Maangchi (or anyone else):
I bought 1 gal. of cabbage kimchi about 3 months ago and now there are only 2-3 cups remaining at the bottom of the jar. Is it still good? It is still juicy and red-orange and doesn't look or smell bad in anyway. There are no signs of mould either. Can I still use it even if it's 3 months old?
Thanks!
Michaël
yes. its ok.
if it's smells and tastes really sour you can soak it in water for a like 10 minutes, strain it, rinse it, squeeze the water out and then make stuff out of it.
it's okay as long as there is no mold. Koreans eat kimchi up to 2-3 years old.......we call it something different but yeah.. the more u ferment, the better it tastes
kimchee can go bad, lol, but it's tough to tell. i mean, it's already a controlled rotting.
but, you'll know if it's finally gone bad if it tastes somewhat tart and fizzy. otherwise, it should be good for a very long time. i agree with koralex that it's easily still good for a few years, depending on the condition in which it's stored, of course.
Store-bought kimchi, if you keep it unopened for a long time will probably burst from the pressure building up inside. If opened and stored in the fridge, it will not last years, but will last weeks.
After opened, the kimchi will continue to change its taste, from not-all-the-way done (not fermented enough), to done, to getting sour, to sour, to gross and finally to gross/fizz.
The level of "done-ness" you like and the level of sourness you like are individual preferences.
In the very-done to sour stages, you can use the kimchi to cook in dishes like stew, pancakes, and to cook with pork belly.
Actually it depends on what kind of kimchi you like.
Taste it and if you don't like it, just throw it away.
BTW, It might not be possible to do it in a ordinary refrigerator
(maybe a special Kimchi refrigerator),
there's something called Mook eun ji (extra old, fermented Kimchi)
which is stored for like "years"( commercially 2~3 years )
and these are regarded as "specialties"
At this stage of fermentation,
Kimchi gets a deeper & extra savory taste with less sourness(amazingly) & less smell, making it superb for Jjigae. (it's uber jjigae)
My father believes Kimchi never goes bad haha. I don't understand why he thinks that....
I found some old Kimchi in my refrigerator once, and I threw it away. My father saw me throwing it away and claimed that the white liquidy mold on top was actually like yogurt, and that its alright to eat it. I threw it away anyways xD
Hello, I made white kimchi, and left it at room temperature for 1 whole day to ferment and then store it in the refrigerator, 1 week later, the liquid turns cloudy, the cabbage leaves are mushy. Is it still edible?
Thanks
smell it and if the smell doesnt make you gag, you can probably eat it. 1 week shouldn't be enough to make kimchi inedible.
what do you mean with mushy? like dissolved-mushy? or still some crunch left?
@Kumaxx
Soft mushy but still retain the shape of the leaves
just try it... as long as it tastes good, eat it... and take a sniff before you try it
lol @ hopish and your father :P
lol hopish. Sounds like my mother. She fusses at me ALL the time when I tell her that I threw out some old kimchi. She always tells me to call her and she'll come pick it up :P
My mother also believes no kimchee can ever go bad. Once we even had a batch go slimy...it was so gross, but she tried rinsing it and eating it anyways. Needless to say, I wouldn't touch the stuff.
With regular "old" kimchee, we usually make kimchee jigae out of it, but mom sometimes makes ssam with the leaves of whole cabbage kimchee. She rinses all the spice off and we use it just as you would ssam. Very delicious.
I have never had kimchi go bad. I usually make about 10 lbs of kimchi at a time and this lasts me about 3 months. Towards the end it gets really sour, but still good. I prefer it after the 1st month for, but my neice likes it really sour like around the 3 month.
Does anyone know how long Perilla Kimchi (kkaenip kimchi) will last? I made a fairly large batch of it yesterday.
Does anyone know how long Perilla Kimchi (kkaenip kimchi) will last? I made a fairly large batch of it yesterday..
Hi there,
I am getting into canning -- you know, mason jars, pressure cooker, etc. -- and want to know about canning kimchi. Here's what I am wondering: If I make up a huge batch and then let it sit and ferment in the fridge for a couple weeks can I go ahead and can it all? I assume it would come out similar to the jarred, unrefrigerated kimchi you see in mainstream places like Safeway. I'm still not entirely sure the fermentation would be effectively stopped by pressure canning, however.
Anybody have any experience with canning kimchi?
Thanks in advance!
-jeff
ps, Favorite kimchi recipe so far is Momofuku's. Love it. I think it's the salt shrimp and oodles of ginger and garlic that make it so good.
I have been canning for years, but have never tried canning kimchi. I am not sure if it would work out because when you are canning you will be cooking the kimchi thus altering the taste and texture. I have never used a pressure cooker though, I only use a water bath canner so maybe it works differently. I have never seen kimchi unrefrigerated maybe because I don't have a Safeway. I would test it out on one jar to see what happens. It would be interesting to hear the results. Sorry I can't be of more help:)
I think by canning you'd be destroying all the good bacteria and fermentation would stop.
I've had experience canning jams/jellies and found the taste/colour is different pre and post canning.
II recently made some kimchi while i was preggy and in my last trimester i had horrible heartburn so i didnt get to eat ANY of the kimchi ..... Until..... 5 months later!!! When my daughter was 3 months =D and let me tell yu it was soooo good.. It was not overly sour or smelled sour or anything! ( think its because of this great recipe!) also i think it was because noone bothered with the kimchi the whole 5 months ( it wasforgotten in the back of the fridge) =P but it lasted a very longgg time
Canning should be avoided.
