I finally stopped worrying about my kimchi being too salty

For years I kept adding less salt than the recipe said, scared it would be inedible. Then my batch last month turned mushy and weird because the bad stuff grew. I looked it up and a guide from a place in Seoul said you need at least 2% salt by weight for cabbage kimchi to work right. I tried that exact amount on my last batch, and after a week it was perfect, tangy but not crazy salty. The salt just controls the ferment, not the final taste. Has anyone else messed up by cutting salt and had a batch go bad?

3 comments

3 Comments

davis.olivia1mo ago

My grandma in Busan always used to weigh her salt with this little brass scale that looked a hundred years old. She said the water in cabbage changes with the seasons, so sometimes you need a tiny bit more or less than a set rule. I ruined two whole jars of radish kimchi last spring by using a measurement from a winter recipe. It got all slimy because the radishes were so juicy that time of year. I guess the salt amount is a good guide, but you still have to pay attention to what the veg is doing.

the_alice1mo ago

Wait, so does that 2% rule work for other veggie ferments too, like sauerkraut?

ryanc711mo ago

Actually @the_alice, I've found the 2% salt rule can be a bit off for kraut. Cabbage holds a lot of water, so it often makes its own brine. A little less salt usually works fine in my experience.