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Vegetables from Korea

Jjanji / mu-jjanji (whole radish salted hard and aged)짠지

Jjanji is whole radish, or sometimes cabbage or cucumber, salted very hard in a jar under a stone at kimjang and left until the kimjang kimchi runs out in spring. It is desalted before eating, sliced and floated in cold water or dressed like a fresh salad.

A short entry: the sources we found record only what is said here about Jjanji / mu-jjanji itself.

Short entryVegetables

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedHousehold practice with no fixed amounts in the sources read.
Whole radishes of even thickness, washed or unwashed[ek-jjanji]
Salt, scattered thickly between layers[ek-jjanji]
Red chilli cut on the slant, spring onion and garlic in thick pieces[ek-jjanji]
Brine, added if little liquid has formed[ek-jjanji]
Chilli seeds (optional)Many older makers in Gyeonggi and Chungcheong add them with the salt[nfm-jjanji]
Starterspontaneous
Start
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Close-up: salt moving into a piece

What changes: Whole radishes go into a jar in layers, with thick salt and chilli, spring onion and garlic

Step 1 of 4
Layer whole radish with plenty of salt
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
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

Jjanji is whole radish, or sometimes cabbage or cucumber, salted very hard in a jar under a stone at kimjang and left until the kimjang kimchi runs out in spring. It is desalted before eating, sliced and floated in cold water or dressed like a fresh salad.

What makes this one different

Jjanji uses salt and few or no other seasonings, and is salted far harder than kimchi so it lasts into summer. Without the cost of jeotgal and spices, it was the everyday kimchi of many households and regions.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Baechu-jjanji (cabbage jjanji)Rinsed and used in stews, or dressed with sesame, garlic and perilla oil.
  • Gochunip-jjanji (chilli-leaf jjanji)Named in the Banchan deungsok, a Cheongju cookbook of the late 19th to early 20th century.
  • Golgom-jjanjiA Gyeongsang name for dried-radish kimchi; see mumallaengi-kimchi.

History and sources

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

A poem by the late Goryeo writer Yi Gyu-bo records radish salted into kimchi for winter. Early 20th-century classifications called kimchi made without jeotgal yeomji, which is jjanji. Dialect surveys up to the 1980s found jjanji used for kimchi itself across Chungcheong, Gangwon, Gyeongbuk and Jeolla.

  1. [nfm-jjanji] National Folk Museum of Korea, Encyclopedia of Korean Folk Culture, Korean Food, Clothing and Housing (한국의식주생활사전), 짠지; KOGL type 2, facts only; read 2026-10book
  2. [ek-jjanji] Seo H.-K. (서혜경) 1995, rev. 2023, 짠지, Encyclopedia of Korean Culture (한국민족문화대백과사전), Academy of Korean Studies; read 2026-10book
  3. [cho2010] Cho W.-K. 2010, A historical study of Korean traditional radish kimchi, Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture 25(4):428–455 (abstract)paper
  4. [lee2014] Lee S., Ji M.S., Kim H.S. 2014, A study of cultural aspects of kimchi in Banchandeungsok, Korean Journal of Food and Cookery Science 30(4):486–497 (abstract)paper