Hello everybody!
Today I’m going to show you how to make classic, spicy, traditional napa cabbage kimchi called tongbaechu-kimchi, a.k.a. baechu-kimchi or pogi-kimchi. But this dish is so common and iconic among Koreans that we simply call it “kimchi.” When people talk about kimchi, this is the dish they’re referring to, despite the fact that there are many kinds of kimchi in Korean cuisine, and many made with napa cabbage, too.
Over the years I’ve posted recipes for a few of them, but I’ve never made an in-depth video for making tongbaechu-kimchi! I’ve made a video for mak-kimchi (easy kimchi), which is very similar but is easier because you to chop up the cabbage first, and I’ve made an ultra simple yangbaechu-kimchi (emergency kimchi). Many years ago I even posted a recipe showing how to make baechu-kimchi with kkakdugi in one batch. But until now, I’ve never posted the most classic and traditional napa cabbage kimchi.
This kimchi uses the whole cabbage leaf, which makes it more labor-intensive than the other ones on my website, because you’ll need to take time to spread the spicy paste leaf by leaf. It’s more work, but this is the traditional style and if you can make this kind of kimchi well, you can consider yourself good at Korean cooking.
As I mention in the video, my mom used to make kimchi from 200 heads of cabbage! This was kimjang kimchi, made with her friends at the beginning of winter, and meant to last until the spring. 3 to 4 of her friends would come over and help her chop vegetables and most importantly, spread the paste on the leaves. This always needs to be done by hand. They would bring their own rubber gloves, and spend the day talking and laughing, and always had pollock stew or beef radish soup for lunch. They had a lot of fun!
At the end of the day they would take some kimchi home with them, but my mom would get all the rest, which lasted my whole family through the winter. And when my mom’s friends needed to make their winter kimchi, my mom brought her gloves over to their houses and helped them, like they did for her.
In the video I also show you how to ferment it in a traditional onggi. Using an onggi is not mandatory, but for those of you who have one already, this is how you use it! If you don’t have one, just use a BPA-free plastic container, or a glass container.
I answer many other frequently asked questions about kinchi-making in this video:
I hope you enjoy the recipe, and if you love kimchi, I encourage you to make your own kimchi at home. It’s delicious, easy, and a fun thing to do!
Ingredients
Makes about 8 pounds (3.6 kg) of Kimchi
For salting cabbage:
- 6 pounds (about 2.7 kg) napa cabbage
- ½ cup Kosher salt (2.5 ounces: 72 grams)
For making porridge:
- 2 cups water
- 2 tablespoons sweet rice flour (glutinous rice flour)
- 2 tablespoons turbinado sugar (brown or white sugar)
Vegetables:
- 2 cups radish matchsticks
- 1 cup carrot matchsticks
- 7 to 8 green onions, chopped
- 1 cup chopped Asian chives (buchu), optional (substitute with 3 green onions, chopped)
- 1 cup water dropwort (minari), optional
Seasonings and spices:
Directions
Prepare and salt the cabbage:
- If the cabbage cores stick out too much, trim them off.
- To split a cabbage in half without shredding the densely packed leaves inside, first cut a short slit in the base of the cabbage, enough to get a grip on either half, and then gently pull the halves apart so the cabbage splits open.
- Cut a slit through the core of each half, 2 inches above the stem. You want the cabbage leaves to be loose but still attached to the core.
- Dunk the halves in a large basin of water to get them wet. Sprinkle the salt between the leaves by lifting up every leaf and getting salt in there. Use more salt closer to the stems, where the leaves are thicker.
- Let the cabbages rest for 2 hours. Turn over every 30 minutes, so they get well salted. From time to time you can ladle some of the salty water from the bottom of the basin over top of the cabbages if you want to.
- After 2 hours, wash the cabbage halves a few times under cold running water. Giving them a good washing, to remove the salt and any dirt. As you wash, split the halves into quarters along the slits you cut into earlier. Cut off the cores, and put them in a strainer over a basin so they can drain well.
While the cabbage is salting for 2 hours, and in between the times you’re turning it over, you can make the porridge:
- Combine the water and the sweet rice flour in a small pot. Mix well with a wooden spoon and let it cook over medium heat for about 10 minutes until it starts to bubble. Add the sugar and cook 1 more minute, stirring. Remove from the heat and let it cool off completely.
- Pour cooled porridge into a large mixing bowl. Add garlic, ginger, onion, fish sauce, fermented salted shrimp, and hot pepper flakes. Mix well with the wooden spoon until the mixture turns into a thin paste.
