All about Kimchi
Kimchi is a fermented dish made with vegetables and a variety of seasoning ingredients. There are currently over three hundred varieties,
but when it was first made prior to the Three Kingdoms Period(57-668AD), making kimchi required a very simple recipe of salting and storing
napa cabbages in an earthenware vessel to ferment for some time.
In the old days, kimchi was an important source of vitamins in the winter when fresh vegetables are unavailable.
What was originally a simple salted pickle now requires various seasonings, but the modernization of the kimchi-making process
has allowed it to become well known throughout the world. kimchi varies by climate, geographical conditions, local ingredients,
methods of preparation and preservation.
In order to preserve food against decomposition, especially during winter, Korean ancestors came up with the means of drying food to prevent rotting.
Then a more sophisticated method was discovered, which was fermenting- how kimchi came into the minds of the forebears.
They needed to store vegetables for winter when greens cannot be accessed.
Initially, kimchi was dipped in salt inside a pottery jar, then buried underground for more thorough fermentation.
Having rice as the main staple, carbohydrate was the primary nutrient obtained by Koreans during that time period.
To supplement other vitamins, vegetables were highly desirable.
By satisfying both conditions of long durability and nutrition, making and storing kimchi became a common practice.
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