation. 

The Korean radish pieces (as mentioned, normally they are just plain white).

After the salting phase I washed out and then sterilized the fermentation pot, its lid and the weights with boiling water. To do so, I pour some amount of boiling water into the pot and then expose all the inside walls of the pot to the hot water by twisting and turning the pot. I believe I further improved my kimchi results by using this fermentation pot and its weights and lid system. However I have also had good results with Korean Onggi pots of different sizes and using simple plastic containers suitable for fermentation offered by professional kitchen stores.

The 5l fermentation pot I used today: It has a moat type system at the top for the lid that is filled with water which acts as an airlock during the fermentation time.

The lid and the two weight halves that also belong to the fermentation pot. I also sterilize them with boiling water.

Now it was time to make the porridge. I used 3 cups of water and whisked into it 3 tbsp of rice flour. I brought this mixture to a boil and then simmered it for about 2 minutes while whisking from time to time. Finally I added 3 tbsp of sugar, whisked again a bit, and switched off the heat and let the whole thing cool down naturally. Once the porridge was cool I transferred it into a large bowl.

The porridge after cooling to room temperature.

The porridge after adding the red pepper flakes, fish sauce, ginger and grated garlic.

Now I added about 1.25 cups of the Korean red pepper flakes to the porridge and whisked the mixture. There is a considerable degree of freedom with regards to the quantity of red pepper flakes. Some cookbook authors recommend roughly double the size of what I am using, but that feels definitely too much to me. However the quantity likely also depends on the pepper flakes themselves: Their spiciness varies with the brand and also the flake texture is not always the same. I always experiment a bit when I open a new bag of pepper flakes by tasting the raw pepper flakes and the porridge I am making.

After adding the pepper flakes, I add about 0.5 cup fish sauce and whisk again. Sometimes a bit more, pending on the mood I am in and also pending the particular fish sauce brand. The various sauces are not all the same and sometimes a store swaps out one brand for another.

I continued with adding the grated garlic and the finely minced ginger and whisking again. There is a picture above somewhere that gives an idea about the quantities I used for this step.

Adding the chopped onion to the mixture

The next step was adding the chopped onion to the mixture with a subsequent whisking phase.

Addition of the green onions to the mixture.

Then I cut the carrots into matchsticks and whisked them into the mixture (no picture. I dug out a single carrot matchstick from the porridge and added it on top of the green onion pile in the picture above to give an idea about the matchstick size). And last but not least I coarsely chopped the green onions and also whisked them into the porridge.

The consistency of the porridge after the addition of all ingredients.

Now I ripped the cabbage halves into cabbage quarters (basically one rip per half) with my hands using the initial quarter slit I made before salting the cabbages. Afterwards I carefully rinsed all quarters several times (2 to 3 times) in a cold water bath to remove all salt that hadn't migrated via osmosis into the cabbage itself. The cabbages are at this point fairly limp and all leaf layers of the cabbage can be accessed easily.

The radishes pieces go through a similar multi-step (2 to 3 times) rinsing phase with water. All exterior salt is removed from the radishes.

Once the cabbage and radishes are rinsed, I built an assembly line to allow me to get the pieces efficiently from their source pots, to the porridge pot and finally into the fermentation pot.

My assembly line

Then I coat every cabbage quarter with the porridge using my hands (some people recommend using plastic gloves for that). I put a bit of porridge between every layer of leaves of a particular cabbage quarter. Then I fold the cabbage quarter half-way width-wise and put it into the fermentation pot. This is a relatively messy affair. From time to time, I also take one or two handful of radish pieces, coat them and press them into spaces in the fermentation pot that are not filled by the cabbage quarters. Basically what is needed to to minimize air-holes in the fermentation pot and also to mix the radish and cabbages quarters somewhat.

Mixing the porridge into a cabbage quarter with my hands.

Layering the folded cabbage quarters tightly into the fermentation pot.

Finally I put the weights on top of the cabbages, put the lid on, filled the pot moat with water and then it is time to wait for a few days. I typically leave the pot in the kitchen at room temperature to get the fermentation underway. After 24 to 48h one can hear bubbles coming through the water barrier every 30 to 120 seconds (this is very dependent on the room temperature in the kitchen (summer is very different from spring or autumn or a heated room in winter)). The water in the moat also rises because of interior air pressure. After about 3 to 4 days there is a sudden drop in the water level of the moat. I take this as a hint that the initial fermentation is done. I typically try a piece of a quarter or a small whole quarter. Ideally, the cabbage has a champagne like bubbly nature with a nice initial fermentation (I find cabbage kimchi in this stage super good). Over the next 2 weeks we typically eat all of the cabbage kimchi as a side dish to our meals. Towards the end of the 2 weeks the cabbage becomes noticeably more fermented and sour and looses its bubbly nature but is still very good. 

A portion of a nicely fermented kimchi quarter after on day 5 or 6. I had it for 3 days in the kitchen and for about 2 or 3 days in the (unheated) garage. While crunchy, it has a nice bubbly (champagne-style) side to it and tastes just delicious.

