#kimjang

Let’s be clear here: I have no problem with people making kimchi who aren’t Korean. But I’d prefer that people actually learn from a Korean and then understand the function of the ingredients before complaining about the existence of said ingredients. And once they do that, to NOT under any circumstances, mark it up and then put a metal lid on it because you don’t understand the function of the dish. So I’m going to do this for you with basic run downs in the following areas:

The cultural psychology of Korean food

The food science behind kimchi (This is something Koreans also forget)

The intention of kimchi

But, but the Diaspora?

Why White people’s (commercial) kimchi often messes up and fails to understand

How to tell authentic Kimchi from inauthentic Kimchi vs. Kimchi snobbery.

The cultural psychology of Korean food

Five Colors

https://www.gastrotourseoul.com/the-five-colors-of-korea-what-do-you-know-about-o-bang-saek/

I should note that current scientists actually support this idea thousands of years after Chinese and Korean enforced this. For reference, Korean enforce this idea more than Chinese (Han) do.

Five Flavors

https://ling-app.medium.com/5-flavors-in-korean-a-secret-to-delicious-k-food-9425a240276a

This is where you can find an article on the five flavors. Originally from Chinese Han people, but Koreans enforce this more than Chinese do.

Fermentation process is different from other regions

The majority of Korean fermentation deals with aerobic fermentation. I get this scares the crap out of most white people. But trust me when I say that Koreans have it down and there is a reason for this psychology.

Paochai is anaerobic. Tsukemono is anaerobic. Sauerkraut is anaerobic. kimchi out of the majority of fermented vegetables is an aerobic process and was designed to be very, very carefully over thousands of years.

Likewise with soy sauce, Koreans do the aerobic version, while everyone else does anaerobic. This is true across the board for traditional Korean processes that doesn’t always hold true for other versions.

The obsession with the removal of the smell of food

Koreans have this obsession with removing the smell of food. This is why the onggi/hangari are designed to BREATHE. They release gasses through the earthenware surface and are beaten in a certain way so that if you sealed the top, the jar itself is still breathing. This releases certain kinds of gas which make the taste of kimchi the taste of kimchi.

Koreans do this with meats (remove the smell of meat by washing it) Also do it with fish, etc. (Some people might recognize some of it as semi-koshering the meat/fish too--some of the process is similar and I think it’s for similar reasons--avoiding bacterial infections in a time before refrigeration. But this is a loose theory, rather than fact.)

And certainly in the fermentation process.

The food science behind kimchi (This is something Koreans also forget)

Onggi is a jar that breathes. It’s designed to breathe. They are expensive, I know, but it’s really, really worth your investment if you want to do any kind of Korean fermentation. Onggi releases the bad gasses that cook the kimchi’s vegetables into mush. With sauerkraut, it is designed to semi-cook under the fermentation process. With kimchi it is not supposed to cook at all, and through this the vegetables in question stay crunchy.

How do I know this? I make kimchi and have gotten it “wrong” on purpose a number of times in a number of ways just to crack the food science.

This said, there are several basic parts to Kimchi’s elements: You have the vegetables, which don’t have to be nappa. It can be mu (white radish) These are usually high in vitamin C. You can have mountain herbs and a whole host of other ingredients in this section. If the person is skillful and there are multiple ingredients in the jar, they will figure out how to stack the interior of the jar so that certain vegetables are at the top.

Salt

The best salt is flower seasalt, which you can get in bulk. It has a slightly sweet taste to it. In a punch finely ground kosher is OK, but keep in mind that Kosher salt is saltier. (some people use MSG too... but I find it wholly unnecessary as the cabbage and seafood elements has MSG naturally in it)

The salt acts as a preservative and helps bring out that unique crunch. It prevents bad bacteria from growing in the kimchi.

The sweet rice flour/wheat flour

This attracts the lactobacilli. The majority of winter kimchi uses sweet rice flour. This is not added sugar, BTW, it’s the varietal of rice.

It gives it food. Since sweet rice flour has more sugar content in the form of starch (muslimintp-1999-girl's correction, not gluten), etc, this is why it is used in winter. Whereas yeolmu kimchi uses wheat flour, which has less gluten/food for the lactobacilli.

BTW, for those that add jujubes, this is also their function. Sugar is sometimes applied, especially to Seoul Kimchi, but it’s only traditional to the Japanese occupation. In older recipes that do use this type of starter, especially for winter kimchi, they use sliced Asian pears, pear juice, or jujubes. However, this is seen more of a “King’s Kimchi” and was for the “upper class.” rather than the lower classes. So it’s unlikely the nobi (slave class) was able to eat such kimchi. The reason raw sugar, and sugar cane in general isn’t considered really “traditional” by kimchi snobs, is because sugar cane itself grows in tropical regions and was a Portuguese import. For times when sugar *is* applied, Koreans tend to reduce the amount of sweet rice flour to compensate. lactobacilli eat raw sugar quickly, so for summer and more southern on the Korean peninsula kimchi, cane sugar is not used.

Protein element

The protein is like a stop sign to the lactobacilli and tells them to SLOW DOWN. Eat that starch more slowly. So protein can include shrimp paste (usually sweet June shrimp), anchovy paste, mussels, clams, and oysters. Occasionally, depending on the region they also include crabs. (Eomma’s Kimchi had crabs in it).

