Kimchi and Other Fermented Food

A jar of kimchi.  Photo by Rob Robitaille

Most people don't really think about it much, or at all for that matter, but what would the world be like without fermented foods?  Most people can think of the obvious ones; beer, wine, and liquor, but there are tons of fermented food that are consumed every day.  Sauerkraut, sour pickles, miso, yogurt, butter milk, bread, sour cream, vinegar, soy sauce, fish sauce, kimchi; the list goes on and on.  And it is all done by an army of beneficial bacteria that exist almost everywhere.  One of the most simple examples of a fermented food in sauerkraut, and I am not kidding when I say simple.  Two ingredients: cabbage and salt.  That's it.  The rest is done by bacteria that exist in our environment.  In the case of sauerkraut and other vegetable ferments, is our little work horse lactobacillus.  In this example, you thinly slice the cabbage, then add the proper amount of salt, mix it up, let is sit for a bit, then pack it into a jar or crock and seal it so that it can out-gas but not pull back any oxygen.  The salt impedes the bad bacteria that could harm us and lets lactobacillus (and other friendly bacteria) thrive in this anaerobic environment.  The result is a tangy, slightly acidic and (arguably) delicious preserved food.  As I have mentioned before, my mom is German and eating sauerkraut was normal for me.  It was not until I went to school that I found out, much to my chagrin, that not everyone shared in my love for sauerkraut nor was it part of their normal diet. I would have to investigate further into what else my mom was serving me for dinner, because apparently we were very odd indeed.  I went on to learn that sloppy joes are normally served in a burger fashion, not open faced with sauerkraut as we were used to eating.  By the way, if you are not averse to sauerkraut, I suggest you try soppy joes that way.  It is remarkable.  I also learned that the potato salad most people ate had pickles, eggs, and mustard in it.  Mom and I definitely needed to talk about this over a glass of chocolate milk.

I digress.  You are probably wondering about the kimchi in the photo.  While most normal people spend Saturday night going out, or watching TV, I made kimchi.  I know, I'm a freak.  The recipe was inspired by Sandor Katz's recipe from his excellent book "Wild Fermentation".  If you are at all interested in this topic, I suggest you pick up a copy. He is, and I mean this in the best possible way, a fermentation nerd.  Kimchi is a Korean dish that is eaten every day and they take it very seriously.  It is delicious and arguably medicinal.  Even though it is spicy, I myself have found it to settle my stomach.  The kimchi pictured above is a cabbage kimchi, or baechu kimchi.  It consists of napa cabbage, radishes, carrots, ginger, garlic, onion, fish sauce, hot peppers, and of course, salt.  It is also worth mentioning that this is but one variation of kimchi.  Kimchi exists in many, many forms and I don't pretend to be an expert on the subject.  Since kimchi is still made in many homes in Korea, I would suspect that there are as many recipes as there are people making it.  All I know is that I love the stuff and can't wait until the jar I made last night is ready to eat.