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Fermentation Atlas

Vegetables from Korea

Jangajji (vegetables aged in soy sauce, doenjang or gochujang)장아찌

Jangajji are vegetables and fruits that are first salted or dried, then buried in gochujang or doenjang or steeped in soy sauce for weeks to months. The jang, already fermented, brings salt, colour and flavour into the vegetable; the change is mostly salt and flavour soaking in, with little new souring. Made in 3 steps over 32 days – 2 months. The longest step, bury in jang or steep in soy sauce, takes 30 days – 2 months (정순택 1995) and runs at 15 °C (신동주 2000). Salt is 6–12 % (정순택 1995).

Key numbers
Main step30 days – 2 monthsMeasured[jung1995][shin2000]Bury in jang or steep in soy sauce
Temperature15 °CMeasured[shin2000]Bury in jang or steep in soy sauce
Salt6–12 %Measured[jung1995]Salt the vegetable to draw out water
AciditypH 4–5.4Measured[shin2000][oh2016]Bury in jang or steep in soy sauce
Fully documentedVegetables32 days – 2 monthsMore vegetablesMore from Korea

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedHousehold and village tradition with no fixed amounts. The numbers below come from laboratory batches of cucumber and persimmon jangajji and from a survey of 90 village products.
A vegetable or fruit · Persimmon, garlic, cucumber, radish, Codonopsis root (deodeok) and Japanese apricot in gochujang; perilla leaf in doenjang; chilli in doenjang or soy sauce[jeong2006]
Salt or brine · To draw water out before the jang goes in[jung1995]
Gochujang, doenjang, soy sauce or rice-wine lees[jeong2006]
Starter: other: the fermented jang itself (soy sauce, soybean paste or chilli paste)

Total time across the recorded steps: 32 days – 2 months

Start
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Close-up: salt moving into a pieceSalt 6–12 %

What changes: Salt draws water out of the vegetable

Step 1 of 3
Salt the vegetable to draw out water
Time
2 days
Measured
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
6–12 %
Measured
Acidity
Not documented

Output: firmer, less watery pieces.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

What makes this one different

Jangajji is cured in a finished jang rather than fermented from scratch, so its salt, colour and flavour mostly soak in from the paste or sauce. Kimchi, by contrast, sours through its own lactic ferment.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Ganjang jangajjiSteeped in soy sauce; the saltiest kind in the Sunchang survey.
  • Doenjang jangajjiBuried in soybean paste, for example perilla leaves.
  • Gochujang jangajjiBuried in chilli paste, for example persimmon, garlic, cucumber, radish and deodeok; the sweetest kind.
  • Uloe jangajji (in rice-wine lees)Cucumber cured in lees (jubak), like Japanese narazuke.

Safety

Jangajji is salty; a survey of 90 village products found 3.56–9.15 % salt, highest in soy sauce kinds. Bacillus cereus was among the bacteria found in persimmon jangajji, and the yeast Candida glabrata swelled vacuum packs, so the cured product needs clean handling and cold storage once packed.

Hazards the sources name: Bacillus cereus, found in persimmon jangajji making.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

The word comes from Middle Korean, joining jang with an old word for pickled vegetables. A 1988 review of Korean kimchi literature from 1976 to 1987 counted 23 kinds of jangajji.

  1. [jung1995] 정순택, 이홍열 and 박현진 (Jung, Lee and Park) 1995, The changes in firmness, Ca content and polygalacturonase and pectinesterase activities during oyijangachi preparation, Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition 24(5), 796–802 (abstract)paper
  2. [shin2000] 신동주, 김광호, 손규목, 이승철 and 황용일 (Shin et al.) 2000, Changes of physicochemical properties during preparation of prepersimmon pickles, Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition 29(3), 420–424 (abstract)paper
  3. [jeong2006] Jeong D.-Y., Kim Y.-S., Lee S.-K., Jung S.-T., Jeong E.-J., Kim H.-E. and Shin D.-H. 2006, Comparison of physicochemical characteristics of pickles manufactured in folk villages of Sunchang region, Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety 21(2), 92–99 (abstract)paper
  4. [oh2016] Oh C.-H. and Oh N.-S. 2016, Quality characteristics of apple jangachi cured with different types of traditional Korean sauces, Korean Journal of Organic Agriculture 24(1), 87–98 (abstract)paper
  5. [chung1995] Chung D.-O. and Chung H.-J. 1995, Associated microorganisms and chemical composition of persimmon pickles, Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture 10(3), 133–137 (abstract)paper
  6. [jo1988] Jo J.-S. and Hwang S.-Y. 1988, Standardization of kimchi and related products (2), Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture 3(3), 301–307 (abstract)paper
  7. [s1] Korean Wikipedia, 장아찌 (etymology, types), read 2026-10-16wiki