History of Kimchi

Origin of Kimchi

Kimchi is derived from chimchae,which means preserved vegetables with salt, and as time went by,the word had been changed: dimchae-kimchae- kimchi. And now it'scalled kimchi.

Birth of Kimchi with redpepper

Kimchi in early days was simply pickled vegetables, However, from about 12th century various flavors were used to make special taste of Kimchi, and in 18th century, red pepper started to be used.
Red pepper contains capsaisin, which makes hot taste and helps the function of salt.
It is assumed that the reason why red pepper was used a lot more than others was to save salt since it was so rare in old days.
Also, in 19th century,cultivating of Korean cabbage for kimjang: kimchi for winter came to be pervasive, Consequently, the traditional kimchi as same as today had been holding its shape.

Why Kimmchi developed in Korea?

There are three major reasons that kimchi had been developed as fermented food specially in Korea, while there are also many kinds of fermented food using vegetables as major ingredient all over the world.
First, Koreans, whose main industry was agriculture, enjoyed vegetables.
Second, high technology enabled to preserve different fish with salt could
play a role in using fishes as main ingredient widely, and especially cabbages for kimch were produced and provided widely from coast to coast.



As human beings started agriculture for a living, they also began to take in vegetables with plentyof vitamin and mineral to keep nutritional balance with grains. Accordingly,a preserving way of yumjang; preserve with salt, had been developed to have vegetables even in cold winter when vegetables could hardly be produced. The salt preserved (yumjang) vegetables are assumed to have very long history according to literature which says that Korean people had pickled vegetables as early as in the 7th century. Origin of Kimchi Kimchi is derived from chimchae,which means preserved vegetables with salt, and as time went by,the word had been changed: dimchae-kimchae- kimchi. And now it'scalled kimchi. Birth of Kimchi with redpepper Kimchi in early days was simply pickled vegetables, However, from about 12th century various flavors were used to make special taste of Kimchi, and in 18th century, red pepper started to be used. Red pepper contains capsaisin, which makes hot taste and helps the function of salt. It is assumed that the reason why red pepper was used a lot more than others was to save salt since it was so rare in old days. Also, in 19th century,cultivating of Korean cabbage for kimjang: kimchi for winter came to be pervasive, Consequently, the traditional kimchi as same as today had been holding its shape. Why Kimmchi developed in Korea? There are three major reasons that kimchi had been developed as fermented food specially in Korea, while there are also many kinds of fermented food using vegetables as major ingredient all over the world. First, Koreans, whose main industry was agriculture, enjoyed vegetables. Second, high technology enabled to preserve different fish with salt could play a role in using fishes as main ingredient widely, and especially cabbages for kimch were produced and provided widely from coast to coast.
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