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Fermentation Atlas

Vegetables from Korea

Yeolmu kimchi (young summer radish kimchi)열무김치

Yeolmu kimchi is made from young radish plants, leaves and thin roots together, salted and mixed with green onion, red chilli, chilli powder, garlic, ginger and anchovy sauce. It is a spring and summer kimchi; a watery form, yeolmu mul-kimchi, is thickened with a little starch and sours faster. Made in 4 steps over 18 days – 25 days. The longest step, ripen cold, takes 14–21 days (Kong C.-S 2005) and runs at 5 °C (Kong C.-S 2005). Salt is 1.8–2.4 % (강근옥 1995). Leuconostoc, at its highest count when the kimchi reaches best ripeness at 5 °C and Lactobacillus, high from early on in the watery form do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step14–21 daysMeasured[kong2005b]Ripen cold
Temperature5 °CMeasured[kong2005b]Ripen cold
Salt1.8–2.4 %Measured[kang1995]Mix with chilli, garlic, ginger and anchovy sauce
AciditypH 4.3Measured[kong2005b]Ripen cold
Fully documentedVegetables18 days – 25 daysMore vegetablesMore from Korea

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceMean amounts per 100 g of salted young radish, standardized in 2005 from Korean cookbooks and literature by the Kimchi Research Institute of Pusan National University. Only ingredients used in more than half of the recipes were kept.
100 gSalted young radish[kong2005a]
8.0 gGreen onion[kong2005a]
7.0 gRed chilli[kong2005a]
4.2 gRed pepper powder[kong2005a]
3.7 gSalted anchovy sauce (jeotgal)[kong2005a]
2.5 gCrushed garlic · 2.9 g in the paper's English abstract[kong2005a]
1.6 gCrushed ginger[kong2005a]
Starterspontaneous

Total time across the recorded steps: 18 days – 25 days

Start
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Close-up: salt moving into a piece

What changes: Salt wilts the young radish leaves and thin roots

Step 1 of 4
Trim and salt the young radish
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria
Leuconostoc reaches

No source gives a salting time for yeolmu. Output: salted young radish, leaves and roots.

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

Yeolmu kimchi uses the whole young radish plant, tender leaves and thin roots together, where kkakdugi and chonggak kimchi are built on the radish root. At best ripeness at 5 °C it carries much more acid than the watery form, 1.04–1.27 % against 0.20 %.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Yeolmu mul-kimchi (watery young radish kimchi)Per 100 mL of water, 50.6 g salted young radish with garlic, ginger, green onion, green and red chilli and 1.5 g starch. At 5 °C it reached pH 4.3 in 9 days with acidity of only 0.20 %.

Safety

A survey of Korean kimchi found lower biogenic amine levels in yeolmu kimchi than in baechu kimchi. In storage, its nitrate fell by about 12 % from the day it was made.

History and sources

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

A 1995 survey in Seoul and Chungcheong listed yeolmu kimchi among the kimchi made in spring, when less salted seafood and more fresh vegetables were used.

  1. [kong2005a] Kong C.-S., Kim D.-K., Rhee S.-H., Rho C.-W., Hwang H.-J., Choi K.-L. and Park K.-Y. 2005, Standardization of manufacturing method of young radish kimchi (yulmoo kimchi) and young radish watery kimchi (yulmoo mool-kimchi) in literatures, Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition 34(1), 126–130 (abstract)paper
  2. [kong2005b] Kong C.-S., Kim D.-K., Rhee S.-H., Rho C.-W., Hwang H.-J., Choi K.-L. and Park K.-Y. 2005, Fermentation properties and in vitro anticancer effect of young radish kimchi and young radish watery kimchi, Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition 34(3), 311–316 (abstract)paper
  3. [park2007] Park Y.-H., Seo H.-J., Cho I.-Y., Han G.-J. and Chun H.-K. 2007, Changes of quality characteristics and nitrate contents in ulgari-baechu kimchi, yulmoo kimchi and yulmoo mul-kimchi during storage period, Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition 36(6), 794–799 (abstract)paper
  4. [kang1995] 강근옥, 이성희 and 차보숙 (Kang, Lee and Cha) 1995, A study on the material ratio of kimchi products of Seoul and Chungcheong area and chemical properties of the fermented kimchis, Korean Journal of Food and Cookery Science 11(5), 487–493 (abstract)paper
  5. [lee2024] Lee J.H., Jin Y.H., Lee J.H., Park Y.K. and Mah J.H. 2024, Determination of biogenic amine-producing lactic acid bacteria in kimchi varieties through in vitro analysis and low temperature fermentation, Food Science and Biotechnology 33(10), 2301–2312 (abstract)paper