brined/salted Korean napa cabbages for Kimjang Kimchi
About this time last year I helped my mother-in-law’s Kimjang at her house and in return, I brought home couple containers of her yummy Kimjang. This year, I decided that it was time I tried it all on my own. I was a bit worried that I may not be able to handle the large amount of ingredients but hey, you have to take risks in life, right?
In late September, after my potato harvest, we planted Korean cabbages (배추 Baechoo), radishes (무우 Moo), Korean leeks (대파 Daepa) and mustard greens(갓 kaat) at our family farm for Kimjang.
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- Korean cabbages planted for Kimjang Kimchi
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- kimjang baechoo (cabbage) single
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- Korean kimjang radish
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- Korean leeks planted for Kimjang
After about 2 months, they were ready for picking. These pictures were taken around 11/20 or so. I came home with 16 cabbages, 9 radishes and a huge bunch of mustard greens. Also about two large bunches of Korean leeks. I bought the rest from the market.
Because I basically used the same Kimjang kimchi recipe from last year I will not list it again here. However, I will write more in depth about prep work- especially brining/salting cabbages. I know I mentioned in my last year’s post how most people just buy already brined cabbages (절임 배추 jeorim baechoo) because people say that’s the most difficult part of Kimjang both in terms of complexity and effort. You can use these tips for pickling cabbages in making regular small batch Kimchi at home.
How to brine (pickle) Korean napa cabbage (배추 baechoo) for Kimchi:
Ingredients
- 5 KOREAN NAPA CABBAGES (about 6 lb/2.7 kg each)
- 14 Cups or 5 lb/2.3 kg coarse SEA SALT (bitterns removed)
- 70 Cups/16.5 litre/17.5 qt cold or lukewarm WATER
- 1 gallon size bowl
- 1 giant container or bathtub to hold cabbages while they are brined
- 1 giant strainer/colander to drain brined cabbages
Directions
- Clean cabbage – Clean and cut away any outer leaves that are too damaged, brown or dirty. Most likely, your local market will sell already cleaned cabbages in which case need to do nothing. **Make sure you leave some good greenish outer leaves so you can use it to wrap the kimchi at the end.
Cleaning cabbage for Kimjang kimchi
Note how large the baechoo is on the left compared to the cleaned and cut ones on the right.
- Cut each cabbage in half. Tip for cutting cabbage for Kimchi: just cut about 1/3 of the bottom half (from the root end) and rip apart by hand. Like so –
How to cut Kimjang cabbage baechoo in half
It won’t be a huge disaster if you cut it all the way with a knife but it’s just easier this way and also you will not end up wasting cabbage pieces.
- In a large container, dissolve about 8 C of salt and 17 1/2 quarts/70 Cups of cold or lukewarm water for the brine. Reserve remaining 6 C salt for sprinkling. Please read my Kimjang tips post on discussion about salt. Solar sea salt is best if you can get them.
- Put cabbages in brine (made in step 3) – make sure the brine seeps fully into the cabbage by spreading out the leaves with your hands and swirling it around.
soaking cabbage in brine for Kimchi
- Leave cabbages in brine for 2~3 hrs until the leaves start to get soft.
- When leaves are soft, For each 1/2 cabbage, REPEAT the following 3 steps:
- Take each cabbage out and let it drain for couple seconds and put in a bowl. DO NOT discard the brine because you will be putting cabbages back later on.
- Get a handful of salt from the remaining 6 C and sprinkle (more like spraying) the salt in between leaves of each 1/2 cabbage, starting from the outer leaves. Aiming the salt mostly on the thick, white fleshy part of the cabbage.
- Put salted cabbages back into the brine.
Salting cabbage for Kimchi
** We do this because the thick white fleshy part takes longer and more salt to pickle. You only need about 1/2 cup or less for each 1/2 cabbage. You may not need to do this if your cabbage has very thin white flesh or if you want to make your kimchi less salty.
