Fermenting Times

April 28, 2002

Well, I finally made my first batch of kimchi, using a Korean recipe:

I didn't have any squid handy, and I left out the MSG and radish, but

basically that's the recipe. It's an interesting recipe in that she uses

plastic bags to do the fermenting -- it's really easy, no smashing the

cabbage. I cut mine into smaller chunks than she uses, but hers makes a

great presentation. One interesting note -- she uses 4 whole cabbages in

the recipe, and says " you won't have to cook for the whole week! " . I think

they must eat a lot of kimchi! Actually since it has so much ginger and

garlic in it (plus the lactobacillus, enzymes etc), it's probably very good

for the digestion.

I divided the batch in half -- one half I left as is, the other I added

some whey.

What is interesting is that the half WITHOUT the whey fermented to a nicely

sour taste in one and half days -- but the whey half is going much slower.

The only thing I can think is that acidopholus or whatever bacteria in the

yogurt are more adapted to milk than cabbage, and fight with the bacteria

that come with the cabbage. So if you want to make sure the mix gets

started properly, it might be more efficient to save some kimchi (or

whatever) juice from the last batch (I'm just guessing here!).

The kimchi I made has more ginger flavor than what I get at the stores, and

I think I like it better. I'm going to try adding dried shrimp next!

Also, I got a book from Amazon: " Keeping Food Fresh " , which is a collection

of recipes from the gardeners and farmers of Terre Vivante (in France).

They have a section of recipes using lacto-fermentation. (also other

non-boiling/canning methods that are very interesting: like drying fish by

hoisting it up a flagpole or preserving your homegrown yeast). These are

home-recipes printed as is, and it's interesting to see the variety of ways

people do things!

-- Heidi

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