Comments on: Korean Easy Kimchi Recipe aka Mak Kimchi

By: JinJoo

JinJoo — Sat, 26 Aug 2023 04:16:48 +0000

In reply to Kurt. Wow Thank you for sharing your adjustments and very happy to hear that it turned out well for you.

By: Kurt

Kurt — Thu, 24 Aug 2023 14:35:25 +0000

I made this recipe but omitted the daikon radish since I was dealing with a 4 pound cabbage and had radish kimchi already in the fridge. I used a Korean anchovie bullion to make the broth and a Korean salted shrimp sauce instead of actual saewoojeot. I was unsure of how best to scale the amount of brining salt for the additional water needed for the 4lb cabbage, but I did add maybe 1/2 cup more for 5-6 additional cups of brining water. The cabbage appeared to brine properly in 3 hours. The flavor of the kimchi is very, very good, but a bit less salty than I prefer, perhaps because I should have increased the amount of fish sauce (only 1 extra tablespoon added) or shrimp sauce (3 tablespoons total). I’m also unsure if the salted shrimp sauce is a reasonable substitute for saewoojeot.

By: JinJoo

JinJoo — Sun, 06 Mar 2022 23:21:24 +0000

In reply to Hanna. I think a couple of things happened here. Cabbage should not have been left whole. Leaving it whole will not pickle them properly because it would have never submerged fully in the brine, not to mention how hard it would be for the brine to get all the way inside the cabbage. So kimchi was probably made without the cabbage being fully pickled which means it still had a lot of water within the leaves. Once you left it to ferment, a lot more moisture from the cabbage came out into the kimchi-making it too watery. And that would have brought down the salinity than what the recipe would have had which then means it would have soured much more quickly than it should have. So, please follow instructions carefully and exactly as even a small change can make a difference in kimchi making. Thank you so much for asking! Good luck!

By: Hanna

Hanna — Sun, 06 Mar 2022 20:36:41 +0000

So I need some help here lol. I made your recipe without the radish since my cabbage head was about 4 pounds in total anyway. The kimchi tasted as it should for fresh kimchi and I thought it was going to be good. But my kimchi turned out really watery and too sour, like water kimchi. Do you know what might have happened? I did use the Crazy Korean Cooking kimchi storage and fermentation container. I have used it once before and I do think it does ferment very aggressively. Another thing is I think the cabbage doesn’t get evenly pickled from the salt since I kept it in 2 whole pieces.

By: JinJoo

JinJoo — Thu, 16 Dec 2021 05:54:08 +0000

In reply to Hanna.

Hi Hanna, just using regular Korean pepper powder for Kimchi will work best. The American pepper flakes are a different kind of pepper and won’t give you the same flavor as the Korean ones. YOu can omit the seeds – they are just an ‘extra’ seasoning but not a must.

By: Hanna

Hanna — Wed, 15 Dec 2021 00:55:32 +0000

In reply to JinJoo. What would produce a better outcome in your opinion? Just using more regular Korean pepper flakes or using the American pepper flakes for pizza?

By: JinJoo

JinJoo — Tue, 14 Dec 2021 01:05:05 +0000

In reply to Hanna. Yes, unfortunately, chili seeds are hard to buy separately in the US. You can buy the whole dried Korean chilis and then remove the seeds OR you can just buy the red pepper flakes (like the ones you add to pizza) and use a bit of that which usually has seeds in them. Hope that helps Good luck!~

By: Hanna

Hanna — Tue, 14 Dec 2021 00:33:53 +0000

Hi where can I get red chili pepper seeds? I went to the Korean market here in the US and I didn’t see any seeds where the red pepper flakes were.

By: JinJoo

JinJoo — Sat, 16 Oct 2021 21:49:51 +0000

In reply to Joanne. That's awesome to hear!! Hope you can also give me 5 stars!! Thank you!

By: Joanne

Joanne — Fri, 15 Oct 2021 16:49:54 +0000

The best kimchi recipe so far ! Like what my mother use to make.