7. Let cabbages sit in brine for another 10~12 hrs. Making sure cabbages are evenly pickled by rotating the ones on the top with the ones in the bottom, every 4 hrs or so.
salted cabbage in tub for Kimchi
8. Next morning, the white part of the cabbage should be fully bendable like so-
soft pickled cabbage
9. Rinse cabbages 2~3 times thoroughly. Let cabbages drain for 1 hr or so. Place the cut side down when draining.
Now you are ready to make the seasoning and finish up the Kimchi!
For the list of ingredients and recipe – see my post Kimjang Day: Part 1 – How it’s done.
For more info on ingredients and other tips – see my post Kimjang Day: Part 2 – Ingredients and Tips
Most modern Kimchi recipes tell you to brine cabbages for 6-8 hrs (at room temp) but traditionally, Kimjang cabbages were pickled overnight in cold winter weather. In my opinion brining overnight works better simply in terms of scheduling because you can start brining cabbages at night time and then finish making Kimjang kimchi the next morning. If you brine them for only 6-8 hrs, then you either end up making Kimchi at wee hours of the night or you end up starting the pickling process after midnight.
None of which is fun..
So in my case, I washed and cleaned all the vegetables first during the day and then started pickling the baechoo (cabbage) in our bathtub around 7pm. Which meant I could rinse it around 8 am next morning.
Well, now you have it! With my tips on how to pickle/brine Korean cabbages for Kimchi, you should be able to make a very delicious Kimchi anytime!
About the BRINE:
- Pickling in 15% salt solution is the traditional standard for Kimchi cabbages. Recent trend is to make it less salty and many Koreans now pickle at 10~12 % salt solution. e.g. If you want to make a 10 C brine solution, you can mix 8 1/2 C of water and 1 1/2 C salt. This is not an exact formula for making 15% but that’s what many people use to make things simpler. The 15% salt solution is pretty much similar to sea water. In fact, in some coastal areas, Koreans pickle their cabbages in sea water instead.
Hannah says
April 3, 2019 at 12:11 amHello!
I made kimchi a few days ago but I’m afraid I didn’t bribe it long enough (I did a dry brine). Some leaves were bendy and some were still crunchy/breakable when I put on the paste and fermented. Will it still be edible or should I just throw it away and start a new batch?
JinJoo says
April 3, 2019 at 12:26 amDon’t throw it away – just see how it is. It may still turn out ok or at least some of it should be ok. Good luck!
Jackie says
August 7, 2018 at 3:20 pmHi! It is my first time making kimchi yesterday, and although it is good and tasty, it’s almost a bit salty. It’s like I can’t eat it alone. I’m pretty sure it’s good to use for kimchi fried rice. Bus it there any way that I can make it less salty? It’s only been fermenting since last night. Will fermentation mellow down the saltiness?
Also, instead of using the salted fermented shrimp as is, I’ve somehow cooked it with fish sauce just to kill the raw fish smell (coz the family might not like it), cooled it down before making the paste. Was that okay? or is it necessary that I use the raw one in the future? (note: our Saeujeot here is not bottled and just fermented in batches bought at the local public market.
Is it possible to over-salt the cabbages when brining? Or does it not matter how much salt was used since it’s going to be washed anyway?
It might be that I’ve used too much salt in brining coz our cabbages are smaller ones here… or too much Saeujeot… not really sure…
Thanks in advance!
JinJoo says
August 7, 2018 at 4:50 pmSo it is supposed a bit salty when you taste it before it has fully fermented. But if you’d like to reduce the saltiness, you can do one or more of the following – add a little more sugar or maesil syrup, add fresh radish chunks (to absorb the extra saltiness). And yes, fermentation does definitely mellow down the saltiness too. But adding some radish won’t do you any harm. The raw fish smell will def. go away after it’s fermented so you probably didn’t need to do that. I think it should be OK – honestly I have never made it with cooked fish sauce I am not sure. But you can make Kimchi without fish sauce so I expect that it will be fine. So it is possible to over-salt the cabbages but what’s probably more important is how much of the salt you rinse away. If you let the brined cabbage sit too long in water, it can actually kind of come back to life. If you don’t rinse it thoroughly (usually 3 times is good), the cabbage will taste too salty. Kimchi making (although I try to make a science out of it) is such an art, it is almost impossible to make it come out perfect every time. But unless it taste WAY TOO salty, I would say it should be fine with some extra radish chunks and a bit of sweetener like sugar/pear/persimmon/apple. Good luck!
