Warning: I was using way too much salt in my kimchi for like a year

I mean, my kimchi always came out way too salty and it never got that nice sour tang, even after a week. I just figured my cabbage was weird or something. Then my friend in Seattle, who makes it all the time, watched me prep a batch and said, 'Whoa, you're basically making a brine for pickles, not kimchi.' I was using a full cup of salt for two heads of cabbage. She showed me her way, which is just a light sprinkle between the leaves, maybe a quarter cup total. The next batch I made with her method was totally different, way better. Has anyone else messed up the salt ratio that bad before?

3 comments

3 Comments

grantf734d ago

Wow, a full cup is wild, that's basically curing it for storage. The light sprinkle method is key because you're not trying to pickle the cabbage in salt water, you're just pulling out enough moisture to get the ferment started with the paste. That's why your old batches never soured right, the salt was locking everything down. Glad your friend caught it, that's a night and day difference in the final product.

mila_harris4d ago

Oh man, that explains so much!

milessmith4d ago

Ask your friend if she rinses the cabbage after that light sprinkle. I've heard some people do and some don't, and it seems to change the final saltiness a lot. @mila_harris, did you have to adjust other parts of your paste, like the fish sauce, when you fixed your salt problem?