homemade kimchi anyone?

Thank you @dklibert, I'll look for those!

And thanks again, @rileysowner, looks like I will have to see what the doctor says. That is something I didn't know, about sodium sensitivity.

And @Theo166 - sorry, didn't mean to put the cat amongst the pigeons. Just trying to be proactive for my own sake, now I am trying hard to sort my health out. Kimchi is still delicious, and I only eat about 80g a time, and not every day. Hopefully, if sodium is going to be a concern for me, that is not excessive and the fermented food aspect is a plus point

Thanks, @JetJaguar - you tried harder than me to find a reasonable salt figure. I might try reducing the salt I use in my next batch by about 25%, any less and I fear the pickle would not ferment properly and go bad. Also try and resist eating it too often, but it is so delicious.

I wonder what the health profiles of Koreans and other Far Eastern populations are for salt intake, given the soy, pickles, cured fish etc in their traditional diets? They generally seem to be in better shape than most western populations, until they take to our fast food culture. I lived in Indonesian Borneo years ago, was very overweight then too, and felt like a whale amongst the petite and slender local ladies.

I'll leave this query alone now, sorry to have hijacked the thread. Keep on pickling, and if anyone wants any tips or ideas on English condiments, I'd be happy to help and search out authentic recipes.

Theo166 wrote: »

Started my second batch of kimchi two days ago,

I'm on my third batch, just love it! Still not got around to ordering Korean pepper online, so this time I've added some smoked paprika, and because I'd run out of chilli paste, I used fresh mild chillies and added a bit of tomato paste. I'll let you know how that turns out.

Just going now to pack this batch into my Kilner jar (think you folk across the pond call them Mason jars). Luckily, my recent health checks didn't bring any orders to watch my salt intake, but I am doing so as I am now on hypertension medication, a low dose just now. Thanks to being advised to use King's brand of kimchi that you get over there as a guide to the nutrients etc, the salt content doesn't seem excessive.

Next product chez Birdygirl will be caramelised onion chutney. A family member loves the stuff, as do I. That's her Christmas gift sorted if I get it right, along with a selection of our delicious local cheeses.

I recently made my first batch! I used "regular" cabbage and radishes plus ginger, garlic, and apple. I used chili flakes I had on hand. I also over-salted, but after a few weeks the sour flavor mellowed the salt. I ate some every day and my complexion became great! Now I ran out and I'm breaking out again. Crazy! Time to make some more!

Birdygirl15 wrote: »

Me again Is piccalilli known in America? Love the stuff, can be sharp or sweet according to taste. Fabulous with ham, bacon and cold roast beef, or cold meat pies with raised crust pastry (not that us weight losers can eat much of that!).
Like most pickles, you can tweak the recipe if you can't get all the ingredients. My last batch used up whatever vinegars I had, and veg that Aldi had in their special buys that week.

https://www.rivercottage.net/recipes/pams-piccalilli is just one version. Mine is in an old recipe book I've had for years, but any one is adaptable.

Mom talked about picalilli once back in the 1970's. I think she made it only once.

Thank you for starting this thread! I just discovered it and have enjoyed reading about everyone's experiments with natural fermentation and pickling.

I've tried my hand at sauerkraut, pickled garlic, kimchi, pickled radishes (daikon & red), and kombucha with varying degrees of success. I truly liked the kimchi much better than the sauerkraut, plus it was a lot less work. While it was a good workout smashing on all that cabbage for the sauerkraut, it was just OK in the end. However, using napa cabbage for the kimchi was a snap in comparison. There's a lot more "water" in the napa and it fermented up nicely in just a couple days. I'm going to try some this week with pineapple. My resource for most of the recipes is Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon. A wealth of information on traditional ways of eating, the health benefits of fermented foods, and loads of great ideas and recipes.

I'm also brewing up some kombucha right now. I go through kombucha phases and hadn't done it for awhile, so I didn't have a scoby. I decided to try growing my own, but it's a slow process. It took nearly a month before it was big and healthy enough for a full batch but now it's a-brewin!