Hurley's Gold

Who Here Makes Kimchee?

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  • Mowingmaniac 24/7

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    If you do, how long do you let it ferment and where?

    I love the taste, but I'm concerned the 'bouquet' of it's fermenting process might be kinda overpowering if left to do so in the house.

    Or, am I wrong?

    I'm thinking (first time to make it is upcoming) I may leave the mason jars in my attached garage.

    My garage is already...fragrant.
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    gll

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    My SIL is Korean; she makes the best kimchee! I used to get it from her often, but don't see them as often anymore. My brother tells me he has to throw some out every once in awhile cause it ferments even past her taste...

    I made it once with cabbage, but have made it with korean radishes or cucumbers a few times also.

    I go by taste, ferment 1-2 days, then refrigerate where it continues to ferment... I don't notice the smell.

    No expert here, but now I'm hungry for kimchee...
     

    Mowingmaniac 24/7

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    oldag,

    Why of course old boy and it's dee-lici-ous!

    Stretch your culinary muscles and do give it a try.

    Now, for something a tad less exotic, stir fried rice.

    Yes, you'll encounter things in it like sesame oil, hoisin sauce and perhaps even some oyster sauce all mixed in for additional flavor.

    I know, I know, it's a foreign dish, but it's quite a delight compared against the rather ordinary/bland American dishes!
     

    Mowingmaniac 24/7

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    Darn, I left out one of my favorite flavorings: Red Boat fish sauce.

    It is 'THE' best fish sauce.

    Add a little of it in almost anything from stews to kimchee to scrambled eggs.

    Dyno-Mite!
     

    Tnhawk

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    If you do, how long do you let it ferment and where?

    I love the taste, but I'm concerned the 'bouquet' of it's fermenting process might be kinda overpowering if left to do so in the house.

    Or, am I wrong?

    I'm thinking (first time to make it is upcoming) I may leave the mason jars in my attached garage.

    My garage is already...fragrant.
    When stationed in Korea, I fired the korean houseboy for making kimchee in the barracks. Told him leave and take it out immediately. He was hired to clean, not stink up the barracks. That was the worse odor, dead or alive, that I had ever encountered.
     

    dgax65

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    It's going to smell. That's a given. I used to ferment either in the kitchen or the garage. You can make a 'summer kimchi' that isn't fermented that long and then store it in the fridge. It keeps fermenting in the fridge, just at a slower pace. The ambient temperature, your tolerance for the aroma of kimchi and taste profile you're looking for will determine the unrefrigerated fermenting time. I've done 2-3 days with no problems and you can probably go up to a week if you or your significant other don't mind the smell.

    One thing I've found is that it helps if the ambient temperature is stable. If your kitchen heats up a lot when you cook it might not be the right place for fermentation. I used my garage for fermenting kimchi, dill pickles and sauerkraut in the winter. It kept a steady, cool temperature and my wife didn't complain.

    Another thing that will determine the smell during fermentation is the type of kimchi you make. I love the kimchi from the southern coastal region that I frequently had when I'd go over to Busan. When I make my kimchi I use fermented shrimp and oyster. That is going to be a bit more fragrant than a vegetarian kimchi.

    Basically, if you're worried about smell, just ferment it for a day or two on the counter and then put it in the fridge. It might take longer to reach it's full flavor potential, but it will get there.

    BTW: I ferment red Fresno pepper mash to make my own sriracha and sambal olek. The first couple of times I did that I just left the mash on the kitchen counter in large mixing bowls covered with cheesecloth. I had to skim the mold every few days. That mash fermented for three months. My wife's a real trooper and she limited her complaints to less than two per day. I got to the point where the smell of fermenting pepper was my favorite part of getting up in the morning. I'd walk out into the dining room and kitchen and every breath you'd take was just gloriously pungent. It would wake you up faster than the smell of bacon or coffee in the morning.
     

    dgax65

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    I wish I knew how to make it. Love that stuff.


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    I would suggest checking out the Maangchi channel on YouTube. She has a number of videos on making different types of kimchi. I've had good luck with making her recipes. I even bought both of her cookbooks.

    Her traditional kimchi recipe is very similar to the style of kimchi from the southern coastal region of RoK that I really like. She uses fermented shrimp paste, but I usually add fermented oyster paste as well. I think you can substitute fish sauce if you don't want the more aggressive, savory flavor.
    Traditional kimchi (Tongbaechu-kimchi):

    Her channel has an entire playlist of various types of kimchi. She has an easy kimchi recipe that is ideal if you've never made kimchi before. Not that making kimchi is hard. The first kimchi I ever made was her tongbaechu recipe and it was just as good as anything I would get in Busan.
     

    Tnhawk

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    It's going to smell. That's a given. I used to ferment either in the kitchen or the garage.... you can probably go up to a week if you or your significant other don't mind the smell....
    I had to skim the mold every few days. That mash fermented for three months.... she limited her complaints to less than two per day. I got to the point where the smell of fermenting pepper was my favorite part of getting up in the morning.
    As the kimchee's rotting odor was much worse than the odor of my barfing, the korean worker was told to clean the room and never bring his rotting matter into the barracks again. The thought of that odor still haunts my memories of Korea.

    I've now lost my appetite for breakfast. :facepalm:
     
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    Mowingmaniac 24/7

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    No doubt, Kimchee is an acquired taste, but then so are many other foods that are foreign to Western palates.

    Ever eaten a Durian melon?

    It's the only food Andrew Zimmern of "Bizarre Foods" just couldn't eat and that guy has eaten food that would gag a maggot...

    Then, a breakfast of bacon and eggs is something that makes many Middle Easterners nauseous.

    Various foods is what makes the world go round.

    Me, I'll pretty much eat anything that doesn't eat me first...
     

    dgax65

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    As the kimchee's rotting odor was much worse than the odor of my barfing, the korean worker was told to clean the room and never bring his rotting matter into the barracks again. The thought of that odor still haunts my memories of Korea.

    I've now lost my appetite for breakfast. :facepalm:
    Yeah, there were some smells in Korea that could put you off your chum. For me, kimchi was never one of them. Those open sewar trenches in the roads got ungodly ripe in the summer. We staged all our equipment at a facility near the harbor. It was downhill from the rest of the city (pop. >8M), so everything ran downhill towards us. Geez those things got stinky. We always called them kimchi ditches. They set up a tent city for an exercise in a large open lot on this facility. The lot was bordered on all sides by kimchi ditches and my unit's tents were all in a corner, so we got the smell from both sides.
    I've also noticed that when you eat a lot of kimchi and garlic that smell just comes out through your pores when you sweat. I never knew that until taking a flight from Seoul to Busan in July. We sat on the ramp for three hours with no A/C and a plane full of folks who eat kimchi several times a day. The smell was surprisingly potent. By the end of my three weeks in country I had eaten so much kimchi I was smelling like a native Korean. The plus side is that the odor evidently wards off mosquitoes to some degree.
     
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