Kimchi is a uniquely pungent mixture of fermented vegetables and its
variations amounted to roughly 80 kinds of dishes during the Choson
period. For spring, summer and fall consumption, kimchi was cured
in a small quantity, but for the winter months, large quantities were made so
that it could be eaten over three or four months. The kimchi-curing
for the winter season was called, "kimjang" and was usually
done in late November.
In ancient times, kimchi was made of greens picked and salt or a salt
and alcohol mixture. By the end of Unified Shillan ad the beginning of Koryo,
sliced-radish kimchi pickled in brine became popular. Soon
thereafter chili was introduced to Korea around 1500 and it was added to make kimchi
as well. During the late Choson era, powdered chili, together with chotkal
(fish or shellfish paste), bcame the favored ingredients in kimchi.
In the southern regions, the chotkal was amde of anchovies, while in the
northern regions, croaker and shrimp chotkal were more popular. The
climatic differences of each region affected the taste of kimchi as
well. In warm places, chotkal andchili poweder were used in
abundance so that kimchi could be prevented from going bad. On the
other hand, kimchi made in colder areas was less salty and pungent.
Today, many firms are mass-producing kimchi.
Kimchi
Tangy and
hot, it's the accent and counterpoint to a traditional meal of
rice and soup, but nowadays, kimchi is turning up in
pizzas and burgers, making it a most versatile ingredient, not
to mention the test of a good cook. Even bachelors who
can hardly cook to survive know how to transform leftover kimchi
and rice into sizzling fried rice or bubbling kimchi
stew.
The process
of making kimchi is an excellent example of how Korean
women approach cooking. (Most men never enter the
kitchen, and most women learn how to cook only after marrying
and under the tutelage of their mothers-in-law.)
Measurements?
A handful of this, a pinch of that. Food processors?
Bare hands rigorously pound, mash or rub. Fingers are
dipped into the sauce for a taste. Seasonings are
adjusted drop by drop. The best makers of kimchi
are "old hands," literally, because Korean cooking
is very much a manual-intensive labor and the best cooks are
said to have a magic touch.
No recipe
book can substitute for the year of trial and error necessary
to develop tastebuds to detect subtle variations of flavor and
the intuition to season accordingly. in the past, all
the women who married into one family learned to make kimchi
in the same kitchen with their mothers-in-law. The
family's distinctive flavor of kimchi has been handed
down through generations.
These days,
fewer women have the time or space to make kimchi in
the traditional way. With nuclear families now the rule,
urban households living in apartments are unable to join
together for Gimjang, the annual winter kimchi
making during which enough batches are made to last several
households all winter. Kimchi used to be stored
underground in earthenware jars that aided the fermentation
process, but nowadays, special containers and even
refrigerators are being developed to allow modern women to
make smaller batches all year round.
The easiest
and quickest kimchi to make is mul kimchi, or water-kimchi.
Slightly sweet and very refreshing, it's the perfect comlement
to heavy, rich dishes. Unlike most other forms of kimchi,
this one does not require fermented salt shrimp paste (jeotgal),
and is fermented within days.
Becoming
an International Favorite
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Kimchi is a
"great cultural myth from the old dynasty era of
ancient Korea..." There is a superbly
palate-pleasing kimchi to delight every taste. A
global favorite, kimchi is a food that adds zest to
all kinds of meals and its appeal cuts across all
social, economic, ethnic and geographical
boundaries. Kimchi is an exotic, super spicy
side dish. While no one is quite sure whether
kimchi is a pickle or a salad, its wide range of
flavors, types and styles make it a palatable part of
an irresistible side-dish, a great appetizer, and a
naturally cultured healthy raw vegetable. Kimchi
has been served daily with every meal throughout
generations of Korea for thousands of years.
Kimchi sparkles with the flavor of garlic, ginger,
scallions and chilies. Kimchi adds zest to all
goods. Kimchi is an excellent contributor to the
human body. Unlike other similar foods, kimchi
has its own unique nutritional value of promoting
health and preventing disease, there is "none
better" and it is "well worth" to the
human diet.