*Some* summer kimchi substitutes the sweet rice flour for wheat flour. Monk Kimchi (which still tastes strong due to the hard water) uses barley flour as well. Lactobacilli also has been shown to eat gluten more slowly, which means it also eats protein as well. (This is true in soy sauce somewhat in the early stages, though another bacteria does the main action.)

Spices

The kochukaru... is designed to be spicy and sweet in keeping with the five flavors psychology. It is also specifically bred to stain *everything* so you can see when the vegetable is clearly coated properly.

There is a kimchi said to be made with sichuan peppers instead of kochukaru. (Dae Jang Geum kimchi), but you need more ingredients to balance out the flavors according to the five flavor theory. (Who spent several days combing through Dae Jang Geum kimchi for this? *rasies hand* I did. I back engineered the recipe.)

The garlic has been shown to control bacteria in studies and experiments. It is used worldwide this way.

Ginger also is meant to control bad bacteria.

The other flavorants are usually there to boost favors. soy sauce is very, very rarely used and vinegar is NEVER used in kimchi. Also, for those thinking the gochujang belongs in kimchi--no. Not kimchi. Buty gochugaru.

The design of kimchi, when made right is that it will not go mushy even left for a year. And they’ve found traces of kimchi in 3,000 year old jars.

The important part of the elements that go into kimchi is that there is a balance.

Kimchi will also bubble happily when fermenting. Exploding kimchi isn’t fun.

The intention of kimchi

There are a few key intentions, but is basically summarized like this: Poor people’s food and a healthy source of vitamins for long vegetable storage.

Anything that goes against this spirit isn’t kimchi.

But, but the Diaspora?

I’ve had North Korean kimchi and Brazilian kimchi made by Korean diaspora, and also watched videos--the elements remain the same even if the specific ingredients shift. The diaspora does not mess with the basics of the food science.

Why White people’s (commercial) kimchi often messes up and fails to understand

- Metal lid jars

goes against the “remove bad smell” idea and also goes against “do not cook kimchi through the fermentation process.”

Metal was expensive in Joseon and a limited resource. So no. And secondly “Seal it tight” “so I can’t smell it” is such a white person’s psychology. Make sauerkraut instead.

- The “make it milder”

why not eat white kimchi which has a specific balance that makes up for the lack of spices instead? (3 tbsps of gochugarui--I laugh) We mastered it already--why not eat that?

- Cutting the seafood element and not replacing it with protein

Ignores that the flour element will cook the kimchi and make it ferment unevenly. It’s not just there for long shelf life, you know. It’s there because it really truly does help it to ferment more evenly so you don’t have to stir it so often.

When I cut the seafood element, the kimchi fermented much, much faster, even in an onggi, turned sour much faster and went rotten a lot faster than I intended.

- Add strange ingredients

Crap like “Quinoa” and other “make it healthier” foods that mark up the price of the kimchi. Adding things like cayenne and paprika are out. I can kinda forgive spicier peppers, but those are NOT a substitute for gochugaru. “Miso” is a WTF ingredient. They should have used barley. With properly fermented kimchi, soy sauce, etc, the gluten should be consumed by the lactobacilli. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5494637/#:~:text=This%20study%20demonstrated%20that%2010,hydrolyze%20gluten%20under%20gastrointestinal%20conditions.

Which is what this study says. If they don’t consume the gluten, you’ve done something wrong.

- Cutting it into shreds...

--;; The size of the kimchi is designed to be cut that way for a reason. Whole kimchi preserves longer than cut kimchi.

- The mark up in price

Again, POOR PEOPLE’S food. You can’t improve it. Koreans improved it over thousands of years and without microscopes, etc figured out all of the info I gave (though some of us, admittedly have amnesia about the why.)

The only exception to the “poor people’s food” is King kimchi. But in that case, the person is controlling it under very specific conditions and doing it extremely to tradition and a historical recipe, including making their own fish sauce, etc, in which case the mark up is justified.

How to tell authentic Kimchi from inauthentic Kimchi vs. Kimchi snobbery.

Authentic kimchi should hold its crunch, sourness, and be slightly sweet despite that. If it is a spicy kimchi, the gochugaru should taste sweet, but not punch you in the face.

The process is always aerobic, and for those that don’t like the smell--too bad. If you’re going to complain, maybe rethink if you want to make kimchi?

Inauthentic kimchi is BLAND. It is SOFT. It has no crunch. It doesn’t balance the flavors thoughtfully. It feels chucked in. And it’s marked up to extreme levels.

For the kimchi snobbery

- insisting that it is made in onggi (but that is superior)

- Insisting on particular kinds of garlic

- insisting on Korean ginger

- Being particular about the seafood and other ingredients that go in

- choosing premium salt

- Having a special kimchi-making bowl. (That’s me)

- Willing to fight to the death over how to make kimchi “right” per region.

- Talking about differences in fish sauce.

- refusing sugar, which is not native to Korea.

- There is a woman that grows her own nappa, uses a King’s recipe, and makes her own fish sauce because she thought the fish sauce on the market was wrong for what she wanted to create. That is premium and justifies a mark up in price.