The Korean Kimchi Cookbook. Kim Man-Jo
of cho. These cha-type kimchees consist of rice and salted and fermented fish, making them similar to the fish sikhae dishes of today.
Implements used for grinding spices. Left is a maja, used by inserting the fingers in the holes and scraping at the seasonings with the rough, rounded surface. Below, a glazed ceramic bowl with a rough interior texture.
Sallim Kyongje divides kimchee production into two categories: those that employ bland methods requiring only small amounts of salt and those that use salty methods. (The author puts cabbage kimchee in the bland category.) He also divides cucumber kimchees into two groups: the tchanji type, simply preserved in salt, and the sobagi type, in which the cucumbers are stuffed with spices and herbs. Other kimchees described in the book are Yongin oiji (a cucumber pickle), winter eggplant kimchee, abalone kimchee and oyster kimchee.
Chungbo Sallim Kyongje (The Expanded Countryside Economy), published in about 1766 at the end of the reign of King Yongjo (r. 1724-76), was written by Confucian scholar Yu Chung-lm and is an expanded version of the earlier book. It does not have a separate section on kimchee, but in the gardening chapter the author names some vegetables and mentions cho (kimchee) as a common way of processing them and chili powder as an ingredient in some kimchees
The description of radish tchanji says that it is made of radishes with their stems and leafy tops still attached, sea staghorn, pumpkin and eggplant; spiced with chilies, Japanese pepper and mustard; and immersed in garlic juice. It is similar to today's chonggak kimchee. He describes a yellow cucumber kimchee as being made by cutting three slits in each cucumber, stuffing the slits with chili powder and garlic and allowing the kimchee to ferment, a dish that resembles today's oi sobagi. This book documents the use of chilies and chili powder, and also of garlic, green onions and chives as kimchee seasonings rather than main ingredients, a further step in the development of the use of chili in kimchee.
In the forested, mountainous region of Kangwon Province, wooden crocks were developed. A section of log was hollowed out and fixed to a base. Such wooden crocks offered the advantages of easy portability and long-lasting durability. They were widely used instead of the more fragile ceramic variety. The one shown here is the largest extant wooden crock in Korea, measuring 128 cm in height and having a diameter of 80 cm. The diameter of the base is152 cm.
In olden times when one bought pickled shrimp paste (saeu chot) it came in a small crock like this. When the shrimp boats caught great quantities of shrimp at a time, they pickled them in crocks right there on board to keep them from spoiling before they could get them to market.
Since pot-bellied crocks took up too much space compared to their storage capacity, crocks shaped for more compact storage were developed. It is surmized that the circumference of the bottom was made smaller than that of the mouth so that the hands could be inserted between the crocks more easily for moving them around. Similar crocks were used for other kinds of chotkah
During this period Korean kimchee also spread to China. In Kim Chang-Op's 1712 account of his travels in that country, he says: "There was an old woman there who had immigrated from Korea and made her living by making kimchee. Her tongchimi tasted exactly like that made in Seoul." In Kyesangijong, published in 1803, the author writes: "The kimchee at the interpreter's house was made in imitation of our own and was quite good." Although we cannot be sure exactly what sort of kimchee this was, the reference provides one more piece of evidence that Korean kimchee had spread to China and gained popularity there. What is known, however, is the contemporary Chinese kimchee called Sichuan paocai that resembles Korean tongchimi. It seems that tongchimi was introduced to Sichuan by some of the Sichuanese soldiers sent to Korea to help fight off the Hideyoshi invasions during the Ming Dynasty.
During the 18th and 19th centuries, there are more and more written references to kimchee: Kyongdo Chapchi by Yu Tuk-Tae (1747-1800) gives a recipe for making sokpakchi: "Boil a broth of fermented baby shrimp paste and allow it to cool. Add radish, cabbage, garlic, chili pepper, turban shell flesh (Turbo cornutus), abalone and croaker. Store." The author says the concoction ferments to a spicy-hot flavor. Another interesting title, Imwon Simnyukchi, written by So Yu-Gu in 1872, presents a complete compendium of 19th-century Korean cookery. It divides the various kimchees into four types: omjangchae, chachae, chechae and chochae. Omjangchae includes kimchees that are usually eaten in the winter months; they are fermented in salt, brewing dregs and spices and are intended to be stored for long periods of time. Chachae and chochae are somewhat similar. Chachae kimchees are fermented in salt and rice, while chochae kimchees are made with fermented fish or shrimp paste, soy sauce, ginger, garlic, and vinegar for a salty, sour and spicy-hot flavor.
The design and special characteristics of crocks for storing kimchee vary from region to region. In such regions as Pyongan Province and Hamgyong Province, where the winters are long and cold, kimchee crocks are very large but shorter and fatter than those of the south. Those of the Hoeryong district of Hamgyong Province are known for their peculiar blueish-black color from lye added to the black glaze.
The crocks of the southern regions are generally smaller. Those of the central part of the country (Kyonggi and Chungchong provinces) are tall and slender. In Kyongsang Province (the southeastern part of the peninsula) the crocks are small and of coarse design. The crocks of southern Chungchong Province have a pleasing oval shape and a narrow mouth, while those of the Cholla provinces are short and pot-bellied.
Garlic on sale at a mid-20th-century marketplace.
In about 1934, Pang Shin-Yong, professor of home economics at Ewha Women's College, wrote Choson Yori Chepop (The Choson Cookery Book), which was revised and reissued in 1952 under the new title Uri Nara Umsik Mandunun Bop (How to Make Korean Food). The author presents modern methods of reproducing the Korean cuisine she learned from her mother, categorizing the recipes into 'winter kimchees' and 'ordinary kimchees.' This was the first book to cover kimchee-making thoroughly.
An example of a chabaegi, a broad, round ceramic bowl used for salting vegetables and mixing spices for seasoning kimchee. This multi-purpose vessel usually had handles and was also used to convey foods from one place to another in the kitchen or for washing dishes.
All these types of kimchee could be thought of as different kinds of cho, but the book sets aside a special chochae category for kimchees peculiar to Korea. Chochae and omjangchae are distinguished by the fact that chochae is eaten as is after fermenting while omjangchae is reprocessed either by washing it in water first or by adding it to another dish. In chechae the vegetables are cut up, while in chochae they are generally used whole. Chochae kimchees are meant to be kept for a long period of time and are regarded as the mainstream kimchees of Korea.
The book is fairly comprehensive and the recipes are arranged systematically by vegetable and type. Among the many radish kimchees described is tamjo, the precursor of today's tongchimi, and hwangajo, a kimchee made of radish greens. There is also a cabbage kimchee produced by the tamjopop or bland method, and a recipe for muyomji made without salt. Another useful book was Tongguk Sesigi, compiled by Hong Song-Mo in 1849; it describes the preparation of winter kimchi very clearly.
By the early 20th century, many of today's