A study of
kimchi history reveals that people were enjoying
kimchi's unique goodness more than 4,000 years
ago. In about 2030 B.C. the inhabitants of
northern India brought seeds of this vegetable to
Mongolia, and the preservation of greens with other
vegetables soon became common as cultured raw
vegetables. Kimchi is the most versatile
food. In Japan and Korea it is served as a side
dish. An impressive range of all kinds of kimchi
is becoming very popular in America, Hawaii, Asia, the
Middle East, Europe, and way down under in
Australia. Indeed, it is found and enjoyed
almost everywhere nowadays. Kimchi is never
fickle where flavor is concerned. Its
tantalizing taste attracts particular eaters.
In Japan,
Korea, and both northwest and southeast Asia, each
person munches an average of ten to fifteen kilograms
of kimchi a year. In South Korea alone, that is
about four hundred tons per year or more of kimchi
consumed than any other vegetable.
Currently,
kimchi has become a popular health food in the
"New World" ever since the first immigrant
settled in the Hawaiian Islands and North America from
many Asian countries. The kimchi patch provided
great emotional comfort to those under exiled
conditions far away from their homeland. Kimchi
touched and appealed to many ethnic settlers who
started making kimchi and spoke enthusiastically its
zesty flavors.
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Believe
in Beauty
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In
both Eastern and Western history, the most famous
femme fatales, Cleopatra and Yang Gyuibee, were
devoted eaters of cultured raw vegetables, and
believed that cultured raw vegetables had made them
more beautiful. Queen Elizabeth was another
royal cultured raw vegetable fancier. The
Emperor of the Han Dynasty enjoyed this vegetable
everyday, and fighting men from the days of Julius
Caesar's troops through the time of Napoleon on up
until today have found them a delicious addition to
drab soldiers' meals. During both the Korean and
Vietnam wars, the Korean government drafted kimchi
into the Korean armed forces diet and earmarked almost
90% of shelf-stable (canned) kimchi production for the
Army, Navy and Marines. Going even further back, there
is a reference to a sailor's salted and cultured raw
vegetables in the eleventh book of the
"Odyssey."
Kimchi is popular and is
becoming more popular. For thousands of
years in various forms "the famous and the
not-so-famous" have enjoyed its unique ability to
please the palate for cultured raw vegetables.
Whether or not Cleopatra and Yang Gyuibee were right
and this type of vegetable actually made them more
beautiful, millions of cultured raw vegetable eaters
for countless centuries agree that it has limitless
appetite appeal. Everybody's favorite, it adds
sparkle and zest to any food: a sandwich, a salad, a
banquet, a snack.... or is delicious when accompanied
with rice, noodles and eaten with every main dish as a
great functional appetizer or a perfect side dish.
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The
Humor in Kimchi
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Kimchi is a happy
and cheerful food and more than a hundred different
types of kimchi offer something to appeal to every
personality and taste. The Koreans build kimchi
awareness with humor, for example, they say
"smile with kimchiiiii's sound!", instead of
"cheese!" when they are taking photographs.
The fine
autumnal harvest season is the right time for kimchi
making for the long winter months. Every
household is customarily and consistently serious in
their efforts to preserve the best possible product
for the family and other kimchi-fanciers, eaters or
adorers in every neighborhood. At the same time,
they recognize the nearly unlimited opportunities in
keeping people's awareness of the role of the cheerful
kimchi in brightening a meal or a day. Koreans
say that the surest way to get an honest laugh is to
talk about kimchi. Throughout the nation, many
cities, counties, and villages traditionally have
their customary events like new-kimchi-festivals,
kimchi-fairs and or kimchi making contests, mostly in
autumn, when new crops are harvested to celebrate the
abundant blessings from God in their happy and healthy
lives.
It is
believed that a woman's housekeeping skill or quality
is mainly evaluated by "how to make and preserve
kimchi best" in their home throughout all
generations from ancestors until now. Kimchi is
also used as a raw material or an ingredient for a
variety of other delicious dishes. Thus, making,
preserving, and eating kimchi is a naturally healthy,
wealthy food pattern Koreans have cherished and
inherited. 'How to make Kimchi' for the Korean
diet is not merely a proud, but an unavoidable mission
to the people and the nation.