During the fermentation process, a lot of gas is produced,
making the kimchi jar, or plastic pack prone to explosions. (not joking,
In the 80's when there was no gas absorbers, I heard a lot of store bought kimchi jars messed up peoples kitchens.)
This gas build up thingy made kimchi extremely hard for the big food processing companies to commercialize, until small packets of gas absorbers(usually CO2) were introduced and put into kimchi packs.(You'll see one dangling on top of the pack)
These kind of kimchi packs do give the product a longer shelf life,
controlling CO2 & preventing kimchi explosions,
but at the end (about a month or so),
even the gas absorbers fail to control the gas build up.
So, conclusions...........
If you're going to store kimchi for a long long time,
Try not to seal it up.
If you want to store kimchi for a long time,
Make sure you ease the gas pressure build up by opening the kimchi jar once in a while.
(Just like deliberately messing up fizzy beverages; just open it and close right back)
Kimchi is a fresh pickle. It has been made this way for thousands of years. There is really no reason to can it. It would become kimchi soup, which is not what you are trying to do.
Kimchi keeps for so long as it is that I really don't know why you would want to can it, unless it is a refrigeration or odor issue, which I can understand.
Remember - when you take kimchi out of the jar - compact the remaining kimchi, and make sure it is covered with liquid. This helps keep the kimchi longer. The only times I have had kimchi go bad was when it wasn't submerged - and that was after a couple years, forgotten in the back of the extra fridge. Sometimes I have noticed that old kaktugi gets a strange texture, but then I use it for soup.
I have perilla kimchi in my fridge that I made a huge batch of a year ago, and it is still good.
I bought some kimchi a few months ago and last night I made kimchi jjigae and kimchi bokumbbap with the remainders. It's funny because I found this site only because my boyfriend did a search on how long can kimchi lasts, and left the site on the computer, because he happened to get sick. So grateful for that. :)
Kimchi is fermented. You can keep it for months. My mom has had kimchi is her fridge for a very long time and to me, the older and more sour it gets, the better it is. However, I have seen kimchi grow mold. It's safe to say that as long as the kimchi isn't moldy, the kimchi is good. As long as it's the traditional kimchi or even kkakdugi. I've never gotten sick from eating kimchi. In fact, last night's dinner didn't make me sick and I had, both, the kimchi bokumbbap and jjigae.
I grew up with the teaching that kimchi never goes bad but I personally draw the line at mold. I've eaten kimchi that was in the fridge for at least 3 months and never had a problem. When it gets too sour for my tastes on its own, I make a big pot of soup out of the rest.
I've only had my kimchi for a few weeks, but it's very tart and fizzy. It's been kept in the fridge the entire time, and fairly well submerged. It's hardly been touched, could the problem be that the lid has been on too long? There aren't any growths and it's not slimy or mushy.. just really fizzy. I put some in a bowl and it started squeaking at me. :(
mizufusion,
I have had the same problem. THe first several batches of kimchi I made were perfect with no fizz or tartness. Looking back on it I was a lot less zealous about how I packed it in the jars/pots. Then I started reading about pickled foods and anarobic activity and all that and I became zealous about how I packed the kimchi and keeping everything air tight. The result was tart fizzy kimchi that felt like poprocks on the tongue when I ate it. I thought I ruined my beloved kimchi so I threw a whole batch away....better to be on the safe side right? So I made another batch and swore the same would not happen again...I sterilized all of my basins with boling water and gave my utensils a boiling water bath and I sterilized my containers with the afore mentioned boiling water. I made my kimchi and again zealously packed my kimchi and squeezed it down tight and pressed it and made sure liquid was above the actual kimchi and I screwed down the lid tight. So what happens...the same thing.....a fridge full of kimchi juice, kimchi ready to bubble over, sounded like rice krispies and worst of all a tart fizzy product once again. It was just as you describe. It was still firm, smelled like wonderful proper kimchi, no slime no mold. Then I realized I wasn't helping myself with my anarobic zealotry....I was shooting myself in the foot. Kimchi is alive it is fermenting and it is going to give off gases. My practices were basically pressure carbonating my kimchi like bottle conditioned beer or champagne. I didn't have spoiled kimchi...I had carbonated kimchi....and the carbonation is of course not spoilage....but rather evidence of a batch doing what it should....just not under ideal conditions. I think it is an easy fix. Here is what I did. I took out my kimchi...and repacked it....without the packing...rather loosely and haphazard like. I then just set the lid on the kimchi instead of screwing it down. If all goes to plan the kimchi should hopefully soon be as effervescent as 3 day old rootbeer....which is to say....not at all. Good luck and happy eating
To mizufashion and farmer82,
Actually, in my opinion, you guys have made the best kimchi possible... tart, fizzy, and refreshing. If I were you, I would use the same method especially to make water kimchis.... you can use that fizzy broth as a base for some absolutely spectacular naengmyun!
Puting a fermenting anything in a sealed container is going to end in 1 of 2 ways:
1) Pressure builds up to the point where it begins to equalize in the liquid (colder temperatures decrease the pressure needed) and carbonate the liquid
2) An explosion.
I have had both happen. Had a batch of beer ferment so fast that the Co2 couldn't escape out the air lock and blew the lid off the 5 gallon bucket, to the ceiling and 5 foot away. Also accidentally made a sparkling green tea wine by bottling before the ferment was done.
If you really want to be safe on your fermenting items you can always install a cheap airlock in the lid, it'll let the pressure out without letting air in.
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