Sometimes, I transfer a good chunk of the cabbage into another, smaller container after 3 or 5 days and move this smaller container into the fridge (definitely true for my summer kimchi and sometimes in the winter). In autumn and in the spring time I typically move my whole fermentation pot after 3 or max 4 days into the unheated garage. The temperatures there are just right to keep the kimchi in this nice bubbly stage for a bit longer. The ideal fermentation place is actually a cold storage room in a basement. Some houses do have such a feature (ours not).

I liked kimchi from the first day I tried it in a Korean restaurant that I visited with my wife. But it took me a very long while to get to my current kimchi making abilities. I bought my very first Korean cookbook 20 or 25 years ago with the express intent to make my own kimchi. Alas, the 2 page description was nowhere near what I needed to know, despite trying several times. Later I went back and looked at the cabbage kimchi recipe of that book again: It did a good job of listing the ingredients and their quantities but was totally inadequate in terms of the principles that mattered to make well fermented kimchi.

My first kimchi making break-through happened when I came across a YouTube video from "Maangchi" around 10 years ago. This YouTube clip was an eye-opener that showed how a Korean person made cabbage kimchi (I literally could see how to do it). And subsequently I was able to replicate her recipe. Maangchi's YouTube cooking videos and her cooking blog are these days pretty much my first goto place for all things Korean cooking. 10 years onward since then, aside from Maangchi, several Korean cookbooks from other authors with detailed pictures and descriptions how to make kimchi have appeared on the market and became available in the local library. One can also find YouTube videos about this topic now from plenty of people.

My next round of improvements came, when I read "Wild Fermentation" from Sandor Katz. I got my hands on it by pure chance when looking through the library shelves. It changed a number of views I might have had about mold, sour milk, or any number "spoiled" food items. It also explained how important it was to give the bacteria a "healthy" (or the right) environment so a particular strain can proliferate and do their job (for example lacto-fermenting food in a brine (a salty water solution)). A healthy environment also meant to use water with less chlorine if possible, use pickling salt and not table salt, provide some sugar (for example the importance of the initial porridge in this kimchi), the importance of temperature for the various bacteria types involved (from fridge temperatures to being exposed in summer to sunlight), avoidance of oxygen, the use of a small amount from prior batches to "seed or kick-start" a new fermentation batch and more. These days I do have an idea what I do, if I move a fermentation pot from the kitchen into the unheated garage in the autumn time for example. I also have an idea what it means to take a small sample from a prior fermentation batch and add it to a new one (for example this is routinely done with sourdough baking or when making yogurt).

I added my own personal note to my cabbage and radish kimchi, when I decided to try out my "German" sauerkraut fermentation pot to make Korean cabbage and radish kimchi (I am not aware of anyone else doing it). And I was happy with the result. I think my cabbage quarters are particularly bubbly and the fermentation result is very good (I attribute this to the weight being applied and also to the airlock working very well). But it doesn't mean I only use my German crock when making kimchi. When it is used to make sauerkraut I simply use one of my Korean onggi pots or even one of my original plastic containers (I started with the plastic containers first). These days I have clay-weights for the onggi pots as well, made by a local potter to measurement. I was also not surprised when my Chinese brother in law recommended to add some apple pieces (or grated apples) to a kimchi ferment. The result of adding apple pieces to German sauerkraut was when I heard his comment well known to me and sooner or later I will try out his suggestion with a kimchi.

Some final notes: 

• Some recipes add a salted squid to the fermentation. I have not done this yet. On the flip side, I don't feel I am missing out with regards to that item. Other recipes require ingredients like Chinese chive or perilla leaves (shiso). Not every recipe adds carrot matchsticks to their cabbage kimchi. I had good results in the past using a bit of finely cut leek (and using a bit less of the green onions or the onion).
• Some recipes recommend using soy sauce instead of fish sauce if someone wants to make a vegetarian kimchi version. I have never done that and cannot comment on it.
• Some recipes cut the cabbage quarters width-wise into several pieces and ferment these smaller pieces. I have decided to stick with the more traditional way of fermenting whole quarters and cut them into smaller pieces right before serving (basically I serve little "stacks" of cabbage leaves). I do like the crunch and bubbles I am getting when biting into a cabbage "stack".
• As I said, there is a wide range of how much Korean pepper flakes people like in a cabbage kimchi.
• Generally I try to source organic Napa cabbage and radishes when I make cabbage kimchi. But it is by no means a must.
• Cabbage kimchi is probably the best known Korean kimchi. But there are plenty of other kimchi types out there and I have made others. I do like pony-tail kimchi (a radish kimchi that uses the radish greens). One can also make a plain Korean radish kimchi (called kkakdugi kimchi). Basically a kkakdugi kimchi is the kimchi I made in this recipe without the cabbage but with more Korean radish pieces instead. Kkakdugi kimchi is very delicious too and I make it often. I did not like the kimchi's I have made using Asian chives. Somehow my tries to make Asian chive kimchis had on off flavor and tasted too bitter.