Now, kimchi
makers are planning to organize an international
event, "the World Kimchi Fair" with
cooperation between the North & South Korean
Ministries of Culture to explore their ancestors'
mythic wisdom of unique food culture in the year 2002
in Seoul, Korea.
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Beyond
an Exotic Dish
|
Kimchi is
naturally cultured raw vegetable that originated in
ancient Korea. Kimchi has been served daily in
every household at every meal throughout generations
of the nation for thousands of years. Kimchi
sparkles with the flavors of garlic, ginger, scallions
and chilies. Kimchi adds zest to all foods.
Kimchi is an excellent contributor to the human
body. Unlike other similar foods, kimchi has its
own unique nutritional value of promoting health and
preventing disease; there is "none better"
and it is "well worth" for the human
diet. It adds spice, flavor, and an appetite to
meals and joy to living. Cheerful and bright,
the flavor-packed kimchi is a friendly favorite that
enlivens a meal and lifts the spirits.
The power of
kimchi is the power of peaceful, prosperous people who
smile while working, instead of laughing at
work. Because theirs is an ancient wisdom,
Koreans have had an immense opportunity to note what
is sound and what is likely to be of enduring
value. In addition, since their is the food that
has historically brought mankind a chuckle as well as
refreshment, they are perhaps a little closer to the
well springs of honesty and good cheer. They
know that the ability to smile at oneself is a
compliment to one's accomplishments, the reward of
reasonable men, and the sign the humanity is in a
happy condition.
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Kimchi's
Potential
|
Although
kimchi is similar to sauerkraut and other pickled
products in its method of fermentation, it differs
from them because of the mixed spices and salt
concentration that are used. In Korea, kimchi is
served as a staple food and many "cooking with
kimchi" recipes have appeared during recent
years. Kimchi is served in Japan as a
"health food." Thousands of
professional scientists are working in kimchi research
teams with an industry team functioning along side
them. There
is the Kimchi museum, the Kimchi Foundation, the
Kimchi Research Institute as well as Kimchi science
departments in colleges in Korea. All of these
institutions and programs' approach to research means
that overlapping disciplines develop a comprehensive
method of coping with research problems. As
many as 500 or more agricultural co-operations,
academic institutions, science and technical programs,
and big or small private industrial firms throughout
the nation co-operate in devising ways to improve the
product. Working through state institutions, the
research program co-ordinates activities concerned
with such aspects as horticultural breeding for better
raw materials, quality controls, improving ideal
flavor, ensuring shelf stability, culturing and
preservation studies, packaging required,
postproduction handling, and controls. Changing
food patterns created the need for conveniently packed
kimchi products. This in turn, required new
types of products and completely different packing
techniques.
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Cabbage
Agriculture
|
One ancient
record shows that types of cabbage were introduced
into China in the second century B.C. Another
record shows more than 40 centuries ago the
peripatetic cabbage began a journey that carried the
cured raw vegetables from India to every section of
the globe except for the Arctic and Antarctic. A
study of the history of kimchi reveals that people
have been enjoying some form of cured (fermented by
natural process) vegetables, usually cabbage, for more
than four thousand years. At about 2030 B.C.,
the inhabitants of northern India brought cabbage
seeds to a valley region in the southern part of
China.
