How to Make Kimchi: A Fermentful Ritual

This isn’t just a recipe. It’s a sensual surrender to salt, spice, and the divine funk of microbial alchemy. It’s a moment of stillness and chaos—your hands massaging life into cabbage, your kitchen pulsing with ancestral memory.

If you read The Gut-Spicy Gospel of Kimchi, you already know that kimchi is more than a side dish. It’s a probiotic powerhouse. A fiery healer. A love letter to your gut flora.

Now it’s your turn to make it.

🌶️ Ingredients (Makes ~2 liters)

Vegetables:

  • 1 large Napa cabbage (about 1.5 – 2 kg)
  • 1 daikon radish (or a few small red radishes), julienned
  • 4–6 scallions, chopped into 2-inch pieces
  • 1 medium carrot, julienned (optional)

Brine:

  • 1/4 cup sea salt (non-iodized)
  • 1.5 liters filtered or boiled then cooled water

Kimchi Paste:

  • 1/2 cup Korean red pepper flakes (gochugaru) – adjust to your spice level
  • 6 cloves garlic
  • 1 thumb-sized piece of ginger, peeled
  • 2 tablespoons fish sauce (or tamari for vegan)
  • 1 tablespoon sugar or a grated apple/pear
  • 2–3 tablespoons water to blend

🛠️ Equipment

  • Large mixing bowl or pot
  • Colander
  • Blender or mortar and pestle
  • Fermentation jar (2L glass jar or several smaller jars)
  • Weight or clean rock (optional but helpful)
  • Cloth & rubber band or loose-fitting lid

🧘🏾‍♂️ The Fermentful Process

1. Salt Soak: The Softening of the Self

Chop the cabbage into quarters lengthwise, then into bite-sized squares. Place in a large bowl. Dissolve the salt in the water and pour it over the cabbage until fully submerged. If needed, place a plate and a clean weight on top to keep it submerged.

Let it soak for 6–8 hours (or overnight). This is when the cabbage gives up its rigidity, its identity as a salad green, and begins its transformation into something funkier, wiser, and more alive.

Rinse well and drain.

2. Make the Paste: The Fire Within

Blend the garlic, ginger, gochugaru, fish sauce (or tamari), sugar/apple, and a splash of water into a thick, fiery paste. You can adjust the spice here—less gochugaru for mild, more for divine fire. Taste it. It should hit all the notes: spicy, sweet, salty, and a little mysterious.

3. Massage & Merge: Communion Begins

Add your radish, scallions, and optional carrots to the drained cabbage. Pour the paste over the veggies and massage it all in with clean hands (gloves if sensitive). This is where it gets primal. You’re not just mixing—you’re waking up the microbes, coaxing them into bloom.

The mixture should be juicy. If not, add a tablespoon or two of water.

4. Jar It Up: Contain the Chaos

Pack the kimchi mixture tightly into your jar(s). Press down hard to eliminate air pockets and bring brine to the surface. Leave at least 2–3 cm of headspace at the top.

Place a fermentation weight or clean stone on top if you have one. Cover with a breathable cloth and rubber band, or use a loose lid. It needs to breathe, but not be exposed.

5. Ferment: Let It Funk

Leave the jar at room temperature (18–24°C / 65–75°F) for 2–5 days. Taste daily starting on Day 2. It will go from fresh and salty to tangy, fizzy, and full of personality. Once it reaches your desired level of funk, move it to the fridge. It’ll keep fermenting slowly, evolving like a good jazz record.

🧪 What's Actually Happening?

Lactic acid bacteria (mainly Lactobacillus) naturally present on the cabbage wake up in the salty brine and start munching sugars. In return, they create:

  • Lactic acid (preserves and tangifies)
  • Carbon dioxide (bubbles, baby)
  • Antioxidants & enzymes (gut gifts)
  • B-vitamins (thanks, little guys)

These microbes create an acidic, probiotic-rich environment that not only preserves the vegetables, but enhances their flavor and digestibility.

🛎️ Pro Tips & Variations

  • Want it vegan? Use tamari or miso instead of fish sauce.
  • Add kelp, mustard greens, or perilla leaves for depth.
  • Use a fermentation crock if you want to scale up.
  • Label your jar with the date. You’ll thank yourself.

💌 From My Gut to Yours

This ritual has saved me more times than I can count—from bad digestion to bad moods. There’s something magic in watching vegetables slowly transform under your care. There’s healing in your hands, garlic on your breath, and a galaxy of bacteria blooming under glass.

Make it. Eat it. Share it. Let it change you.

And if you haven’t yet, read The Gut-Spicy Gospel of Kimchi to find out why this isn't just food—it's medicine, meditation, and microbial poetry.

Stay funky, Elio “Dust” Santorini