Jackie says
August 7, 2018 at 8:49 pmThanks so much for the tips! It really is an art and it takes a lot of patience. I’m appreciating kimchi-making more now. Just an update, I was so excited to taste the day old kimchi I made and it did mellow out a bit, so I guess it’ll turn out great after a few more days. I’ve used some for kimchi fried rice for breakfast and it’s divine. I won’t buy store-bought kimchi ever again. I’ll be making more using your recipe and techniques in the future. Again, thank you for replying right away (coz I was so worried I ruined my kimchi).
JinJoo says
August 8, 2018 at 10:47 amGood to hear the happy news! Yes, once you start making your own stuff it’s hard to go back. And the more you make it, the easier it becomes so keep at it and you will become a kimchi master in no time!
46hillbilly says
February 27, 2018 at 9:35 pmI found MORTON brand Solar Salt that is from Salt Water and it is clean; have used a pinch as needed in cooking and it is good salt.
Making a batch of Kimchi with it; will pass on the results.
JinJoo says
February 27, 2018 at 10:47 pmOoh.. yes, please do. I would love to hear how that works out. Is there any harsh taste to it? Does it kind of taste pleasant at the end? Like you want to taste more? Anyway, look forward to hearing from you. Thank you!!
Apple Dela Cruz says
February 17, 2018 at 6:38 pmJin joo hi! I left the cabbage to drain for too long after soaking it in salt water last night.. it smells bad now. Is it still good to use for my kimchi? the leaves turned slightly brown in the side
JinJoo says
February 17, 2018 at 8:39 pmHi! Hmm.. is it warm where you are? Did you rinse it before you left it to drain? If the temperature is cold,I think it should be ok but if it smells bad and the leaves are mushy – maybe sadly it’s not good. You can also taste a little to see if it taste OK. Should be salty but should taste ok. If it tastes rotten or mushy, then I would not use it. Hope it helps. Thanks for asking!
Beverley Joiner says
October 2, 2017 at 10:31 amHi
I have made my first batch of Kimchi. A recipe I used said to top up with brine to cover the veg. However there is a lot of brine. If I push to veg down I have about 3 inches of brine above the veg. Is this ok and do I just leave all the veg in the brine ?
Thank you
JinJoo says
October 2, 2017 at 10:50 amWhat kind of recipe are you using? Is this an authentic Korean Kimchi recipe? Also, is it cabbage, radish..? It kind of depends but mainly it is important that the vegetables stay covered in kimchi seasoning liquid or brine so you should have enough liquid to do that. I don’t think you need all the brine as long as it’s covered. Normally, unless you are making water kimchi, Korean recipes will not produce so much brine that you have 3 inches extra.. so I’m kind of confused…let me know more and I can try to help further. Thanks for asking!
Liz says
September 14, 2017 at 2:38 amHello JinJoo, thank you for sharing your method with us. I made a batch of Kimchi two days ago with other method, BUT now that I found you, I’ll try your method with my October Cabbage harvest. However I have some questions: what does “bitterns removed” from (Sea Salt) mean? Is there anything bitter in my salt? My salt is Korean sea salt meant or Kimchi. My Kimchi has always a bit bitter taste, someone told me ginger makes it taste bitter, so this time I put very little ginger, when I taste it before refrigerating it, I could taste the ginger! (kimchi still in crazy face) and it was bitter! I tasted the thick part of the leaves and it was not that good, but the soft part was tasting amazing, only I had if it had little juice attached to it, because the juice tasted a bit bitter. Maybe because I tasted the part on top and that get bitter because of oxygen exposure? When in the brine, the leaves wilted very fast, 3 hours, and I was afraid they were far too long in salt, is that because the cabbage is a summer harvest maybe? Thank you soooooooo much and I’ll update my Kimchi status.