The preservation of this vegetable in brine became the
common throughout China, Mongolia, and the Korean
peninsula. However, the particular form of
seasoned, then cured, begetable product that is now
known as kimchi was developed only in the Korean
peninsula. Long
before man began to write a record of history, cured
raw vegetables were excited palates and creating
tastier meals. Kimchi, a well seasoned traveler,
makes friends and sparks appetites wherever it
goes. In the beginning, kimchi was introduced
overseas only by its own people. During the
Korean war however, the UN troops who were stationed
in both North and South Korea became kimchi
eaters. Then the troops eventually became
proponents of kimchi in their own home
countries. Kimchi is no longer a mere side dish
or condiment for the Korean diet alone. It
has now become a favored super spicy pickle in many
countries throughout Asia, Europe, North America and
Latin America, as well as in Australia in recent
years. Kimchi deserves its popularity because of
its unique component of natural flavors: hot, sour,
sweet, salty, and spicy aromas. All of these
flavors are recognized as basic food tastes, and their
inclusion in a single dish is both distinctive and
wholesome. During
the war in Vietnam, the South Korean government
commissioned scientists to create kimchi for soldiers
in a plant near Seoul. In the summer of 1966,
"kimchi-in-tin" products were finally
shipped and served to the Korean troops in
Vietnam. This was the first mass production of
kimchi on a modern industrial scale, and was based on
scientific research on its long history of kimchi in
Korea. The first academic research paper about
the science of kimchi, exploration on the phenomenon
of kimchi fermentation, the food value of kimchi, and
its function to human diet and so forth, was presented
to the 2nd. International Conference of Food Science
and Technology in Warsaw, Poland, in August
1966. It was also acknowledged as the first
original research paper about kimchi in English.
Thus, kimchi has been a part of the global cuisine for
almost four decades. At present, there are more
than 400 industrial kimchi manufacturers in South
Korea alone. Although, the exact volume of
kimchi production is not known in North Korea, it is
probably no less than that of South Korea. Many
Koreans acknowledge that the best palatable kimchi has
traditionally been produced in certain regions of
northern Korea. Pyongyang and Kaesung kimchies
were historically graded as the "Gourmet kimchi"
of the Korean peninsula from old dynasty era.
Although kimchi is is similar to sauerkraut and other
cured vegetables in its method of pickling, it differs
from them because of the spices and many aromatic
vegetables that are used. In Japan, kimchi has
been served as a "health food" for more than
two decades. In Korea, kimchi is served as 'the
staple' for centuries and many 'cooking with kimchi'
recipes have introduced appealing new cuisine in
recent years. Coordinated and comprehensive,
kimchi industry research consistently improves
cultural, pickling, preservation, packing and shipping
methods. The result is a superior, mouth
watering product of the consumer globally. An
untiring effort to develop the method of modernizing
kimchi production from that cottage-industrial scale
to a systematically improved manufacturing process in
Korea. It has finally achieved a delicacy that
is cherished for its pleasantly appetizing super spicy
side dish, an exotic pickle of a global palate.
While skillfully managing to maintain the original
humble purpose of preserving vegetables, kimchi makers
have now accomplished an authentic preference of fancy
global taste.
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Kimchi
Packing
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The modern
kimchi manufacturers use varieties of cabbages and
radishes far superior to those used for kimchi is
years past. Each species has its own
characteristic flavors. Soil, moisture, the
climate (mainly surrounding temperature of the growing
field), and the location all have crucial effects on
developing the right kind of tender, crisp and pungent
flavor-packed cabbages for kimchi. With careful
precision, they are selected and picked at precisely
the time that will provide the tastiest kimchies. Traditionally,
kimchi is prepared and processed in autumn for long
term preservation for the winter months when fresh
greens are not accessible. It is packed into
earthenware pots after the cabbage is marinated with
mixed seasonings, then buried underground in the shady
backyard of the house. Therefore, the kimchi
pots re kept in constantly cool ambient temperatures
during the whole period of a winter while kimchi is
consumed. Kimchi
researchers and packers have improved conventional
kimchi manufacturing practices and ultimately achieved
their long cherished desire for delivering 'a global
kimchi' to the world markets: accordingly, kimchi
makers have developed new varieties of super savory
flavors and created aesthetic packs of high quality
kimchi that have become 'a global preference'. However,
there are currently three basic packs of kimchi
products in modern super markets: 1) Freshly-packed
items of salad type kimchi 2) refrigerated items of
pickled kimchi 3) Pasteurized items of shelf stable
kimchi. These kimchi products are produced on an
industrial scale in modern facilities in response to
increasing consumer demand in both domestic and
foreign markets. After
the wilting period in brine, the cabbages are
carefully washed, drained, sorted, and trimmed then
marinated with the spicy seasonings selected to impart
authentic flavor. This kimchi is firm, crisp,
chili-red in color and refreshingly appetizing.
