Kimchi, Pickling or Fermenting?

Pickling and Fermenting are both an excellent way to preserve food and both create a wonderful, tangy taste in result. Due to its tangy taste, people often misunderstand Kimchi as pickle.

Pickles

are made by salting vegetables and soaking them in water with spices, vinegar and sugar. They are normally preserved in solutions in salinity. Pickling involves heat to destroy and inhibit the growth of any harmful bacteria.

Fermented vegetables like Kimchi

do not use vinegar or heat. During fermentation, a chemical reaction between a food’s sugars and naturally present bacteria results a unique tangy flavour.

With a presence of healthy bacteria ‘Lactobacillius’ in fermentation, it forms probiotics, which aids in digestion.

Given the presence of an acid brought on through the process of fermentation, homemade fermented foods can then be categorized as pickled and fermented. Fermented foods and drinks include things like sauerkraut, kimchi, kombucha, coconut yogurt, miso, and tempeh.