JinJoo says
September 14, 2017 at 11:53 pmHi Liz, Thank you so much for appreciating my posts and for asking questions! Fresh solar sea salt contain some amount of sea water which has some bitterness in them. Koreans age the sea salt while letting the bitter sea water drain away which then becomes “salt with bitterns removed’. Please read https://kimchimari.com/kimjang-day-part-2-ingredients-and-tips/, SALT section to learn about “bitterns removed”. Bitter salt can definitely make your Kimchi bitter. If your Kimchi is always bitter, perhaps it is the salt that is causing it. If it’s good quality Korean sea salt, it should have been aged 3 years or more with the bitterness removed but sometimes, you get Chinese sea salt resold as Korean which is not good. No, oxygen exposure should not cause any bitterness. Hmm..summer cabbages are not as sweet and crunchy as fall cabbages but not sure if they would be bitter. Best thing to do is to taste your salt by itself, do you taste any bitter aftertaste? Let me know how it turns out. Good luck!
Ben Crawford says
September 3, 2017 at 3:24 amHi JinJoo
Thanks for all of this effort for Kimchi… It is REALLY appraciated
Trying your method of brining halfs instead of chopping prior…
I’m looking for salt to bring ratio using this post as you have been kind enough to give grams and litres as that’s what I use here in Ireland
I divided the above salt to water ratio and got 130mg to 1 litres.. Which is way to much.. (I think)
Can you help me please with this ration
Thank you
JinJoo says
September 3, 2017 at 10:42 amHi Ben,
Thanks so much for asking. So if talking about the total amount of salt added to the brine (eventually) then, yes, you are correct, the recipe I have does come out to 130g (not mg) to 1 litre. I know that seems like a lot but that’s how it has been done traditionally by our mothers for many years. More modern recipes use reduced amount of salt (as much as down to 1/2 the amount of salt) and if you want to do that you are welcome to try. BTW, remember you are sprinkling 6 cups of the salt in between cabbage leaves which does not all dissolve into the water. And even if it does, brining cabbages is all a bit different based on your salt, thickness of the cabbage and how long you leave in there. Less salty brine, you will want to leave the cabbages longer, more salty brine, you will be taking the cabbages out sooner.
Also, this ratio is for Kimjang cabbages which in the old days, you want to make it fully pickled so they will last throughout the winter into spring. Many just make smaller batches and keep in fridge so you are totally welcome to reduce the amount of salt. Just make sure, you sprinkle well in between the thick part of the leaves and also test the doneness using my test with the white part of the leaves. Also, if you feel that the cabbage is too salty for your taste after it is brined, you can always adjust the seasoning and add less salt to that. It all balances out in the end.
Last thing, I want to make sure – you are using Korean solar sea salt (cheonilyeom), correct? If you are using some other coarse sea salt or pickling salt, it can be too salty since Korean solar sea salt is less saltier than most.
Thank you so much for asking in a gentle way. :)) I really appreciate that. Asking instead of judging…I think I will try to write in some additional notes based on your feedback.
Cindy says
April 16, 2016 at 1:27 pmHi! Kimchi in the stage of fermentation, i realised that it is too spicy. Can I add brine napa cabbage to reduce the spicyness.
Jess Pope says
February 17, 2016 at 12:44 pmHi there! I’m wondering if you can leave the cabbage in the brine for too long? Mine’s been soaking in salt water for two days now… Should I start again, or just rinse the cabbage more? Thank you!
JinJoo says
February 17, 2016 at 8:26 pmHi! So sorry for the late reply – I was coming back from a trip yesterday. Oh dear..2 days..or I guess now 3 days?? how does the cabbage look like? If you are not in a warm weather, it may be OK – as long as the cabbage is not mushy anywhere. Actually, it will be less crunchy the longer you brine it. Recently in Korea, they sell pickled (brined) but rinsed cabbage which may end up being in that state for few days so it may be not too bad. But sitting in the salt water that long, you will lose a lot of the flavor and crunchiness. It may not be the most ideal way but yes, just rinse it more and taste it. You may even want to leave it in plain water for a few minutes and you may get reverse osmosis. But then you are risking the cabbage getting mushy later on. If it’s still crunchy and not too salty, you can try making with it still. Sorry, I don’t have a definite answer but hopefully this was not too late!! Let me know if you have more questions.
alyssalambert15 says
December 21, 2014 at 11:30 amHello there,
I made my first kimchi today. I drained the cabbage as much as I can but since I used fish sauce for the paste, there is a bit of extra liquid for my kimchi. Should I drain that liquid? If not, what will happen? Will the liquid oveflow or become too salty? There is about half inch left in the bottle from the lid.
