Still Smarter

... Top the cabbage with a Gü brand pudding ramekin and clip it shut.

That's a good idea. To compress it yes?

I just lob my kimchi in, firm as I can.

Mash wrote: Thu Jan 27, 2022 3:35 pm

... Top the cabbage with a Gü brand pudding ramekin and clip it shut.

That's a good idea. To compress it yes?

I just lob my kimchi in, as firmly as I can.

The Gü brand ramekin does indeed compress it enough (normally) to force the cabbage down and raise the brine level.

I still use one on kimchi as well, but I don't bother just quarters or sixths with the cabbage (don't need to think about making sure that the pieces are big enough to pick up with chopsticks) I just shred it all as for sauerkraut. I do make the paste as per one of the recipes (maangchi on youtube, but scaled down to 2 or 3 kg per batch), but then I just pack the jar as normal and use the ramekin - sometimes there's enough juice for the level to rise, sometimes not - equally, I also like to add a little Thai shrimp paste as I love the umami this gives but with that and the fish sauce, I usually ferment my kimchi in the fridge, so it stays in for about a month.

I am eating kimchi from a few months ago. Does it need to stay under juice. This batch is quite dry.

Mash wrote: Sun Jan 30, 2022 6:45 am I am eating kimchi from a few months ago. Does it need to stay under juice. This batch is quite dry.

I don't know. If you take an original Korean version, they prepare/make it and it stays undisturbed. Here we tend to make it in much smaller batches, and with the kit available, I suspect it does indeed need to be kept below the liquid level, otherwise it can be prone to molding.

Hence why I said about it "needing" something to keep it pressed down/below liquid level. Sure that's more sauerkraut-like but it works and I'd guess most of the flavour is coming from the paste anyway.

I have thought that. My dry ones seem to be OK. Strange.

Perhaps there is no one way

No mate, there isn't.
Found an opened jar of olives in the cuboard last week.
Thick layer of white crud on the surface.
Rinsed them off and ate them.
Still here

Robert.

Been there

Still here, rinse and eat.
Don't fear the BBE food fairies.

Robert.

It kimchi day, just off to shred the cabbage. Nice. Looking forward to it.