Authentic, original kimchi is the major
exception. This is wilted and marinated at the
industrial facility by a pickling method using mild
seasonings and packed in specially selected container
for pasteurization. Throughout the entire
process of wilting in brine and marinating for freshly
packed and for pasteurized kimchi, meticulous quality
control procedures assure atop quality product for the
consumer. The kimchi has had a long, long journey
for the past 4,000 years. Today,
modern methods produce a superb selection of perfect
kimchi for people around the world.
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Kimchi
Potpourri
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There are
more a hundred different kinds of kimchies prepared to
appeal to every taste and fit in with every serving
need. Also, there are many different varieties
within the four seasonal groups, as well as the three
major processing groups: pasteurized, refrigerated and
fresh pack. Pasteurized
can be either fermented or pickled. Fermented
kimchi preserved and cured by natural
fermentation. Genuine kimchi made from cabbages
wilted in special sea salt brine, seasoned with
typical kimchi ingredient and mixed spices.
Current kimchi is made the same as genuine kimchi
except for the long term maturation period.
Refrigerated may be made in several ways, including
placing wilted cabbages in a pickling solution of
spice-mixture and keeping them cool, or using partial
fermentation followed by refrigeration to slow the
process. Fresh pack kimchi packed in
spiced-ingredients plus sour vinegar mixture.
This sour-cured type tastes like fresh salad kimchi. The
four seasonally different types vary with its
different materials and spice stuffing of each season
- spring, summer, autumn and winter. The whole
cabbage kichi is packed in conventional spice-mixture
stuffing for a long term preservation throughout whole
winter months. The autumn kimchi is usually
seasoned lighter than that of the winter's. The
summer kimchi is mainly fresh pack or sour-cured
type. The spring kimchi is usually combined with
other spring vegetables and stocked fall winter
vegetables. Often, they are prepared together as
fresh spring pack. In spring, there is also some
well stored winter kimchi to be found together with
newly processed one. It is not only possible to
have kimchi year round as a side dish, condiment or an
appetizer, but also a wide range of "cook-with-kimchi"
recipes is picking up momentum.
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Facts
About Kimchi
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-
Kimchi
is ready to eat right from its container all year
round. Its firm, tender, crisp texture and
its zesy, fully refreshing taste makes an exotic
popularity. For kimchi eaters, there is not
other food that can attain the same appeal as
kimchi.
-
Kimchi
satisfies the appetite and is also a perfect relish
which enhances the taste of other food: it has 42
mg of vitamin C per 10g, which is more than half
of the US government's recommended daily
allowance. It is fascinating to note that
when captain James Cook set sail in the 1770's, he
served his seamen a daily portion of fermented,
cured cabbage to prevent scurvy, which is now
known to be the result of vitamin C deficiency.
-
Kimchi
is high in fiber, a food component usually too low
in the average American diet. Fiber also add
the bulk necessary for proper digestion.
-
Kimchi
is rich in minerals and vitamins and is an
essential source of thiamine (B1),
riboflavin (B2), calcium and iron, all
of which are essential components for human
health.
-
Kimchi
is surprisingly low in calories for a food of such
nutritional value, with only 33 calories per cup
(less than 15 cal/100g). Hence, it provides
a great way to lose weight or just keep it
off. Kimchi is versatile, and its low cost
and east of serving are among the reasons for its
popularity.
-
Kimchi
has finally achieved its long-cherished desire of
meeting global demand in handy safe containers.
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The
Versatile Kimchi
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Kimchi is versatile, and its
natural, healthy, low cost, and ease of serving are among the
reasons for its popularity. Kimchi is ready to eat right
from the container all year round. Firm, crisp texture
and its exotic, refreshing taste make it particularly
savory. For many people, there is no other food that can
attain the same nutritional value as kimchi. It provides
a great way to lose weight or just keep it off.
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Kimchi
has finally achieved its long-cherished desire of
meeting global demand in handy, safe, shelf-stable
containers. Kimchi adds zest to all food.
Enjoy kimchi with meat, fish, soup, stew, hot-pot,
rice and noodles. For all cuisine, Chinese,
Japanese, Korean, and or all Asian and Western cuisine
add kimchi as a super savory side dish. |
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