Probiotics and My Experiment Making Kimchi

In recent years, there has been much interest in probiotics. By definition, these are live microorganisms that, when taken in adequate amounts, are good for your health, especially your digestive system. Normally, we think of bacteria as something that causes disease, but our bodies are full of bacteria, both good and bad. Probiotics are often called "good" or "helpful" bacteria. These bacteria are, many times, the product of fermentation. Unfortunately, the amount of probiotics available in the average diet has declined sharply over the last few decades, mostly because of our industrialized food supply. For example, pasteurized milk has replaced raw, pasteurized yogurt has replaced homemade, vinegar-based pickles and sauerkraut have replaced traditional lacto-fermented version, etc.

Several years ago, I became interested in the benefits of fermented foods and purchased the book The Art of Fermentation by Sandor Katz. It is an amazing book that is full of information, history and examples of fermented foods from all over the world.  Thus began my journey into making my own probiotics through fermentation.  I've written several blog articles about various foods I've made via fermentation, for example  Peach Country Wine, Sauerkraut and Yogurt.

Most recently, I tried my hand at making Kimchi.  In my opinion, this is just a jazzed up version of sauerkraut, but I really like the finished product.  The recipes I found all used basically the same ingredients: cabbage, radishes, green onions and red pepper flakes.  Traditionally, Napa cabbage and diakon radishes are used, but I wanted to use what I had on hand.  So, I used regular cabbage and French breakfast radishes, and these worked just fine.  Other vegetables were included in some of the recipes as well.  In the end, I used one main recipe and threw in some carrots, garlic and ginger.  Here's the veggies I ended up using.

The first step was to chop the head of cabbage, put it in a bowl and sprinkle it with a tablespoon of kosher or sea salt (not iodized), after which I used my hands to squeeze and massage it until it began to soften and make its own juice.  Then, I covered it with water, put a small plate on top and  set a glass of water on it to keep the cabbage under the water. It then had to sit at room temperature for a couple of hours.

After soaking, the salty water was drained off and it was rinsed with clear water a couple of times to remove most of the salt.  

I let it drain in a colander while I prepared the rest of the vegetables.

• 2 grated carrots, 
• 4 radishes cut into match sticks, 
• 1 bunch of green onions sliced into 1 inch pieces, 
• 1 teaspoon of grated ginger, and 
• 6 cloves of garlic, diced

Next, a paste was made with the diced garlic, grated ginger, 1 teaspoon of sugar, 2 tablespoons of fish sauce, and 1 tablespoon of pepper flakes.  I smashed all these together with a mortar and pestle.

Finally, the drained cabbage, radishes, grated carrot and paste were mixed together in a large bowl.  

This was tightly packed into a quart jar until a thin layer of juice covered the surface.  Then, I sealed it with a fermentation lid.

The fermenting lid is not necessary if you have a small, non-reactive weight that can be used to weight the vegetables down so they stay under the liquid.  Oxygen is the enemy of fermentation and will cause the vegetables to spoil if they come in contact with air.   Plus, gnats will be attracted to the jar and it should be covered with cheese cloth to keep them out and allow the gasses produced by the fermentation process to escape.  This fermentation lid allows gasses to escape, but does not allow air to enter the jar, thus serving both functions.

The fermentation lid was in a kit I purchased online several weeks ago and I was eager to try it out.  So that is what I used.

The jar sat on my kitchen counter for a week before I venture a taste.  It is delicious!  The tablespoon of red pepper flakes gave it just the right amount of heat for my taste.  The recipe said you could use up to 5 tablespoons.  I'm sure I would not have been able to eat it had I used that many.  I tend to like things a "little" spicy, but not too spicy.

Now that I've gotten some experience with fermentation, I may venture out and try my hand at making wine out of some of our blackberries and peaches next year.