JinJoo says
December 21, 2014 at 1:09 pmExtra liquid is good! It is best if cabbages stay wet under the liquid. Half inch sounds a bit tight. I think it may overflow. Try a bigger container or maybe take some kimchi out to leave more room at top. Good luck!!
alyssalambert15 says
December 23, 2014 at 7:49 amHello Jinjoo! Thanks for getting back to me, it did overflow a little, not too much but the good thing is that I wrapped the bottle with brown paper so that kinda helped me with the cleaning hehe. Now what I did after I cleaned up is I put a bowl below my jar haha in case it overflows. I hope it turns out really well but when I tried to taste it it wasn’t bad there’s a spicy kick but I can tell it wasnt fermented yet that time because I can tell the differences of the ingredients. Now I haven’t tasted it yet because it is still fermenting but I am crossing my fingers that it gets sour 🙂 thanks again and hopefully I am good with kimchi after this! 🙂
alyssalambert15 says
December 23, 2014 at 12:29 pmJinjoo!!! Hello again just wanted to say that I tasted my Kimchi today and it was good!!! It already fermented perhaps because I live in a tropical country! Haha rarrr! Can I keep this kimchi for a couple of months? I am consuming this alone and I made 2 pounds actually hahaha 🙂
JinJoo says
December 24, 2014 at 2:42 amHi!! Great news!! So happy that it tastes good. Yes, you can keep your Kimchi for couple months if you can keep it at low temperature – almost freezing temperature will keep it fresh the best. Normal fridge temperature may be a little too warm for long term storage and will sour the kimchi a bit too much if you keep it for 2 months. Hopefully you can find a way to keep it at lower temperature. Good luck!
buder shapiro says
November 30, 2014 at 10:28 pmHi jinjoo, this is a very informative recipe. Thank you! You mentioned using sea salt and removing bitterns – what’s that and how do you do it?
I have some expensive sea salt from my korean mother-in-law. Should I use that or american sea salt?
Thank you.
JinJoo says
December 3, 2014 at 6:35 amSorry for the late response – bitterns are removed by letting the salt site for 3 years or more and waiting for the bitter water to drain away. If it’s expensive, then it probably has the bittern removed but you will need large amounts to make Kimchi so see if you can buy American or Korean sea salt for the store that is not so expensive and doesn’t leave a bitter after taste.
Thank you so much for the good feedback! Enjoy!
Jo says
June 6, 2014 at 8:43 amHey, thank you for your very insightful post. I have just recently made my second batch of Kimchi and have a quick question:
The cabbage was left in a 15% salt solution over night, then mixed and jarred the next day. After a week out of the fridge, no extra liquid has collected, yet the Kimchi looks fine in the jar and smells ok. What could be the reason for this and do you think it will be ok to eat?
Thanks in advance for your help!
Jo
Adam says
July 21, 2014 at 1:06 pm안녕하세요 진주!
What a great blog, somehow through constant searching on Korean food and cooking it’s taken me this long to find your blog. Well I am glad I have found it now!
Your post about staying up all night making Kimchi made me laugh as my first few attempts this happened to me!
I’m really surprised to see the pre brining before salting the cabbage, all recipes I’ve read and the one my mother in law in Korea taught me all just wash then salt and then brine. This is an interesting technique and I will be trying this along with the rest of your recipe this coming 김장. Also with the overnight brining I take it there is no need to flip the cabbages halfway as usually recommended because the long time in the brine will ensure an even pickling?
