Baechu Kimchi (Napa Cabbage Kimchi)

Baechu kimchi, the ubiquitous kimchi made from Napa cabbage, is the spicy, fermented heart of Korean cuisine. It’s enjoyed in a multitude of ways, whether eaten fresh as an accompaniment to bossam or Korean barbecue, as the perfect topping for ramyun noodles, as an excellent mix-in for fried rice, or as the star, as in kimchi jeon. 

The Communal Practice of Making Baechu Kimchi

But baechu kimchi’s significance is best exemplified by kimjang, the practice of communal kimchi-making that takes place every autumn. Kimchi and kimjang have become so inextricably linked with Korean cuisine and culture that UNESCO included kimjang in its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2013, noting that kimjang is a way for Koreans to “practice the spirit of sharing among neighbors, while promoting solidarity and providing them with a sense of identity and belonging.”

Finding the Right Container

Traditionally, baechu kimchi is made in the late autumn and stored in onggis, Korean earthenware fermentation pots, which are then buried in the ground to slowly ferment through the winter. However, if you’re making kimchi at home, you don’t need an onggi; you don’t even need an earthenware pot. You just need a nonreactive container of some kind. I like to use a gallon-sized glass jar with a tight-fitting lid or a fermentation crock, but you can also use a plastic fermentation container designed for kimchi, or even an onggi. My friend, a ceramicist named Adam Field, makes beautiful handmade Korean onggi in the old-style that are perfect for showcasing kimchi-making in your home.

Once you have an appropriate container, you can get started. Baechu kimchi is made in a variety of ways, but the process for making every variety is the same: you salt Napa cabbage, season it with gochugaru and aromatics, and ferment it. North Korean kimchi historically incorporates less gochugaru and relies more heavily on the tanginess from lactic acid fermentation for its flavor profile, while kimchi made in the South along the coasts is typically spicier and fermented with seafood. 

Selecting and Preparing the Cabbage

No matter how you make baechu kimchi, you have to start by selecting the right Napa cabbage. I look for dense, unblemished heads that weigh between 3 and 4 pounds each. It’s all right if they have dark green outer leaves (don’t discard them; while they’ll be tougher and chewier, the more mature leaves, once fermented, are perfect for kimchi jjigae) and the interior of the cabbage should be pale green and white. The most important thing is to make sure that there is no brown discoloration of or blemishes on the leaves, both of which could lead to problems with the fermentation.

When I’m ready to start, I carefully trim the bottom of the cabbage, leaving the core intact, and I only remove any outer leaves that are blemished. Then, using a sharp knife, I split the core, slicing about six inches up the length of the cabbage, far enough that I’ll be sure I can then evenly rip the cabbage in half by placing my thumbs into the split and pulling in opposite direction to pry the two halves apart. I then repeat the process with each half, thus quartering the Napa cabbage. Doing it this way leaves the core intact—think of the core like the binding that holds a book together—and it doesn’t do as much damage to the cabbage’s cell walls as quartering it with a knife would. 

Once the cabbage is all quartered, you have to season it and remove most of its water content, which will help to concentrate the kimchi seasoning and make the vegetable more pliable; simply salting the cabbage accomplishes both of these goals. Traditionally, Koreans either sprinkle salt directly on the cabbage or place the cabbage into a brine; I’ve tested both methods and have found I prefer using a brine, as it evenly distributes the salt all over the cabbage, even in hard-to-reach crevices.

The Best Types of Salt for Baechu Kimchi

I want to take a moment here to emphasize that selecting the right type of salt for kimchi is incredibly important. Natural sea salt is the salt of choice for most Koreans making kimchi, but I’ve found that kosher salt is a very good substitute. Like natural sea salt, kosher salt has nothing added to it—table salt, on the other hand, often includes additives such as potassium iodide and anti-caking agents, which can impart a metallic flavor to whatever it’s used to season. While I love using natural sea salt for kimchi, it’s significantly more expensive than Diamond Crystal kosher salt, the salt I use for everyday cooking, and kosher salt works just as well for the brine used in this recipe.

Submerging the Cabbage in Brine

Once the brine is made, I “swish” the cabbage around in the brine with my hands so that the salt water enters every nook and cranny. I leave the cabbage quarters in the brine, place a large sheet of parchment on top of the cabbage, and then place a wide pot of water over parchment to act as a weight. It's okay if the cabbage isn’t covered with the brine at this point; the salt in the brine, combined with the weight, will force the cabbage to release enough water that, in about two hours, the quarters will be completely submerged. The cabbage then sits in the brine for 12 hours, and all you have to do is flip the quarters, swishing them around in the brine again when you flip them, at least two times to ensure that they’re evenly salted.

Making the Gochugaru Slurry

While the cabbage is in brine, you can prepare the rest of the kimchi mixture, or gochugaru slurry, a mixture of cooked sticky rice flour, sugar, soaked gochugaru chile flakes, fish sauce, and saeujeot (salted shrimp). This slurry serves two important purposes: the sugar and the sticky rice in it will feed the bacteria responsible for healthy lactic acid fermentation, and the slurry itself is thick enough to adhere to the cabbage leaves, ensuring they’re all evenly seasoned. And while preparing the slurry requires a good amount of chopping, I strongly suggest you pay attention to how you’re chopping the vegetables. For example, it’s best to finely mince ginger and garlic so that they meld seamlessly with the other ingredients in the mixture, but, on the other hand, it’s important to cut the carrot, radish, and Asian pear into batons, because they’ll provide a crunchy texture to the kimchi as the cabbage wilts over time.

Once the cabbage is done brining and the kimchi mixture is prepared, I rinse the cabbage to remove any excess brine and then wring out each quarter by squeezing and rolling it in a clean towel, and then the assembly can begin.

Seasoning, Rolling, and Packing the Cabbage

To keep things neat and clean, I start off by slipping on my large rubber kitchen gloves and placing sheets of parchment on a clean work surface, Dexter-style. Then, placing the cabbage down, core-side up, I spread an even layer of the kimchi mixture on the bottom-most cabbage layer, and move my way up until I reach the core-layer. Once all the cabbage layers have been seasoned, I roll up the baechu-kimchi. Starting at the core, I roll it tightly like a cinnamon roll until the outer leaves are wrapped around the interior in a neat parcel. I then pack the parcels tightly into my fermentation container. 

Fermenting Baechu Kimchi

Once the container is filled, the baechu kimchi should be placed in an area that ranges between 65 and 75℉ (18-24℃), away from direct sunlight—in my small apartment, I place my jars by a slightly cracked window and cover them with a towel to block out sunlight. In a day or two, I “burp” the kimchi by using a clean spoon to press down on the tightly packed parcels and push out any trapped air bubbles, which also ensures that the kimchi is submerged in the liquid in the container. After a three-day fermentation at room temperature, I transfer the kimchi to the refrigerator and let it ferment there for at least another three days at a slower rate. 

One of the best parts about kimchi is that it can be eaten at every step in this process. For example, before it’s fully fermented, kimchi can be served as a salad known as geotjeori. But the other thing about kimchi is that it’s all about personal preference; when you choose to start eating it is up to you. My preferred aging time for baechu kimchi is between two and three weeks, when it has acidic funk and slight effervescence, but the vegetables retain their textural crunch. Any longer than that and the fermentation will begin to break down the vegetables and the flavors—the acidity and spice–will start to mellow. But of course, that isn’t a loss: at that point, it’s ideal for adding to braises, fried rice, and it makes an especially good kimchi jjigae.