• Skip to main content
  • Skip to header right navigation
  • Skip to site footer
Devour.Asia

Devour.Asia

Better Asian recipes for home cooks

  • Recipes
    • Cuisine
      • Chinese
      • Japanese
      • Korean
      • Thai
      • Vietnamese
      • Taiwanese
      • Filipino
      • Indonesian
      • Malaysian
      • South Asian
      • Fusion
      • Street Food
    • Ingredient
      • Poultry
      • Seafood
      • Meat
      • Rice & Grains
      • Noodles
      • Vegetables
      • Tofu
      • Mushrooms
      • Bread
      • Eggs
      • Fruits
    • Course
      • Breakfast
      • Snacks
      • Salads
      • Soups
      • Main Courses
      • Side Dishes
      • Sweets
      • Drinks
  • Kitchen
  • Stories
  • Cuisine
    • Chinese
    • Japanese
    • Korean
    • Thai
    • Taiwanese
    • Filipino
    • Indonesian
    • Malaysian
    • South Asian
    • Fusion
  • Main Ingredient
    • Poultry
    • Seafood
    • Meat
    • Rice & Grains
    • Noodles
      • Noodle Soups
      • Noodles Stir Fry
      • Instant Noodles (Ramen)
    • Vegetables
    • Mushrooms
    • Tofu
    • Bread
    • Eggs
    • Fruits
  • Course
    • Breakfast
    • Snacks
    • Salads
    • Soups
    • Main Courses
    • Side Dishes
    • Sweets
    • Drinks
  • Street Food
  • Kitchen Tales
  • Food Tales
  • About
  • Privacy
You are here: Home / Kitchen Tales / Homemade Napa Cabbage Kimchi: How Long Should It Ferment?

Homemade Napa Cabbage Kimchi: How Long Should It Ferment?

If you think that store-bought kimchi is either too watery, or too hot or bland, or it just doesn’t meet your personal standards, it isn’t hard to resort to homemade kimchi. You have to be patient though.

Homemade kimchi

My daughter, Alex, makes kimchi. Not really because we can’t get good ready-to-eat kimchi but because we can’t get kimchi these days, period. There is an Asian minimart near our house where kimchi is good and reasonably priced but it is temporarily closed.

We already anticipated that it would stay closed like most business establishments until life goes back to a semblance of what it was before that fateful announcement on January 30, 2020. During the last few days that the Asian minimart could deliver, we ordered a one-kilogram bag of chili flakes for making kimchi.

Is kimchi-making difficult? It depends on what kind of kimchi you’re making. Although non-Koreans are mostly familiar with napa cabbage kimchi, there are so many kinds. In Korea, what vegetable can be made into kimchi depends on the season. The level of difficulty in making them varies. Napa cabbage kimchi is the only kind we have attempted at home. The process isn’t difficult but it is labor intensive.

Salting and seasoning a whole head of napa cabbage

Making kimchi at home

It starts with salting the napa cabbage leaves one by one. This softens the leaves, provides the first layer of flavor and minimizes the growth of putrefactive bacteria (the kind that causes decay). The salting, or brining, takes a few hours — that’s the total time it takes to spread salt on the leaves one by one, and leaving them to soak in the salt for two hours or so.

There are many techniques for seasoning the vegetables. The technique that Alex uses requires a base of water, glutinous rice flour and sugar that are cooked until bubbly then cooled. The spices and seasonings, carrot, radish and scallions are mixed into the cooked glutinous rice flour. This is the mixture that is spread on the salted cabbage leaves after rinsing and draining well. The seasoned cabbage segments are rolled and packed.

Kimchi, chicken salpicao and rice

It is possible to eat the nappa cabbage kimchi right after seasoning. But it won’t have the rich flavors that only come about after fermentation.

Fermenting the kimchi: how long?

Alex has made kimchi twice. The first time, we tested the kimchi every two days. First time, you know? Excited. And that was how we realized that patience is a real virtue in kimchi-making. Flavors, courtesy of fermentation, did not develop fully until TEN DAYS after seasoning the napa cabbage.

If you want to try making napa cabbage kimchi at home, I recommend Maangchi’s recipe which was what Alex followed both times she made kimchi. The results are fantastic. We’re not going back to store-bought kimchi.

Published: May 1, 2020 • Last modified: January 10, 2021 ♥ Kitchen Tales Pantry Staples, Korean
Further Reading
Chinese-style fried rice in white ramekin

How To Cook Chinese-style Fried Rice

Fried and skewered quail eggs. Tamsui Old Street, Taiwan

Quail Eggs in Asian Cuisines

Mandarin oranges

Symbolic Food for the Lunar New Year

Sidebar

Experience Asia

Thai Hot and Sour Soup (Tom Saap) Garnished with Chili

Thai Hot and Sour Soup (Tom Saap)

Thai cucumber salad garnished with peanuts and cilantro

Thai Cucumber Salad with Sweet and Tangy Chili Dressing

Japanese sakura rice bowls

Two Reasons to Go Back to Japan

Sam Veneracion making pottery. Bat Trang Village, Vietnam.

The Authentic Bat Trang Ceramic Village Tour and Pottery Class

Thai meatballs in curry sauce

Thai-style Meatballs in Coconut Curry Sauce

  • About
  • Privacy
  • Archive

Inspiration

“A full belly conquers all.”

From the film Saving Face
Popular Posts
  • A Guide To Ramen Broth: Shio, Shoyu, Miso and Tonkotsu
  • 3 Soy Sauce Braised Pork Belly
  • Steamed Pompano With Ginger Sauce
  • Tofu in Oyster Sauce
  • Slow Cooker Chinese-style Beef Tendon
Not So Fine Print

Devour Asia does NOT work with “brands”.

Devour Asia does NOT accept guest posts.

Devour Asia does NOT outsource recipe development, writing, photography and videography.

Except for the occasional stock photo and blockquote, everything © Devour Asia. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.