[Weekender] Gimjang, the art of kimchi-making

By Han Sang-hee

As the air gets chillier and coats get thicker, children and fathers will start searching for their gloves and hats, but the mothers mark their calendars and prepare for one of the biggest and most important seasonal ``rituals’’ of the year: ``Gimjang.’’

Gimjang literally means a way of preserving vegetables during the coldest months of winter, but it has now evolved to mean making kimchi, the famous spicy red Korean side dish, that will be consumed throughout the winter until the spring.

Cabbages are preserved in salty water for a day and then removed to dry. When the filling, which mainly consists of shredded white radish and red pepper flakes, is ready, now is the time to smother the leaves with the bright red filling.
/ Korea Times photo by Han Sang-hee, file photos

Yoon Su-ja, 71, has been making kimchi for the past 40 years and although she thinks it may be considered a hassle today, especially when there are various types of kimchi stacked on the shelves of department stores and small supermarkets, she thinks it’s more than just about making her own kimchi for her family.

``I’ve been doing it for so long; I think I would feel strange if I skipped a year. I know the kimchi sold in markets is good too, but there is nothing like your own kimchi: the taste, the ingredients and the effort,’’ she said as she prepared for the ritual one sunny day earlier this month in her backyard.

The yard was like a well-organized battle field: the cabbages were neatly placed on one side; all the ingredients that would later become the red, spicy filling were waiting next to them, while Yoon, her sisters and a friend busily brought out small and large bowls, rubber gloves and other materials.

Ready, set, gimjang!

To start with, the cabbages are cut in half and preserved in salt water for a day. Yoon was working with some 170 cabbages and she had already prepared them the day before.

The preserved cabbages have lost their stiffness and become soft and a bit heavy after soaking up all the salty water, which makes it difficult to continue to the next process. Yoon and her kimchi ``warriors’’ filled three plastic basins with water, and, as if there was an invisible conveyer belt, they picked up the cabbages one by one, rinsed them in water, handed them to the next person waiting to rinse them again in the next basin, and finally placed the now cleansed cabbages on a large tray to drain.

``It’s important to rinse them with clean water because we don’t want them to be too salty and also it gets rid of all the dirt hiding between the leaves,’’ Yoon said.

While the ladies wait for the cabbages to stop dripping, they prepare the ``sok,’’ which literally means the filling.

``Bring the large rubber basin,’’ Yoon told her sister, who walked to her and placed the very big, dark red bowl right next to the cabbages.

It was filled with shredded white radish ― a lot of them. A total of 30 to be exact.

The shredded radish is mixed with two kinds

of red pepper flakes (``to give it a deeper flavor and to combine spicy and less spicy flakes together. The color also looks nicer,’’ Yoon explained), salted shrimp, anchovies, small bits of fresh shrimp, mustard leaves, chives, green onions, ginger, minced garlic and salt.

Then two of the ladies pulled on their bright red and pink rubber gloves and started to mix all the ingredients together. A few minutes later, the mixture was ready, all red, juicy and prepared for filling the cabbage leaves.

Next is the highlight of the process: smothering the filling between the leaves of the cabbages.

``This process is important because the final flavor and spiciness depends on the maker. If you enjoy spicy kimchi with a lot of filling, put in more than the usual amount between the leaves, if you don’t like it too spicy, just add a little,’’ Yoon said, quickly moving her hands clutching a handful of the filling.

Every now and then, the ladies would tear off a leaf of the fresh cabbage and wrap some filling inside and taste it to see whether it was too salty or too sweet.

When each leaf is smothered, the last one is used to wrap the whole cabbage, securing the filling inside.

``This way the filling stays within and the air doesn’t get inside that easily, which can change the flavor,’’ Yoon said.

The big, fat cabbages are then placed one by one into the deep kimchi containers that will later be placed in kimchi refrigerators, made especially for storing the side dish. When the container is full, Yoon covered the top with unused cabbage leaves, explaining that it’s important to cover them tightly to further prevent air from entering inside, just like the way she wrapped the cabbage with its outer leaf.

``You can add some salt water or sugar if it doesn’t taste right later. But for now, it’s all done,’’ Yoon said with a smile.

After transferring kimchi into the containers, Yoon turned back to the basin full of filling and started mixing in some more red pepper flakes.

She’s preparing to make ``kkakdugi,’’ cubed radish kimchi, and ``geotjeoli’’ or fresh cabbaged kimchi that can be eaten right away without having to wait for it to ferment.

``Since it’s a bit inconvenient to make the filling just for kkakdugi, we usually make it all together as a package. Three types of kimchi, all in one day,’’ she said.

Joy of kimchi-making

A family of four can eat 20 ``pogi,’’ or heads, of kimchi for approximately five months. And so it is very important to keep them at a very strict temperature and environment to bring out the best flavor until they are all consumed. Traditionally, Koreans would bury crocks containing kimchi in the ground to preserve it in a stable and warm temperature during the chilly winter season. Now, that job is left to kimchi refrigerators.

According to experts, zero to 5 degrees Celsius is the best temperature to help the kimchi gradually mature, without becoming too sour, too sweet or even freeze. Season-wise, gimjang takes place during the ``ipdong’’ season, which literally means the ``onset of winter’’ and is one of the 24 seasonal divisions. This year, the suitable dates ranged from Nov. 11 through the first week of December.

``It’s sad that young people don’t know how to make kimchi. Buying it is fine too, but it’s not the same,’’ Yoon said after a long day of kimchi-making.

``I guess it was just another form of entertainment back in the days when there were not many televisions and certainly no smartphones. Gimjang brings friends and family together. It’s not a grueling process making kimchi the whole day, but you talk, eat and have fun. Plus you feel comfortable knowing you have all the kimchi you need for the next five to six months.’’