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Fermentation Atlas

Vegetables from Korea

Pa kimchi (green-onion kimchi)파김치

Pa kimchi is whole green onions, salted in brine and coated with a paste of red pepper powder, garlic, glutinous rice paste, sugar and anchovy sauce. It ferments more slowly than cabbage kimchi and becomes a pungent, sour side dish. Made in 4 steps over 5.2 days – 34 days. The longest step, ferment, takes 5–34 days (Lee J.-H 2019) and runs at 10–25 °C (Lee H.-J 1999). Salt is 10 % (Lee J.-H 2019). Leuconostoc mesenteroides and Lactobacillus plantarum, the main lactic bacteria when it is well ripened and Levilactobacillus brevis, which made tyramine, putrescine and cadaverine in some strains do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step5–34 daysMeasured[lee2019][lee1999]Ferment
Temperature10–25 °CMeasured[lee1999][lee2019]Ferment
Salt10 %Measured[lee2019]Soak the green onions in brine
AciditypH 4.3–5.7Measured[lee2019]Ferment
Fully documentedVegetables5.2 days – 34 daysMore vegetablesMore from Korea

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe 2019 study made pa kimchi to a target salt of 2.5 % but gives no amounts for each ingredient. Household recipes vary and have no fixed amounts.
Green onions · Soaked whole in 10 % brine[lee2019]
Red pepper powder[lee2019]
Garlic[lee2019]
Glutinous rice paste[lee2019]
Sugar[lee2019]
Anchovy sauce (myeolchi-aekjeot) · The main source of biogenic amines in the study[lee2019]
Starter: spontaneous

Total time across the recorded steps: 5.2 days – 34 days

Start
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Close-up: salt moving into a pieceSalt 10 %

What changes: Salt brine wilts the whole green onions

Step 1 of 4
Soak the green onions in brine
Time
3 h
Measured
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
10 %
Measured
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Leuconostoc
Lactobacillus than
Flavour
Not documented
Texture
stems soften and bend
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

Pa kimchi ferments more slowly than cabbage kimchi. Green onions carry fewer lactic bacteria and keep more sugar to the end of the ferment, and at 10 °C pa kimchi was still fermenting after 34 days.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Jjokpa kimchiMade from small, thin green onions.

Safety

In a 2019 survey, 6 of 13 market pa kimchi samples held about two to four times the 100 mg/kg histamine level suggested as safe, and 5 of 13 were over that level for tyramine. The anchovy sauce was the main source; using less of it, or a low-amine sauce, lowers the amines.

History and sources

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

  1. [lee2019] Lee J.-H., Jin Y.H., Park Y.K., Yun S.J. and Mah J.-H. 2019, Formation of biogenic amines in pa (green onion) kimchi and gat (mustard leaf) kimchi, Foods 8(3), 109paper
  2. [lee1999] Lee H.-J., Joo Y.-J., Park C.-S., Lee J.-S., Park Y.-H., Ahn J.-S. and Mheen T.-I. 1999, Fermentation patterns of green onion kimchi and Chinese cabbage kimchi, Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology 31(2), 488–494 (abstract)paper