Korean · sauce/condiment

Baechu Kimchi (Whole Napa Cabbage Kimchi)

Baechu Kimchi (Whole Napa Cabbage Kimchi) reads funk & ferment 7.2, salinity 7.1 and umami 7.0 on Palate's 0–10 flavor X-ray — a Korean sauce/condiment, about 113 hr 25 min. Measured from the recipe itself: ingredients and technique.

The flavor X-ray — six axes, 0–10

The measured notes (of 18)

Funk & Ferment 7.2 · Salinity 7.1 · Umami 7.0 · Marine & Briny 5.2 · Sweetness 4.6 · Allium 4.4 · Fruity 4.1 · Floral 2.5 · Sourness 2.4 · Warm Spice 2.1 · Herbaceous 2.1 · Heat 2.0 · Richness 1.3 · Earthy 0.9 · Smoke 0.8 · Citrus 0.6 · Bitterness 0.6 · Nutty 0.5

What's in it (15)

Time & effort: about 113 hr 25 min (1 hr 45 min active) · effort: involved

Nutrition (per 100 g, engine-estimated): 16.8 kcal, 1.1 g protein, 0.3 g fat, 3.2 g carbs

Dietary: Contains meat · Contains seafood — engine-derived; double-check anything allergy-critical.

How it's cooked (7 steps)

  1. Dip each cabbage quarter in the 1.5 L of water so the leaves are wet, then work the coarse salt in between every leaf, using more at the thick white stem end and barely any at the leafy tip. Lay the quarters cut-side up in a large tub and leave 3 to 4 hours at room temperature, turning them over every 45 minutes and basting with the brine that collects. Do not use fine table salt: it dissolves too fast, salts the leaf tips before it reaches the stems, and gives a cabbage that is sharp on the outside and raw at the heart.
  2. The cabbage is ready when a thick piece of white stem bends into a U without snapping. Rinse the quarters in three changes of cold water, working the salt out of the folds, and drain them cut-side down in a colander for a full hour. Wet cabbage dilutes the paste and gives a watery, fast-souring kimchi.
  3. Whisk the sweet rice flour into the 300 ml of water in a small pan and cook over medium heat, stirring, for 5 to 7 minutes, until it thickens to a translucent paste and bubbles lazily. Stir in the sugar, then cool it completely. This porridge is the food for the lactobacilli: it gets the fermentation going fast and evenly, and it makes the paste cling to the leaves rather than sliding off.
  4. Stir the gochugaru into the cooled porridge first and let it stand 10 minutes to bloom into a deep red. Then mix in the garlic, ginger, anchovy sauce, saeujeot and grated pear, and finally fold through the radish matchsticks, chives and scallions. Taste it: it should be markedly too salty and too strong on its own. It is seasoning 2.5 kg of cabbage.
  5. Open each cabbage quarter leaf by leaf and smear the paste over each leaf, again heaviest at the stem, lightest at the tip. Wear gloves. Fold each quarter in on itself, wrap it in its own outermost leaf and pack the parcels tightly into a jar or crock, pressing down hard to drive out air pockets. Fill no more than four-fifths full, because it will rise, and press a sheet of plastic against the surface.
  6. Leave at cool room temperature, 18 to 20 C, for 24 to 48 hours. It is fermenting when you see bubbles rising through the brine at the side of the jar, the brine has turned cloudy and the smell has gone from raw chile to sour and lightly carbonated. Then refrigerate. It is good after 3 days, hits its balance of crisp and sour at 2 to 3 weeks, and after a month or two becomes the sour mugeunji you want for stews rather than for the table.
  7. Substitutions: two medium can stand in for the napa cabbage; minari can stand in for the Korean chives.

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Every number above is Palate's engine-measured estimate, computed from this recipe's ingredients and techniques — not human-tasted ratings or reviews.