Napa (Baechu) Kimchi

The standard against which all kimchi is measured: napa cabbage salted soft, then coated in a red gochugaru paste of garlic, ginger, sweet pear, and fish-sauce umami. Eaten young it is crisp and fresh; aged in the cold it turns deep, funky, and sour.

Ingredients

The cabbage is first brined or dry-salted, then rinsed, landing a working salinity near 2%. The paste sets flavor; the rinsed cabbage sets safety and texture.

Ingredient	1 Jar (1 qt / 1 L)	1 Crock (2 L / ½ gal)
Napa cabbage, quartered	600 g	1500 g
Non-iodized salt — for dry-salting the leaves	14 g	35 g
Gochugaru (Korean chile flake)	30 g	75 g
Garlic, grated	16 g	40 g
Ginger, grated	6 g	15 g
Fish sauce	22 g	55 g
Salted shrimp (saeu-jeot), minced (optional)	10 g	25 g
Asian pear or apple, grated	40 g	100 g
Rice-flour porridge (10 g rice flour simmered in 100 g water)	60 g	150 g
Korean radish, julienned	80 g	200 g
Scallion, 3 cm cut	30 g	75 g

Yield: about 650 g finished kimchi per jar; about 1.6 kg per crock.

Calculated values

Value	Target
Cabbage salting (dry-salt % of cabbage)	2.0-2.5%
Working salinity, finished dish (after rinse)	~2%
Ferment temperature	18-22 °C / 64-72 °F
Time at that temperature	3-14 days
Finished pH	~4.0 (lands near 4.2, drifts to 4.0 and below)
Cold storage / arrest	2-4 °C

Set the salting step with the dry-salt or brine salinity calculator and estimate timing with the ferment predictor.

Readiness window

At 18-22 °C kimchi crosses below the pH 4.6 safety line within the first day or two and is pleasant to eat from about day 3. Let it ride 3-14 days depending on how sour you want it — short and fresh, or long and funky.

Done when: it tastes pleasantly sour and tangy, the jar fizzes and the brine has risen over the cabbage, and a calibrated meter reads about pH 4.2 trending to 4.0. Burp the jar daily while it ferments. Arrest by moving to 2-4 °C, where it slowly deepens for weeks.

Method

Salt the napa

Quarter the cabbage lengthwise. Dry-salt 2.0-2.5% by cabbage weight, rubbing salt between the leaves (especially the thick ribs), or soak in 5-10% brine. Hold 2-6 h, turning once, until a thick rib bends without snapping.

Rinse and drain

Rinse twice in cold water to wash off surface salt, then drain 20-30 minutes. Cut the quarters into 4-5 cm pieces, or leave as quarters for traditional whole-leaf kimchi.

Make the paste

Simmer 10 g rice flour in 100 g water to a thin porridge; cool. Combine with gochugaru, garlic, ginger, fish sauce, salted shrimp, and grated pear into a loose paste. See the kimchi paste base.

Mix

Wearing gloves, coat every leaf with paste, working it into the layers. Fold in the radish matchsticks and scallion.

Pack the jar

Press firmly into the vessel to drive out air; the surface should sit under its own liquid within a day. Leave only 2-3 cm headspace — kimchi fizzes and can overflow.

Ferment then chill

Hold at 18-22 °C for 3-14 days, tasting and burping daily. At pleasant sourness and about pH 4.2 (trending to 4.0), move to 2-4 °C.

Variations / mix-ins

Vegan: replace fish sauce and salted shrimp with light soy sauce, doenjang/miso, or a kombu-shiitake stock; keep the grated pear to feed the ferment.
Extra-hot: push gochugaru toward 50 g per jar and add a spoon of gochujang.
Mat (cut) kimchi: cut the cabbage before salting for a faster, weeknight build.
Aged / sour: ferment to the long end, then hold cold for a month for mukeunji used in stews.