Kimchi

[Michaelmonstera]

I started making kimchi for the first time yesterday using a fermenting jar with an air release lid. When I opened the cupboard this morning, there is a strong smell of cabbage (main ingredient). Is this normal and will the smell go away?

Yes, perfectly normal. Fermenting brassicas can be a slightly smelly to very smelly process. Once it's finished it will stop producing gas and the smell will go away.

Oh god - the smell of kimchi gets through 3 layers of sealed plastic containers - let alone a fermenting jar.

You are in for a treat.

This information is not very reassuring 🤣. I may have to rethink.

Have you, er, eaten or smelled kimchi before you decided to make it??

@BlackForestCake I have had shop bought kimchi - I liked the taste and don’t remember this level of noxious smell

Just had some homemade kimchi with my fried rice and salmon. It's only had two days but it's delicious with the rice. It needs a little longer as I like it tangy.

The stuff you get from the shops (as in Tesco, not an Asian market) isn't real kimchi, it's more just like pickled cabbage with chillies. I stock up on kimchi from a Korean shop near my office in London and bring it home on the train. Let's just say, dh can smell me coming (and bring several bags to contain it, so that I don't smell out the train).

I bought some homemade kimchi and it stunk! Although it tasted nice, I just couldn't deal with the smell and so had to throw it away!

The smell literally contaminated everything

and I had eaten supermarket kimchi before buying the real stuff and it was nothing like it

What recipe did you use?
I've never noticed a particularly bad smell when making it.

Fermentationy- yes, cabbagey - no. Although I wonder if that's due to the air release lid.

I ended up throwing it away. The reek was the first thing you noticed when you walked through the front door.

Probably for the best tbh! Shame though as I hate throwing away food, but have decided kimchi is one thing I will have to live without