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Vegetables from Korea

Mul kimchi (water kimchi, generic) and its minor historical forms물김치

Mul kimchi is the general name for kimchi with more broth than solids, where the vegetables and the broth are eaten together. Lightly salted vegetables are covered with a mild brine, often reddened with chilli and sometimes thickened with rice porridge, and it is made a little at a time to eat soon, unlike dongchimi, which is made in winter to keep.

Fully documentedVegetables10 days

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceHousehold recipes with no fixed amounts. A 1995 survey gives a solids-to-liquid ratio of about 40:48 for nabak and yeolmu water kimchi.
Radish, cabbage or other seasonal vegetablesLightly salted; tender young radish only briefly[nfm-mul]
Salt waterBoiled and cooled to lukewarm to make it ripen faster[nfm-mul]
Chilli powder wrapped in cotton clothSteeped in the brine for red water without cloudiness or sediment[nfm-mul]
SugarAbout 2 tablespoonsAdded to the broth for faster ripening (nabak kimchi)[nfm-mul]
Green onionIn the stock for yeolmu water kimchi, with anchovy, kelp and onion[nfm-mul]
Solids to liquidAbout 40 to 48Ratio found in nabak and yeolmu water kimchi in a Seoul and Chungcheong survey[kang1995]

Total time across the recorded steps: 10 days

Start
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Close-up: salt moving into a grain

What changes: Cut vegetables are salted lightly

Step 1 of 4
Lightly salt the vegetables
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactobacillus plantarum
L. plantarum
L. brevis
Leuconostoc citrum

Tender greens such as young radish are not salted for long.

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

At a glance

Mul kimchi is the general name for kimchi with more broth than solids, where the vegetables and the broth are eaten together. Lightly salted vegetables are covered with a mild brine, often reddened with chilli and sometimes thickened with rice porridge, and it is made a little at a time to eat soon, unlike dongchimi, which is made in winter to keep. Made in 4 steps over 10 days. The longest step, ripen quickly and keep cold, takes 10 days (Oh J.-Y 1999) and runs at 4–25 °C (Oh J.-Y 1999). Salt is 1.3–1.7 % (Kang Geun-ok 1995). Lactobacillus plantarum and L. pentosus in low-salt (0.2-1.0 %) radish mul-kimchi; L. plantarum and L. brevis at 3.0 % salt and Leuconostoc citrum and Leuconostoc mesenteroides ssp. mesenteroides/dextranicum (names as in the study's abstract), isolated from mul-kimchi at 0-3.0 % salt do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step10 daysReported[oh1999]Ripen quickly and keep cold
Temperature4–25 °CReported[oh1999]Ripen quickly and keep cold
Salt1.3–1.7 %Reported[kang1995]Pour the broth over the vegetables

What makes this one different

Mul kimchi has more broth than solids and is made to eat soon. It is less salty than winter kimchi (1.3–1.7 % against 2.3–2.7 % in one survey), and the broth is the point of the dish.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Yeolmu mul-kimchi (열무물김치)Summer young-radish water kimchi; the broth is a cooled stock of anchovy, kelp, onion and green onion with glutinous rice porridge and ground fresh chilli.
  • Strained-seasoning water kimchiThe seasoning was once ground in a stone mortar and strained through cloth, so only the liquid went in.

Safety

In a 1999 study of low-salt mul-kimchi (0 to 3 % salt, 10 days at 4, 15 or 25 °C), coliform and Gram-negative counts rose at first and fell as lactic acid bacteria grew and acidity rose, and Aeromonas hydrophila was among the bacteria isolated [oh1999]. The folk encyclopedia says it ripens fast in summer, so it is made in small amounts and kept in the refrigerator [nfm-mul].

Hazards the sources name: Aeromonas hydrophila, a Gram-negative bacterium isolated from mul-kimchi; Gram-negative and coliform counts rose early and fell as lactic acid bacteria grew and acidity rose.

History and sources

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

Older people preferred water kimchi, and the Buan Kim head family always set it on the elders' table.

Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
  1. [nfm-mul] National Folk Museum of Korea, Encyclopedia of Korean Folk Culture, Korean Food, Clothing and Housing (한국의식주생활사전), 물김치; KOGL type 2, facts only; read 2026-10book
  2. [kang1995] Kang Geun-ok, Lee Seong-hee and Cha Bo-suk 1995, A study on the material ratio of kimchi products of Seoul and Chung Cheong area and chemical properties of the fermented kimchis, Korean Journal of Food and Cookery Science 11(5), 487–493 (abstract)paper
  3. [oh1999] Oh J.-Y., Hahn Y.-S. and Kim Y.-J. 1999, Microbiological characteristics of low salt mul-kimchi, Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology 31(2), 502-508 (abstract)paper
  4. [KoWiki] Korean Wikipedia, 김치 (sections 역사, 종류, 지역별 김치), read 2026-10-16wiki