introduction.
Over the years, kimchi has been transformed into a hearty and nutritious food with a variety of ingredients. East Asian countries including Korea, Japan, and China have grown based on agricultural culture. As the food culture of farming and harvesting grains and carbohydrates as a staple food developed, a culture of side dishes was born, and as pickling technology developed to preserve and eat vegetables for a long time, kimchi was born.
1. The Beginning of Kimchi
It can be presumed that pickled vegetables, an early form of kimchi, were eaten even before the Three Kingdoms period through large earthenware (dock) or stone jars used to store stored foods such as kimchi and salted fish found at Beopjusa Temple in Boeun and Silsangsa Temple in Namwon, which are historical sites of the Three Kingdoms Period. there is. The appearance and use of kimchi in the Goryeo Dynasty changed as seasoned chimchae with spices such as green onions and garlic, and soup kimchi such as dongchimi and nabak kimchi were made and eaten. Our people, who like wet food, have learned how to preserve it for a long time even after gradually reducing the salt content using spices. <Dongguk Yisang-gukjip (1241)> written by Lee Kyu-bo, a tattoo artist in the Goryeo Dynasty, is the oldest record of kimchi discovered during this period. ) In the middle, it is introduced that pickled turnips are good to eat for three months in summer, and those pickled in salt serve as side dishes throughout the winter.
2. Salted fish and kimchi
There are pickled vegetable foods all over the world, but most of them are simply pickled vegetables in salt, sugar, and vinegar, and adding fermentation to pickles is a unique feature of kimchi. Salted fish is one of the ingredients that are indispensable when preparing kimjang today, and the first record of kimchi with salted fish remains in <Juchochimjeobang>, which is presumed to be a 16th century cookbook. This document contains recipes for ‘Gamdongjeo’, a kimchi made with Gamgamjeot (Jahajeot or Gonjaengjeot), and ‘Donga mixed bakji’, which is made with salted shrimp. Therefore, it can be assumed that salted fish has been used for pickling vegetables since at least before the 1400s, and thanks to this, umami is added to pickled vegetables, making the taste much richer and supplementing animal protein, making it nutritionally more complete.
3. Red pepper powder and kimchi
Red pepper powder has become a key element and representative image of today's kimchi, but red pepper powder was not included in kimchi from the beginning. There is a record that red pepper was used as a food ingredient in Korea in the 1600s, saying, “Its spicy and hot energy warms the body, loosens clumps, and helps digestion.” Clues to the use of red pepper in kimchi are first confirmed in <Songpajip>, an anthology of poems from the mid-Joseon period, and <Jeungbo Forestry Economy (1766)> describes in detail how to make cucumbers with red pepper powder. The fishy smell peculiar to salted fish is effectively removed by the use of corn flour, and the storage period is extended even though the amount of salt is reduced.
4. Whole Cabbage Kimchi
The most popular type of kimchi, ‘Tongbaechu Kimchi’, appeared in the early 19th century with the successful breeding of cabbage. At the end of the 19th century, they succeeded in cultivating ‘ball-shaped cabbage’, which has many leaves and is stuffed inside. Korea has continued to improve the variety of cabbage, the main ingredient of kimchi, and Dr. Woo Jang-chun (1898-1959) succeeded in breeding cabbage horticulture No. 1 and 2 by combining the advantages of native cabbage and Chinese cabbage. has developed.Now, Korea boasts the world's best cabbage breeding technology, and has grown high-quality cabbage differentiated from Chinese cabbage. Thanks to this, the English name of cabbage for kimchi was listed as ‘Kimchi cabbage’ in the International Food Standard (Codex).
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