• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to footer navigation
  • Skip to footer-bottom navigation
  • Skip to privacy navigation
  • Skip to recipes navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Kimchimari

Authentic Korean recipes even YOU can cook!

Free Korean BBQ Cookbook! TAP HERE to GET IT
POPULAR: our 10 takeout favorites
Facebook YouTube Instagram Pinterest Twitter

Authentic Korean Recipes Anyone Can Cook

  • New to Korean cooking? Start Here
  • Recipes
    • Recipe Index
    • Recipes by Alphabet
    • Latest on the Blog
  • Ingredients
    • Korean Ingredient Glossary
    • Pantry Essentials
    • Pantry – Beyond Essentials
    • Korean Ingredients in Depth
  • How To
    • Cooking Basics + Tips
    • Buy + Use
    • Meal Plan
    • Make from scratch
    • Korean Veg Garden
  • Travel
  • Videos
    • Video Recipes
    • Web Stories
  • About
    • About Me
    • Press Interviews and Mentions
  • New to Korean cooking? Start Here
  • SHOP
  • Free Korean BBQ Cookbook! TAP HERE to GET IT
  • Facebook YouTube Instagram Pinterest Twitter
Home How-To

Tips on brining cabbage for Kimchi

Posted:12/09/201361 Comments
cbrined cabbages for Kimjang Kimchi
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.

Korean cabbages planted for Kimjang Kimchi
Korean cabbages planted for Kimjang Kimchi
kimjang baechoo (cabbage) single
kimjang baechoo (cabbage) single
Korean kimjang radish
Korean kimjang radish
Korean leeks planted for Kimjang
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)
  • 12 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

  1. 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
    Cleaning cabbage for Kimjang kimchi

    Note how large the baechoo is on the left compared to the cleaned and cut ones on the right.

  2. 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
    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.

  3. In a large container, dissolve about 8 cups of salt and 17 1/2 quarts/70 Cups of cold or lukewarm water for the brine. Reserve remaining 4 cups salt for sprinkling. Please read my Kimjang tips post on discussion about salt. Solar sea salt is best if you can get them.
  4. 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
    soaking cabbage in brine for Kimchi
  5. Leave cabbages in brine for 2~3 hrs until the leaves start to get soft.
  6. When leaves are soft, For each 1/2 cabbage, REPEAT the following 3 steps:
    1. 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.
    2. Get a handful of salt from the remaining 4 cups 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.
    3. Put salted cabbages back into the brine.
    • Salting cabbage for Kimchi
      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
salted cabbage in tub for Kimchi

8. Next morning, the white part of the cabbage should be fully bendable like so-

soft pickled cabbage
soft pickled cabbage

9. Rinse cabbages 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

Some Kimchi recipes tell you to brine cabbages for 6-8 hrs (at room temp) and this can work well for smaller batches (in fact, that’s what I do in my Easy Blender Kimchi) 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. A 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 cup 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 and quicker. In this level of salinity, you will only need to pickle the cabbages in 6-8 hrs.
  • Interestingly, in some coastal areas, Koreans pickle their cabbages in sea water instead of making a brine. Note, sea water’s salinity is around 3.5% to 4% which is much lower salinity than our brine so you will need to leave the cabbages much longer – usually a full 24hrs or longer.

Similar Recipes

  • kimjang kimchi
    Kimjang Day: Part 1- How it's done
  • Korean napa cabbage cut in half for Kimjang
    Kimjang Day: Part 2 - Ingredients and Tips
  • photo collage of different Kimchis for 10 kimchi recipes
    10 Kimchi Recipes with Different Vegetables (Part II)
  • cabbage kimchi (yangbaechoo kimchi 양배추 김치)
    Green Cabbage Kimchi (양배추 김치 Yangbaechu Kimchi)
Previous Post
Next Post

Reader Interactions

Leave a Review Cancel reply

I LOVE hearing from you! Submit your question or recipe review here. Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Rate this recipe:




61 Comments
  1. Beverley Joiner says

    Posted on 2 October 2017 at 10:31 am

    Hi

    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

    Reply
    • JinJoo says

      Posted on 2 October 2017 at 10:50 am

      What 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!

      Reply
  2. Liz says

    Posted on 14 September 2017 at 2:38 am

    Hello 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.

    Reply
    • JinJoo says

      Posted on 14 September 2017 at 11:53 pm

      Hi 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!

