A Kimchee mess

[Sparticle]

My friend is trying to make Kimchee for the first time and asked me to post this for any advice:

It's day 11 of my great sauerkraut experiment, and things are looking decidely GROSS. Thanks to a Facebook buddy, I added a little grated ginger and a little red pepper to make Kimchee. It did taste pretty good on Sunday night. I left town for a few days, and--surprise!--I now have a crockful of a dis...concerting brownish mass of cabbage. Where did I go wrong--or is this the way it should look???

Day 12 of the Great Kimchee Experiment. You'll remember the cabbage was brown yesterday? It's completely brown today. It just doesn't have the liquid forming yet, despite pounding/slapping it around. I filled a bag with water and placed it on top to seal it better, plus the weight should do it some good. Of course...I'll probably set off some sort of anarobic reaction, and my poor cabbage will begin to glow...

[Roadking]

Personally, I LOVE Kimchi (our boys are from S. Korea, go figure), but will not attempt it. Everyone I know that has attempted it from our adoption friends have had nightmares. Sounds like your friend has hit one. Wish I could offer advice other than "do not attempt without terra cotta jugs, warm soil, and patience".
Got that from a friend of ours when I asked about how to make it.
Matt

[stefrobrts]

I took extensive training in food preservation this year through our extension office, and have a lot of resources for looking up recipes. The most important thing in safely preserving food is to use a tested recipe. There are a lot of downright dangerous recipes/advice on the web. I don't know about Kim Chee, and I could not find a recipe for it. However here is a link to a great basic sauerkraut recipe.

http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/how/can_06/sauerkraut.html

The thing that concerns me about your friend's comments is that it 'doesn't have the liquid forming yet'. Sauerkraut should have liquid pulled out by the salt shortly after making it, and if not we add brine to cover the kraut and protect it from spoilage while it's fermenting (which can take days or weeks). If your friend's kim chee is not covered in liquid, I would be concerned about how that food is protected from spoiling.

Even following a recipe isn't a sure thing, I had two batches of dill pickles go bad this year - my first time fermenting. It seems to be a bit of an art!

[SquashNut]

KIm chee is not aged like sour kraut, the few times I have made it I left it at room temp for only 24 hours then it was refrigerated and used in 1 or 2 weeks.

[pheasantplucker]

I love Kimchee but only eat it on rare occasions, so I just buy mine from an Asian market and let them do the work.

[Missy M]

When I was living on a military base the Korean wives would bury the crocks of kimchee in the yard to forment it. You could smell it in the air when it was time to dig up all the crocks.

[Rita]

When I make it I soak overnight in brine water, pour off and save some of the water, pack the cabbage in a large jar and pour the brine solution to cover then add a bag of water to keep it submerged. I leave it a week then refrigerate while using it. Never had a failure.

[Sparticle]

Thanks for the info, i've passed it all along.

[Haven]

There are tons of good vids on youtube showing how to make both.

[silverbackMP]

Noadays,

Kimchee is generally made fresh and refrigerated. It'll start to sour (in the refridgerator) in a week to 10 days. They even have dedicated Kimchee refrigerators that allow you to adjust the rate of souring.

Fresh to moderate sour is good for straight eating (with some bap--sticky rice).

Sour is good for cooking--Kimchee Fried Rice (Cut up Kimchee, Kimchee juice, sticky rice, Spam or other ham product, tuna is optional, with broken up Kim (fried seaweed) on top, sesame seeds on top is good also) or Kimchee Jigae (Kimchee stew).

BTW, you really need to add blended small shrimp and/or oysters to the recipe to get a good Kimchee taste.