#preservations

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As my final Blog Assignment for preservation techniques, I have chosen to make Kimchi. Kimchi is a Korean side dish, which has gained popularity around the world in the past few years, due to its unique flavour and health benefits. The health benefits come from the fermentation process which will be described further on.

Since the opening of Kang’s kitchen in Sri Lanka (an authentic Korean restaurant), and having tried their food. I’ve been in love with Korean food. Kimchi was served to us as a side dish that came free of charge. I was excited to have the opportunity to make kimchi myself and experience the preparation of a Korean dish which I’ve been wanting to do for quite some time.

 Fermentation

Fermentation takes place when vegetables are soaked in a brine or submerged in salted water for a period of time. The process begins with lacto-fermentation production, producing lactic acid bacteria, which enhances nutritional content. Bacteria or yeast breakdown sugars found in vegetables into carbon dioxide, acid and other flavour compounds. This process prevents the vegetables from going rancid, also giving it a sour taste. Some benefits of consuming fermented vegetables include:

Reduction of cholesterol and cholesterol assimilation

Antioxidant activity

Anticancer activity

Immunomodulatory activity

Inhibitory activity against pathogenic bacteria responsible for the most frequent foodborne diseases worldwide.

The recipe I have used is by Emily Han on her blog Kitchn. Since some ingredients were not available, they were substituted for ingredients that were available in the local market. The ingredients required were Napa Cabbage which I did not have, so I substituted it for Chinese cabbage. Daikon radish which was substituted for Long radish. Gochugaru (Korean red pepper flakes), substituted for regular red chili flakes. Anchovy paste was used instead of salted shrimp paste.

Ingredients

1 medium head, napa cabbage (about 2 pounds)

1/4 cup iodine-free sea salt or kosher salt

Water, preferably distilled or filtered

1 tablespoon grated garlic (5 to 6 cloves)

1 teaspoon fresh ginger

1 teaspoon granulated sugar

2 tablespoons fish sauce or salted shrimp paste, or 3 tablespoons water

1 to 5 tablespoons Korean red pepper flakes (gochugaru)

8 ounces Korean radish or daikon radish

4 medium scallions

Method

1.       Cut the cabbage lengthwise through the stem into quarters. Cut the cores from each piece. Cut each quarter crosswise into 2-inch-wide strips.

2.       Place the cabbage in a large bowl and sprinkle with the salt. Using your hands, massage the salt into the cabbage until it starts to soften a bit. Add enough water to cover the cabbage. Put a plate on top of the cabbage and weigh it down with something heavy, like a jar or can of beans. Let stand for 1 to 2 hours.

3.       Rinse the cabbage under cold water 3 times. Set aside to drain in a colander for 15 to 20 minutes. Meanwhile, make the spice paste.

4.       Rinse and dry the bowl you used for salting. Add the garlic, ginger, sugar, and fish sauce, shrimp paste, or water and stir into a smooth paste. Stir in the gochugaru, using 1 tablespoon for mild and up to 5 tablespoons for spicy (I like about 3 1/2 tablespoons); set aside until the cabbage is ready.

5.       Gently squeeze any remaining water from the cabbage and add it to the spice paste. Add the radish and scallions.

6.       Using your hands, gently work the paste into the vegetables until they are thoroughly coated. The gloves are optional here but highly recommended to protect your hands from stings, stains, and smells!

7.       Pack the kimchi into a 1-quart jar. Press down on the kimchi until the brine (the liquid that comes out) rises to cover the vegetables, leaving at least 1 inch of space at the top. Seal the jar.

8.       Place a bowl or plate under the jar to help catch any overflow. Let the jar stand at cool room temperature, out of direct sunlight, for 1 to 5 days. You may see bubbles inside the jar and brine may seep out of the lid.

9.       Check the kimchi once a day, opening the jar and pressing down on the vegetables with a clean finger or spoon to keep them submerged under the brine. (This also releases gases produced during fermentation.) Taste a little at this point, too! When the kimchi tastes ripe enough for your liking, transfer the jar to the refrigerator. You may eat it right away, but it's best after another week or two.

After 24 hours of fermentation, the brine started oozing out of the jar and I saw bubbles, so I was confident that the fermentation process had begun. The final picture attached is after four days of fermentation. The vegetables were softer and there was a strong garlicky pungent smell. The flavour profiles were sour, salty, umami, and a little bit of heat. The recipe I followed was great, as the process was simple even though fermentation took a few days. It tasted a lot like the Kimchi I had at my favourite Korean restaurant, but with a stronger flavour of garlic. However, since I personally am not a big fan of raw garlic I will definitely reduce the quantity of garlic the next time I make Kimchi. I am very pleased with the outcome of my fermented dish.

References:

Viridiana, C. R & Humberto, H. S. (2018). Reference module in food science. Science Direct

  https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/food-science/fermented-vegetables

Han, E. (2020). How to make easy kimchi at home. Kitchn.

I saw a data destruction van racing somewhere today. It claimed to offer on-site secure destruction of sensitive data - I had no reason to suspect that their claims were false. But this did prompt me to think about the fine line between data destruction and data preservation.

As companies rush to destroy old hard drives, various records and out-of-date data there is equally the desire to curate and maintain older digital materials in a museological sense. This really did make me wonder - what is destroyed when data is destroyed? If there is a 'newer' record does this new record capture the entirety of what was on the previous record? Does it capture it with the same degree of fidelity, does it perpetuate the same mistakes that may have cropped up in a previous iteration? (as is often the case with births, deaths and marriages records).

This is reminescent of the anthropologist's dilemma - what to record when you are in the field. What should be recorded in some way and at what point is it simply pendantry? What should be recorded in complete detail and what should be simply summarised?

It may actually be a human tendency but the worry is that the likelihood is to descend to the lowest common denominator. Records are simplify, cleansed and edited. At the same time the need to ensure and maintain data privacy has to protected.

Like the UK census I think the 100 year rule provides useful guidance - what would you like your (yet to be born) descendant want to know about you in 100 years? Your browser history? Your credit history? Your electricity supplier? Equally, what would you like to know about your ancestors from 100 years ago - their financial circumstances? Definitely where they lived? The papers they used to subscribe to?