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Vegetables from Korea

Temple kimchi (sachal kimchi)사찰김치

Temple kimchi is made without meat or seafood and without the five pungent plants that temple food forbids, such as garlic and green onion. Temples season it with soy sauce or doenjang instead of salted fish and use liquorice instead of sugar, and each region has its own kinds.

Fully documentedVegetables24 h – 3 days

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceThe amounts are from one temple-food teacher's recipe for temple cabbage kimchi (Hyunbul 2004); other temple kimchis have no fixed amounts in the sources read and vary by region, climate and local produce.
Cabbage (baechu)5 headsCut in halves or quarters. Amounts here are from one temple-food teacher's cabbage recipe[hyunbul2004]
Radish, shredded2 roots[hyunbul2004]
Coarse salt8 cupsSprinkled between the cabbage stems[hyunbul2004]
Chilli powder4 cupsSoaked in the rice paste before it is rubbed into the radish[hyunbul2004]
Glutinous rice paste1 cup[hyunbul2004]
Sugar1/2 teaspoonThe same recipe also adds ginger, with no amount given[hyunbul2004]
Seasonal vegetables from around the temple, such as cabbage, radish, yeolmu or wild greens[nfm-temple]
Soy sauce or doenjang, in place of salted fish (jeotgal)[ryu1996]
Liquorice (gamcho), as the sweetenerSeveral temple kimchi recipes sweeten with liquorice water in place of sugar[ryu1996][bulgyo2005]
No meat, seafood or the five pungent plantsGarlic, green onion, chives, wild rocambole and asafoetida are left out[nfm-temple][lee2019]

Total time across the recorded steps: 24 h – 3 days

Start
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Close-up: salt moving into a bean

What changes: Cabbage halves are salted, with coarse salt sprinkled in layers between the stems

Step 1 of 4
Salt the cabbage
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

In the recipe, the cabbage is cut in halves or quarters and coarse salt is sprinkled in layers between the stems (Hyunbul 2004).

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

Temple kimchi is made without meat or seafood and without the five pungent plants that temple food forbids, such as garlic and green onion. Temples season it with soy sauce or doenjang instead of salted fish and use liquorice instead of sugar, and each region has its own kinds. Made in 4 steps over 24 h – 3 days. The longest step, pack and ferment, takes 24 h – 3 days (Im N 2005).

Key numbers
Main step24 h – 3 daysReported[bulgyo2005]Pack and ferment
AciditypH 5.1–6Measured[lee2019]Pack and ferment

What makes this one different

Temple kimchi leaves out jeotgal, garlic and green onion and uses soy sauce, doenjang and liquorice instead. Its bacterial community differs from ordinary kimchi, most clearly early in fermentation.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Dureup kimchi of TongdosaAralia shoot kimchi, a noted dish of Tongdosa temple in Yangsan.
  • Dolnamul kimchi of GaesimsaStonecrop kimchi, a noted dish of Gaesimsa temple in Seosan.
  • Dongchimi of DaeheungsaRadish water kimchi, noted at Daeheungsa temple in Haenam.

Safety

For kimchi in general, a review says salting and chilli powder hold back putrefactive and disease-causing bacteria, and the lactic acid the bacteria make lowers the pH to 4.0–4.2, which most other microbes cannot tolerate (Surya 2022).

History and sources

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

About 50 kinds of temple kimchi are passed on by word of mouth; a 1996 survey found about 20 still made (24 in its English abstract). Temple food bans meat, alcohol and the five pungent plants, which the Shurangama Sutra says stir lust when cooked and anger when raw.

Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
Microbes
No study we found names its microbes.
  1. [hyunbul2004] Hyundai Bulgyo (현대불교), 사찰음식전문가가 소개하는 김치 담그기 (Temple-food experts on making kimchi), 9 November 2004; recipes by Venerable Jeokmun and other temple-food teachersweb
  2. [bulgyo2005] Im N., 사찰 김치, 김장철 앞두고 종류와 담그는 법 알아보면 (Temple kimchi, kinds and how to make them), Bulgyo Sinmun (불교신문) no. 2170, 13 October 2005; temple recipes with advice from Venerable Seonjae and Venerable Jeokmunweb
  3. [ryu1996] Ryu S.-S. (류시승) 1996, Studies on traditional Buddhist temple food 1. Kimchi in Buddhist temple, Korean Journal of Food and Nutrition 9(4):516–520 (abstract)paper
  4. [lee2019] Lee M., Song J.H., Park J.M., Chang J.Y. 2019, Bacterial diversity in Korean temple kimchi fermentation, Food Research International 126:108592 (abstract via Europe PMC)paper
  5. [nfm-temple] National Folk Museum of Korea, Encyclopedia of Korean Folk Culture, Korean Food, Clothing and Housing (한국의식주생활사전), 사찰음식; KOGL type 2, facts only; read 2026-10book
  6. [surya2022] Surya R. and Lee A.G.-Y. 2022, Exploring the philosophical values of kimchi and kimjang culture, Journal of Ethnic Foods 9, 20paper