- Add the radish, carrot, and green onion, plus the Asian chives (or more green onions) and the water dropwort if you’re using them. Mix well.
Make kimchi:
- Spread some kimchi paste on each cabbage leaf. When every leaf in a quarter is covered with paste, wrap it around itself into a small packet, and put into your jar, plastic container, or onggi.
- Eat right away, or let it sit for a few days to ferment.
On fermentation:
- The kimchi will start fermenting a day or two at room temperature, depending on the temperature and humidity of your room. The warmer and more humid it is, the faster the kimchi will ferment. Once it starts to ferment it will smell and taste sour, and pressing on the top of the kimchi with a spoon will release bubbles from beneath.
- Once it starts to fermented, store in the refrigerator to use as needed. This slows down the fermentation process, which will make the kimchi more and more sour as time goes on.
Posted on Sunday, June 22nd, 2014 at 9:44 pm.
Last updated on September 11, 2018.
Tagged: cabbage kimchi, 배추김치, Gimjang kimchi, how to make kimchi, 포기김치, 통배추김치, kimjang kimchi, korean food, Korean kitchen, Maangchi's Korean cooking, napa cabbage kimchi, pogi kimchi, tongbaechu kimchi
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My kimchi Napa. I cut it. It was yummy. Thank you
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Thank you so much for posting this! I spend way too much buying kimchi at my local Asian market and have been too scared to make my own. I make it exactly as the recipe calls for except radish because I forgot to buy it. I have not been able to ONLY taste it every day to see how sour it is, but have been eating a small bowl everyday because I cannot control myself. It tastes amazing and is getting better every minute. I am actually emotional about this taste and wish I could to something amazing for you to show how grateful I am to you right now. Absolutely, homemade is far better than store bought. Thank you so much.
Hi.I came across your blog site and watched video how to make kimchi above.I have a question.If you do not have fermented salted shrimp, can I skip it?If skipping,would the taste so different?
I have been watching Korean drama “Kimchi family” and they show all kinds of kimchi there and wanted to try make some:-)
Great recipe, I have made a few batches of this now and it always turns out great. I add half a pear and a kiwi fruit. I find it adds sweetness and balances out the sour, when it ferments for longer. I also add some dried anchovies for a bit of extra taste.
Hi Maangchi,
I’ve been followed your blog for years and i finally decided to make my own mak kimchi.
Yesterday, i made some of the kimchi but added fresh pear instead of sugar. Will it not fermenting? I’m also worrying the taste since no there’s no sugar added. I checked this morning (fermented 17 hours), and it’s bubbling a bit. Do i need to open it and press down the kimchi?
DO NOT worry. It will still ferment just fine, The pear adds sugar and pectin – good mouth feel. You don’t need to press your ferment down as long as the top of the vegetables are under the brine. I use a glass weight to keep everything submerged. Some folks use a boiled rock (boiled to sanitize it). If you keep the vegetables submerged, it keeps the surface molds and yeast from growing. If you get them, just carefully spoon it off. DO NOT throw out your jar of ferment unless it stinks terribly.
Hi Maangchi,
I made this kimchi for the first time a few days ago at my boyfriend’s place (as I’m a student and my kitchen is tiny!). He got robbed into it (heheh!). It was delicious, I didn’t have a food processor so had to peel and chop all those garlics by hand – I made a mount of garlic skin on his kitchen top! For some reason the day I decided to make kimchi there was no daikon radish in any of our greengrocers or supermarkets, so I ended up just using more carrots. I also used more fish sauce instead of shrimp paste. The process was long but totally worth it though, it was the first time I ever had freshly made kimchi.My boyfriend was sulking that I made so much kimchi that the entire place just smells like kimchi (I love the stuff!), but we both agree it’s way better than any store-bought kimchi and taste just as good as the ones we had in a popular Korean place in London. I made kimchi fried rice yesterday so I think he’s happy now though hehe!
I forgot to cook the porridge mixture. Is that a problem? Can I still eat it? It’s in the fermenting process right now.
Hello. I am making this kimchi as per Maangchi recipe since several years now. I don’t think there is any problem if you didn’t cook a porridge. All other ingredients in this kimchi are uncooked anyway. It’ll just ferment nice way, I’m sure.
Good mornin Maangchi, I am from Barcelona Spain.
Please could you answer this question:
I am especially interested that the fermentation is adequate, because I want to keep it in the fridge for several months for my treatment. Could you please tell me if the traditional kimchi “Napa cabbage kimchi” also ferments with the cabbage that I can buy here in Barcelona, or just correctly fermented with the traditional Korean cabbage.
