How kimchi is made
Kimchi ferments so energetically that the jar builds up carbon dioxide and has to be burped.
- stations
- 6
- things upstream
- 11
- raw sources
- 8
- steps from the ground
- 3
The short version
Napa cabbage or radish is cut up and salted to draw out water, then drained and coated with a paste of chili powder, garlic, ginger, scallions and salted seafood. Packed into airtight containers, the mixture ferments for a day or two at room temperature, then keeps ripening more slowly in the cold.
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Cut the vegetables
Napa cabbage or Korean radish is sliced or quartered into uniform pieces. More cut surface means salt and seasoning reach everywhere.
Goes in -
Salt it down
Coarse brining salt coats the pieces, pulls out water and stops harmful microbes. Cabbage may be salted twice.
5 to 7% salt for 12 hours
Goes in -
Drain off the water
The excess water is drained away. The vegetables are limp, salty and ready to take up seasoning.
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Rub in the seasoning
A paste of gochugaru chili powder, scallions, garlic, ginger and salted seafood or fish sauce is worked through the vegetables, with sugar to bind remaining water. The chili powder and salt help the good bacteria outcompete the harmful ones.
Goes in -
Pack airtight to ferment
The seasoned vegetables go into airtight jars or containers and ferment at room temperature. Gas builds as bacteria work, so the container needs to be vented.
24 to 48 hours, about 3% salt
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Ripen in the cold
Cold slows the bacteria to a crawl, and the kimchi continues to sour gradually. Leuconostoc dominates early. As acid rises, Lactobacillus and Weissella take over.
Worth repeating
- Napa cabbage only arrived in Korea at the end of the 19th century, so earlier kimchi was mostly made with radish.
- In 2008 South Korean scientists made a sterile, bacteria-free space kimchi for the first Korean astronaut, since cosmic rays might mutate live cultures.
Back to the ground
Follow every input upstream and kimchi starts as these 8 raw sources.
Everything it is made of See it on the map
Open the whole family tree
Keep walking
Sources
Cite this page: "How kimchi is made." Assembly Line, 2026-11-03. https://assemblyline.org/make/kimchi