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Onggi vs Sauerkraut Crock

Home › Forums › Korean food discussion › Onggi vs Sauerkraut Crock

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    • August 25, 2020 at 5:51 pm #90775
      Jt101
      Participant

      Hi all

      Great to find a forum all about Korean food! Been making kimchi for a while now in large jam jars. Demand is so great amongst friends and family that I need to upscale. I already have a large fermenting crock like in the attached image. It has a water trap / moat around the lip to create an air seal but allow CO2 to escape. Is this fine to use for making kimchi and how does it differ from the traditional onggi?

      I found a few bits online suggesting that the Onggi is porous, allowing gas build up to escape through the walls of the jar, and is designed to be placed outside, possibly buried in cooler conditions for a slower ferment.
      Whereas sauerkraut etc is fermented in glazed pots, that need an airlock to allow build up of gases to escape, which ferments at a faster rate being indoors.

      If that is the case, are they interchangeable? i.e. you can make kimchi indoors, in a glazed vessel, but it will just ferment quicker, and may not develop such good flavour etc?

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    • August 26, 2020 at 4:49 am #90785
      sanne
      Participant

      I own two of those and don’t use them anymore because when the pressure inside is lower than outside the water in the rim gets sucked in and spoils the content.

    • August 31, 2020 at 3:35 am #90869
      Jt101
      Participant

      Interesting. Seems strange given that they’ve probably been used for making sauerkraut for a very long time.

      Anyone else tried using these to make kimchi?

    • August 31, 2020 at 4:41 am #90870
      sanne
      Participant

      If you happen to have access to a very cold e. g. cellar where no-one minds the smell, they work pretty well.

      And Sauerkraut was salted heavily in former times. Rinsed before use.

    • October 7, 2020 at 7:23 am #91315
      Jt101
      Participant

      So I decided to use my 5L sauerkraut jar. Seems to be successfully making the kimchi, as I can hear a bubble escape the water trap every so often.

      Apparently you put a small stone in the trap to prevent pressure differential forcing the water into the kimchi inside.

      The bulk of the kimchi is being held down with weights. I can’t seem to stop small food particles floating the surface. When I fish them out, more rise up.

      Anyway, my concern is now mould. Obviously the jar is too big to go in the fridge. I am assuming that as I consume the kimchi, the growing air space inside the jar will increase the chance of fungal growth once the kimchi has stopped fermenting (presumably when it is busy fermenting, the CO2 released is enough pressure to force out any nasties, but once it slows down, and I open the jar to take some kimchi, I potentially contaminate it.)

      So the question is, should I now transfer it to smaller 1L jam jars and store in the fridge, or will it be Ok so long as i ensure the kimchi is submerged under liquid with the weights, despite the growing air space?

      And how does this relate to how it is done traditionally in Korea?

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    • October 9, 2020 at 2:18 pm #91332
      SuzanneM
      Participant

      I’ve tried sauerkraut crock to store Kimchi a couple times in the past but didn’t workout. Onggis are expensive. Recently I found BPA free plastic fermenting containers called E-jen, which is specifically designed for Kimchi and other foods that require fermenting; There is a suggestion that these containers have red-clay mixed into the plastic to make them somewhat like the traditional onggi. I bought few different sizes and it seems to workout very well. I ferment Kimchi and cucumbers for pickles. You can check out at the Amazon: there is a detail descriptions and photos that might help understanding how the containers works in storing and fermenting.

    • January 15, 2021 at 7:34 pm #92246
      Ghostrider
      Participant

      I’ve been using a 5 litre sauerkraut crock and it works well. After a week or so in the crock I transfer it all to mason jars. So I’m not storing it in the crock, but in mason jars. I let it ferment in the sauerkraut crock.

    • February 17, 2021 at 5:52 pm #92498
      Robby2000
      Participant

      I have been making kimchi for a few years now, and have started my second try at fermenting in a traditional onnghi. My first batch went moldy but this batch has been successful so far (about 8 days). I am curious, however, how long I can actually keep my kimchi in the onnghi. Thoughts?

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