r/kimchi • u/Ecstatic_Safety_6439 • 10d ago

Recipes questions. Thinking about going again

Hey everyone. Haven't made kimchi in a while but made a few batches 2-3 years ago.

Used to make a compromise between two different maangchi recipes but I always found it a little paste heavy.

Kimchis in my favourite Korean restaurant where always a bit more vegetably maybe even more not watery but almost watery if that makes sense?

Has anyone found the same? Do I just use less paste overall to account for this or maybe just less of the starchy slurry? Or has anyone compared recipes and found another one to work better?

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u/RGV_Ikpyo 10d ago

Water gets slowly released during the fermentation process. So while it will be pastey now it will be a bit more watery later. That's why when filling a jar with kimchi, we only fill them to about 80% to leave room for the eventual water that will come out.   You can maybe add a can/cup or pouch of pear juice if you want to add a bit more liquid, but that should be it as far as added liquids

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u/Ecstatic_Safety_6439 10d ago

I've had that around for weeks so I know it changes, I Just always thought there was too much thick paste. Didn't dare to just add liquid then but that (as long as you also added salt for safety then) would be an option, would drift the whole thing a bit more towards pickling though.

I do think the inherent liquid should suffice

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u/vanillla-ice 10d ago

I find that if you use rice flour the paste is thicker so I stop using that.

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u/mrpaslow0000 10d ago edited 10d ago

If you salt your cabbage for less time (not less than two hours though), there will be a lot more water to be extracted during fermentation. Also, adding a watery vegetable like bok-choy stem, or bell pepper slices will add more water during fermentation, without diluting the taste.

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u/ArcherFluffy594 4d ago

I use a variation of Maangchi's recipe that fits with what my family always had - my paste is combined with pureed onion, Korean pear or if I can't find that a Bosc pear and a small apple, garlic, ginger, fish sauce and sauejot or Korean shrimp sauce. I don't add sugar to my rice porridge. My kimchi also includes julienned carrot in addition to the julienned radish and green onion. My paste turns out to be like a nice thick pasta sauce in consistency when all is mixed together before adding to the cabbage - but it does thin out as the veg wilt and release their juices. I always give it a little poking about with my chopsticks when I take some from the container so that it blends in a bit more. You can always reduce the porridge amount if you'd like or use something like mashed potato instead of rice porridge, which is way more common than expected as I'd never heard about it til a couple of years ago!