Keep up the good work, I will be trying some of your recipes in the coming weeks and will post my thoughts in the comments.
JinJoo says
July 26, 2014 at 1:29 amHi Adam! So glad that you found my blog!!:) I know that pre-brining is an extra step and it’s mainly to make sure the very thick white part of the cabbage gets fully pickled. I have to say it’s not an absolute necessary step – especially if your cabbage is not as thick as the ones you get in Korea for Kimjang. Pre-brining also makes the leaves more flexible which makes the sprinkling of extra salt between the leaves much easier.
If the cabbages are pretty well immersed in the brine, flipping the cabbages will not be necessary but you may want to check if the top ones are as well pickled as the ones at the bottom sometime during the brining process.
Thank you for your comment and look forward to hearing from you again~
sl says
December 30, 2013 at 12:36 pmJinjoo,
Can the brine from the well fermented raddish that I made in dongchimi drinkable as soup..mine is clear sourish with fermented green..red pepers..ginger..garlic taste in its brine..
Its refreshing just to drink it..mine is not too salty..
Thank you for my earlier questions. Good day.
Sherri
sl says
December 30, 2013 at 8:27 amHello Jinjoo,
In my recent batch of red pepper kimchi, I tried putting in less salt during picking and also reduce the amount of fish sauce for fermentation. ( cut down salt level for health reasons)
For fermentation. .I usually leave it in 26 deg room temperature for ~36 hours.
For the recent ‘less salt’ batch, I leave it in same 26 deg room temp but for only 12 hrs.
( I used some of my previous delicious brine to ferment)
Only 12 hrs of fermentation as I noticed it turn sour quickily..I keep it in the fridge but it looks very raw even after 10 days..
This is the first time I don’t draw out any brine during fermentation. And the top layer looks weird. .and I decided to discard only the top layer and below them are good smelling kimchi !!
Three weeks into the well fermented less salty batch in the fridge..this kimchi taste as good as my previous delicious batch (made from korean nahpa cabbage)
I’m so glad it had ripen well in the fridge.
Jinjoo,
–I wonder why there is no brine draws out during fermentation ? …could it be the short fermentation period even I use old brine to speed up fermentation.
— Can dongchimi brine be taken just by itself ? I made dongchimi and let it turn into good healing brine in the fridge. (1st batch…7th October 2013)
it turns out delicious and saving all brine for cold noodles.
JinJoo says
December 30, 2013 at 9:46 amHi Sherri! Was the top layer exposed to air without any liquid? Less salt means you have higher chance of Kimchi going bad but it should have been OK if the top layer was covered with liquid. When you say ‘no brine out during fermentation’, do you mean, no extra liquid was produced when the kimchi was fermenting? It is probably because the less salt drew out less liquid from the cabbage.
Also, when you say “old brine”, do you mean leftover Kimchi liquid or the salt water used to brine the cabbage?
Dongchimi – again, if you mean brine = dongchimi liquid, then sure, using the leftover dongchimi liquid for cold noodles is great!
BTW, when I say “brine”, I mean, the simple salt water used to draw out liquid from vegetables BEFORE any seasoning is added. Usually, brine is thrown away and not eaten. Let me know if my answer is not clear. So glad that you are trying to use less salt in your Kimchi. Koreans are trying to do that too these days. Thanks so much for sharing!
sl says
December 30, 2013 at 11:11 amHi Jinjoo,
Yes..your answer is clear to me.
The low salt produced less liquid from cabbage during fermentation. I do use clean previous batch liquid to have good fermentation. Just becoz previous batch is so tasty.
Yes. The brine I meant earlier is the liquid from the seasoned kimchi mix and not the clear salt water from the cabbage.
So probably. .the top layer was not well covered by liquid as less liquid frm my less salt batch was less watery.
JinJoo says
January 7, 2014 at 9:56 amHmm… reusing leftover kimchi liquid is not something Koreans usually do.. Personally I have not tried it myself so I can’t say but I have a feeling it may pickle the Kimchi prematurely since the leftover liquid has been fully fermented to start with. Hopefully it will turn out yummy for you. 🙂