Thank you
I think it will probably be fermenting well because usually we Koreans ferment with many different kinds of vegetables. I also have a small-batch kimchi recipe made with “regular” cabbage – check it out. Are you talking about that kind of cabbage? It ferments very nicely! Good luck with making good kimchi!
When I was in Barcelona Dong Fang market had Napa. But the best choice would be Alimentación Coreana HANKUK. They should have everything that you need.
Hi Maangchi! I love your kimchi and kkakdugi! But I have good news and bad news. Good: I had a kidney transplant a few months ago. Improved health, yay! Bad: I am no longer allowed to eat ANY unpasteurized food, including fermented food like kimchi. Have you ever pasteurized your kimchi by processing it in a hot water bath (canning)? Also asking your devoted followers! Thank you! =)
Hi Maangchi! I plan to make this recipe, and I have all ingredients except for saeujeot. I went to an H-Mart, and they only had finely-ground chinese salted shrimp. It is like a shrimp paste, but the ingredients are just salt and shrimp. I would like to know if it is OK to use, or should I just skip it.
Hello Maangchi!
I know that it’s been some time since this video on YouTube was posted. Since the first time I’ve watched your video, I was looking forward on doing this. Anyway, I just followed this recipe and I made some kimchi earlier this morning. I’ve checked it this evening and I noticed that the fish sauce was separating from the kimchi. Is that normal?
Hello Maangchi!
I’m super excited to try out your kimchi recipe! However I live in a small canadian town where asian ingredients are very hard to find.
I was able to find this vietnamese shrimp paste, it looks very different from saeujeot, but do you think it could be a fine substitution ?
Thank you !!
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Vietnamese fermented shrimp paste is a very different product from Korean salted fermented shrimp (Saeujeot). Try looking in the refrigerated section of the asian grocery store. If you can’t find it still, then you can skip it. Seaujeot adds a very nice element to kimchi, but you can very well skip it. Just add a little bit more fish sauce.
That’s what I ended up doing!! Thanks for the reply!
Here’s a picture of the delicious kimchi! It was my first time making it and it was delicious!
Thanks maangchi :D
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Your kimchi looks perfect and well-fermented! And your dog is so cute!
Just skip the rice porridge. Except for bachelor kimchi I never use it.
If you scroll down any of Maangchi’s recipe pages, you’ll find a conversion table.
1 (American) cup equals about 240 ml.
Hi sanne,
Thank you for the reply. I will figure out why your reply didn’t go to the question. But I’m sure Mayonayys will read your comment.
Maybe I made a mistake and hit the wrong reply-button –
after all, we had a wonderful but strenuous weekend: Samulnori workshop from Good Friday to Easter Sunday, from 9 am to 6 pm; the teacher (a friend of ours, a professional Samulnori-player from Busan) stayed with us and we provided the (Korean!) food both at our home and the workshop and instruments. Car-trips to and from the studio every day too of course.
He’s back home now; I’ll ask him for the food photos he made.
Mak kimchi, kkakdugi (both vegan), bbqed mackerel, whitefish (for Good Friday), chicken-mu, andong jjim-dak (Saturday), gochujang-marinated pork with kimchi (Easter Sunday), salads, raw vegetables and greens to go with it, zucchini, shiitake and eggplants in soy-sauce, rice,…
And hoe for dinner on Good Friday at our place for our guest and us.
Hi Maangachi, what if I don’t have glutinous rice flour? Can I replace it with corn flour?
Hi Maangchi!
After years of making your recipes, we’re finally going to be able to make good and proper Kimchi!
But I have questions.
We don’t have the privilege of living near an Asian grocery store. In fact, the closest is about 5 hours away!
I cannot find sweet rice flour anywhere. I would order online, but we are planning to make very soon and can’t wait for shipping.
Also, about how much does this make in cups? I’m trying to figure out how large of a container we will need.
Thanks in advance!
You can use plain all purpose wheat flour instead of glutinous rice flour (sweet rice flour) to make kimchi paste. I don’t remember what size of the container I used when I made this video though.
Thank you Maangchi! We made it that time using brown rice flour, it turned out very well :) Better than the store bought ones I have tried, we ate it all up very quickly, so had to make more!
I ordered Mochiko rice flour online and we made a second batch, this time larger than the first batch we made. But something must have gone wrong and it is very sweet. It didn’t seem that sweet when we tasted it when making, but after fermenting, I used it in Kimchi Fried Rice a few times, tasted good then too. Finally I ate some plain the other day and it was so sweet I really couldn’t make myself eat it.
I’m new to fermentation, so I’m not sure if that could have had something to do with the increased sweetness or if maybe I just messed something up in the recipe.