Re: Keeping kimchi submerged

[Guest guest]

Pugh wrote:

>I've always wondered how kimchi was supposed to taste, so I recently bought

>some Korean Kimchi. When I opened it, I was surprised to discover that

>there was no liquid in the jar! Is it only during fermentation that we need

>to keep the solids submerged? Even with one of Heidi's fantastic " dunkers "

>on top, my recent attempt at kimchi will not stay submerged. Do I need to

>worry?

Weird. The kimchi I've bought in shops has come in bags, and was very

liquid.

However, when served in restaurants and take-away, it's always come

sans-liquid. But this is just the serving method, I reckon.

Was your " real thing " pasteurised? Did it contain preservatives?

>Oh and the " real " stuff tasted hot and spicy, but just like mine :-)

Yay!

--

Ross McKay, Toronto, NSW Australia

" Let the laddie play wi the knife - he'll learn "

- The Wee Book of Calvin

[Guest guest]

The Korean recipes are often NOT submerged. That

made me wonder for a long time. But the secret

is, they rub a " paste " over the leaves. If you make

up a paste like they do (they boil rice flour in water,

then add the other stuff like fish sauce, red pepper and salt) then it

coats the cabbage leaves and the mold can't grow

on them. I've done it: it works!

Anyway, you don't have to worry when you buy it, unless

it's moldy. Which you would notice! I have seen kimchi

at the Korean market go moldy, but I'm not sure why that

happened. It's never happened to me.

-- Heidi

Pugh wrote:

> I've always wondered how kimchi was supposed to taste, so I recently bought

> some Korean Kimchi. When I opened it, I was surprised to discover that

> there was no liquid in the jar! Is it only during fermentation that we

> need

> to keep the solids submerged? Even with one of Heidi's fantastic " dunkers "

> on top, my recent attempt at kimchi will not stay submerged. Do I need to

> worry?

>

> Oh and the " real " stuff tasted hot and spicy, but just like mine :-)

>

> and the K9's

[Guest guest]

Heidi wrote:

>The Korean recipes are often NOT submerged. That

>made me wonder for a long time. But the secret

>is, they rub a " paste " over the leaves. If you make

>up a paste like they do (they boil rice flour in water,

>then add the other stuff like fish sauce, red pepper and salt) then it

>coats the cabbage leaves and the mold can't grow

>on them. I've done it: it works!

But note that if they are adding fish sauce, you get lots of salt with

that kimchi. It's probably the salt that is inhibiting the growth of

mould.

--

Ross McKay, Toronto, NSW Australia

" Let the laddie play wi the knife - he'll learn "

- The Wee Book of Calvin

[Guest guest]

Ross McKay wrote:

>

> But note that if they are adding fish sauce, you get lots of salt with

> that kimchi. It's probably the salt that is inhibiting the growth of

> mould.

Well of course it is!

It inhibits the mold in the water too!

But you have to have the salty part

in contact with the air, instead of

the cabbage in contact with the air, which

is where the paste comes in.

-- Heidi

[Guest guest]

I wrote:

>> But note that if they are adding fish sauce, you get lots of salt with

>> that kimchi. It's probably the salt that is inhibiting the growth of

>> mould.

Heidi wrote:

>Well of course it is!

>It inhibits the mold in the water too!

>But you have to have the salty part

>in contact with the air, instead of

>the cabbage in contact with the air, which

>is where the paste comes in.

Yes, but my point was that you need lots of salt with the exposed

kimchi, whereas you can have much lower levels of salt with submerged

kimchi.

Heck, you can have sauerkraut with no salt, and some traditional lactic

vegetable ferments have no salt. For them, exclusion of oxygen is

critical, and thus they need to be submerged.

The more salt you have, the less you need to worry about oxygen. Of

course, you probably then need to worry about cardiovascular problems

and stomach cancer... :/

--

Ross McKay, Toronto, NSW Australia

" Let the laddie play wi the knife - he'll learn "

- The Wee Book of Calvin

[Guest guest]

Ross McKay wrote:

> Yes, but my point was that you need lots of salt with the exposed

> kimchi, whereas you can have much lower levels of salt with submerged

> kimchi.

That might be true, but the pastes I've had (and made) didn't have

all that much salt. Plus they have all that starch, so you'd THINK

they would mold. Might be all the red pepper helps too. Anyway,

they've been doing it for hundreds of years as a technique,

and it works good!

-- Heidi

[Guest guest]

Heidi wrote:

>That might be true, but the pastes I've had (and made) didn't have

>all that much salt. Plus they have all that starch, so you'd THINK

>they would mold. Might be all the red pepper helps too. Anyway,

>they've been doing it for hundreds of years as a technique,

>and it works good!

Well if it works, it can't be wrong! Go with the evidence, I say. Maybe

it's the paste keeping the oxygen out. I'm always happy to learn

something new

cheers,

Ross.

--

Ross McKay, Toronto, NSW Australia

" Let the laddie play wi the knife - he'll learn "

- The Wee Book of Calvin

[Guest guest]

So basically food grade plastic?? I'm thinking that 2 natural wooden half

circles with a finger spot in the middle of the straight side might work.

Connie

Keeping kimchi submerged

Hello, group.

I discovered a good way to keep kimchi submerged (guess it'd work for

kraut, though I've never made it).

I have a couple of those disposable cutting 'boards' that come in a

package of 3, and some are getting warped and ratty. I cut one up to

the inside dimension of the wide-mouthed jar I recently found at

Wal-Mart- it's 6 7/8 " or so- then poked some holes in it. It can be

distorted enough to get it into position, and fits quite sniggly. To

get it out the blade of a knife will lift it. I suppose a string

could be looped through it to facilitate that- I may do that to mine.

If needed, weight could be further added on top.

Hope someone else may find this helpful.

DeAnn

[Guest guest]

Heidi,

What about a design of a circle - big enough for a gallon jar, but cut into

thirds or quarters with the pointed end cut off so that you could put them

in one piece at a time, getting them through the narrower mouth, and it

would keep the tiny bits from coming up around the edges and yet you could

put a knife or fork in the hole in the middle and get each piece to lift up.

Is this making any sense?

I'd pay $10-15 dollars for one of those. The smaller ones that work well in

wide mouth quart jars I think I'd pay $5-10 if they were a bit

heavier/thicker but with the handle. I do like the one with the wavy

circumference.

Connie

Re: Keeping kimchi submerged

DeAnn Hartman wrote:

> I'd certainly prefer wood, but don't have anyone to

> cut it. So make do with the plastic, something I had

> close at hand and could recycle. I know others have

> mentioned plastic bags filled with water.

Speaking of which, I got hold of a place that makes

mass quantities of ceramics and am looking into

getting Dunkers mass-produced. They would be glazed

clay (but safe glaze) and would keep vegies submerged.

So I'm asking .... if such a thing were for sale

on the market, how much would you expect to pay

for it?

-- Heidi