      Reply
  3. Ben Crawford says

    Posted on 3 September 2017 at 3:24 am

    Hi 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

    Reply
    • JinJoo says

      Posted on 3 September 2017 at 10:42 am

      Hi 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.

      Reply
  4. Cindy says

    Posted on 16 April 2016 at 1:27 pm

    Hi! Kimchi in the stage of fermentation, i realised that it is too spicy. Can I add brine napa cabbage to reduce the spicyness.

    Reply
  5. Jess Pope says

    Posted on 17 February 2016 at 12:44 pm

    Hi 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!

    Reply
    • JinJoo says

      Posted on 17 February 2016 at 8:26 pm

      Hi! 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.

      Reply
Older Comments
Newer Comments

Primary Sidebar

JinJoo from KimchiMari

Welcome

Hi! I'm JinJoo! Thank you for visiting my Korean Food blog where I share detailed Authentic Korean recipes that even YOU can cook!

My Story

browse by type

gf Gluten Free df Dairy Free pc Pressure Cooker Recipes vg Vegan lc low carb <30 30min or less kf Kid-Friendly ls low-salt
  • by Course
    • Drinks
    • Soup+Stew
    • Appetizers
    • Salads
    • Main Dishes
    • Side Dishes
    • Desserts and Snacks
  • by Ingredient
    • Beef
    • Chicken
    • Pork
    • Seafood
    • Rice
    • Noodles
    • Tofu
    • Vegetables
    • Egg
    • Paste/Sauces
  • by Korean Basics
    • Eumryo 음료
    • Bap 밥
    • Bokkeum 볶음
    • Gui 구이
    • Guk 국
    • Hangwa 한과
    • Jang 장
    • Jeon 전
    • Jeongol 전골
    • Jjigae 찌게
    • Jjim 찜
    • Jorim 조림
    • Kimchi 김치
    • Myeon 면
    • Namul 나물
    • Tteok 떡
  • by Type
    • Easy Meals
    • 30 Minutes or Less
    • Kid-Friendly
    • Lunchboxes
    • Condiments and Sauces
    • Cooking for One
    • Street food
    • Pressure Cooker Recipes
Free Korean BBQ Favorites ebook
free recipe book!

Join to get my FREE cookbook + monthly newsletters + recipe updates!

join now!

Nutritional facts, MSG & gluten free

Nutritional Facts in my recipe cards are provided PER SERVING and it’s an estimate and may not be accurate. Due to different brands of ingredients having different nutritional values, the values I provide here may be different from your preparation.

– Gluten-Free recipe assumes you are using gluten-free soy sauce (since many soy sauces contain gluten or wheat) and/or gluten-free gochujang.

– MSG & Corn Syrup FREE – these are never used in my recipes

Opens in a new window Opens an external site Opens an external site in a new window
baked chicken on parchment paper with onions caramelized

닭고기

Chicken

소고기

Beef

Spicy Pork BBQ - Korean Pork Bulgogi

돼지고기

Pork

Garlic Scape Stir Fry with Shrimp (Maneuljjong Bokkeum 마늘쫑 볶음)

해산물

Seafood

Soondubu Jjigae or Soft Tofu Stew

두부

Tofu

곡식

Rice

READER FAVORITES

Trending Now

Mini Kimbap tray - kimbap two ways

Mini Kimbap (Mayak Kimbap) with Carrot or Cucumber

Chicken Bulgogi Rice

Easy Chicken Bulgogi (Dak Bulgogi) for Korean BBQ

After stew has boiled for 15 min with cheese melted on top

Budae Jjigae (Korean Army Stew)

Korean Sweet Pancake - Hotteok/Hodduck (호떡) www.kimchimari.com

Hotteok (호떡)- Korean Sweet Dessert Pancake

featured on
ny times logo
  • COOK
    • Recipe Index
    • Pantry Items
    • Videos
  • LEARN
    • Starter Guide
    • Korean How To’s
    • Travel
join the kimchimari family
Receive Free Cookbook and New Recipes by Email
join now
  • Back to Top
  • About
  • Contact
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy
© 2025 Site Credits Designed by Melissa Rose Design Developed by Once Coupled

free recipe ebook!

Get my FREE cookbook + newsletters + lessons!
Choose all that you wish!
Thank you for subscribing!
  • 291