Baechu Kimchi (Napa Cabbage Kimchi)
By Andrea GearyPublished on August 6, 2024
Time
25 minutes, plus 50 hours salting and fermenting
Yield
Serves 32 (Makes about 8 cups)
Ingredients
Before You Begin
This recipe can be halved. We use Diamond Crystal kosher salt; if using Morton kosher salt, which is denser, use 3 tablespoons to salt the cabbage. Find gochugaru (Korean chile flakes) and salted fermented shrimp at Korean markets and online. Use the coarse variety of gochugaru (sometimes labeled “coarse powder”) and select the brand with the most vibrant color, as that indicates freshness. For spicier kimchi, use the full ⅔ cup of gochugaru. To replace salted fermented shrimp, add 2 teaspoons of kosher salt (1½ teaspoons if using Morton) to the pear mixture in step 3. Sweet white rice flour can be replaced with all-purpose flour. Serve with rice, noodles, or eggs or wherever you’d like some salty, spicy fermented crunch.
Instructions
- Place cabbage in large bowl. Add enough cold water to moisten all cabbage. Drain well in colander. Return one-quarter of cabbage to bowl and sprinkle with 1 tablespoon salt. Repeat layering cabbage and salt. Let sit until cabbage is shrunken and softened, about 2 hours, tossing every 30 minutes to redistribute salt.
- While cabbage is salting, whisk 1 cup water and flour in small bowl until no lumps remain. Microwave, whisking every 30 seconds, until mixture thickens to smooth, pudding-like consistency, 1½ to 2 minutes. Set aside to cool.
- Combine pear, gochugaru, fish sauce, garlic, and shrimp in food processor and process, scraping down sides of bowl as needed, until coarse paste forms, about 30 seconds. Add cooled flour paste and pulse to combine, about 5 pulses.
- Cover cabbage with cold water. Agitate gently. Drain in colander. Repeat washing and drain well. Return to bowl.
- Add pear mixture, carrots, scallions, and ginger and mix well (if mixing with your hands, wear gloves). Pack into large glass, plastic, or stainless-steel container, pressing gently but firmly to eliminate air pockets; leave 2 inches headspace at top. Cover surface of cabbage with plastic wrap and smooth to expel trapped air. Cover (if fermenting in glass, leave cover slightly loose to prevent gas buildup). Place container in shallow bowl and leave in 65- to 70-degree location away from direct sunlight to ferment for 2 to 5 days.
- After 2 days, taste kimchi daily until it has reached your desired level of tanginess, effervescence, and fermented flavor. Serve, refrigerating leftovers. Once refrigerated, kimchi will continue to soften and develop flavor.
Time
25 minutes, plus 50 hours salting and fermentingYield
Serves 32 (Makes about 8 cups)Ingredients
Test Kitchen Techniques
Ingredients
Test Kitchen Techniques
Ingredients
Test Kitchen Techniques
Why This Recipe Works
Kimchi, one of Korea's most iconic foods, is a broad term for hundreds of types of lacto-fermented vegetables that are eaten at most Korean meals. They’re typically served as banchan (accompaniments served alongside rice at most Korean meals) and are also the basis for countless Korean dishes such as kimchi jjigae (kimchi stew), kimchi bokkeumbap (kimchi fried rice), and kimchi jeon (kimchi pancakes). The most common form, baechu kimchi, features spicy, salty, tangy fermented napa cabbage. To make our version, a mak (“easy”) kimchi made from bite-size cabbage leaves, we started by moistening the leaves with cold water and then salting the cabbage for 2 hours, during which time the salt drew excess moisture from the cabbage while also killing off spoilage microbes. A cooked starch paste gave viscosity to our seasoning mixture of chile, garlic, pureed pear, fermented shrimp, fish sauce, and ginger so it would cling to every bit of cabbage, seasoning it evenly, while also providing a readily digestible food source for fermentation microbes. After packing the seasoned cabbage into a container, we let it sit at room temperature for two to five days. During this time, the salt-tolerant lactic acid bacteria consumed sugars and produced lactic acid as a byproduct of digestion. That acid steadily built within the juices, lowering the overall pH and making the kimchi increasingly inhospitable to harmful strains of bacteria and mold while also giving it a craveably tangy flavor. Because kimchi flavor and texture preferences vary, we offer a range of fermentation time, after which the kimchi can be refrigerated for up to three months. (Properly stored kimchi keeps indefinitely; after three months, it will turn deeply, wonderfully sour and complex and is more typically referred to as shin kimchi.)
Want more? Read the whole storyBefore You Begin
This recipe can be halved. We use Diamond Crystal kosher salt; if using Morton kosher salt, which is denser, use 3 tablespoons to salt the cabbage. Find gochugaru (Korean chile flakes) and salted fermented shrimp at Korean markets and online. Use the coarse variety of gochugaru (sometimes labeled “coarse powder”) and select the brand with the most vibrant color, as that indicates freshness. For spicier kimchi, use the full ⅔ cup of gochugaru. To replace salted fermented shrimp, add 2 teaspoons of kosher salt (1½ teaspoons if using Morton) to the pear mixture in step 3. Sweet white rice flour can be replaced with all-purpose flour. Serve with rice, noodles, or eggs or wherever you’d like some salty, spicy fermented crunch.
Instructions
- Place cabbage in large bowl. Add enough cold water to moisten all cabbage. Drain well in colander. Return one-quarter of cabbage to bowl and sprinkle with 1 tablespoon salt. Repeat layering cabbage and salt. Let sit until cabbage is shrunken and softened, about 2 hours, tossing every 30 minutes to redistribute salt.
- While cabbage is salting, whisk 1 cup water and flour in small bowl until no lumps remain. Microwave, whisking every 30 seconds, until mixture thickens to smooth, pudding-like consistency, 1½ to 2 minutes. Set aside to cool.
- Combine pear, gochugaru, fish sauce, garlic, and shrimp in food processor and process, scraping down sides of bowl as needed, until coarse paste forms, about 30 seconds. Add cooled flour paste and pulse to combine, about 5 pulses.
- Cover cabbage with cold water. Agitate gently. Drain in colander. Repeat washing and drain well. Return to bowl.
- Add pear mixture, carrots, scallions, and ginger and mix well (if mixing with your hands, wear gloves). Pack into large glass, plastic, or stainless-steel container, pressing gently but firmly to eliminate air pockets; leave 2 inches headspace at top. Cover surface of cabbage with plastic wrap and smooth to expel trapped air. Cover (if fermenting in glass, leave cover slightly loose to prevent gas buildup). Place container in shallow bowl and leave in 65- to 70-degree location away from direct sunlight to ferment for 2 to 5 days.
- After 2 days, taste kimchi daily until it has reached your desired level of tanginess, effervescence, and fermented flavor. Serve, refrigerating leftovers. Once refrigerated, kimchi will continue to soften and develop flavor.
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