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Wrapped KimchiPhoto: Eugene Kim, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Kimchi 김치

Wrapped Kimchi

보쌈김치

Romanization: bossam-kimchi

Cabbage, radish, fruit, nuts and seafood bundled inside whole cabbage leaves — the lavish wrapped kimchi of Gaeseong, made for honored guests.

Serves
32
Prep
120 min
Cook
0 min

RegionGaeseong · Seoul & Gyeonggi

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Recipe

Ingredients · Serves 32

Method

Technique: Making Kimchi

  1. Step 1: Peel off the 16 largest outer cabbage leaves whole and set aside. Cut the remaining cabbage into 2.5–3 cm squares. Salt the whole leaves, cabbage squares and radish squares with the coarse salt (dissolve part of it in a little water and sprinkle the rest), and leave for 2–3 hours, turning once, until the leaves bend without snapping. Rinse twice and drain well.

  2. Step 2: Make the filling: toss the cabbage and radish squares with the gochugaru until evenly colored, then add the saeujeot, garlic, ginger and sugar. Fold in the pear, half the chestnuts, jujubes and pine nuts, the mushrooms, minari, leaf mustard, jjokpa, octopus, oysters and abalone.

  3. Step 3: Line a small rice bowl with two of the whole salted leaves, crossing them so the leafy tops hang over the rim. Pack in about one-eighth of the filling, standing some cabbage and radish pieces upright around the edge.

  4. Step 4: Top with a few slices of the reserved chestnut and jujube, a couple of pine nuts and some chili threads. Fold the overhanging leaves over to enclose the filling, lift the parcel out and set it in a small jar or snug container. Repeat to make 8 parcels.

  5. Step 5: Mix the croaker liquid or fish sauce with the water and pour it around the parcels until they are about half covered. Seal and leave in a cool place (about 10–15°C) or at room temperature for no more than half a day, then refrigerate.

  6. Step 6: Ready in 3–4 days and best within about 2 weeks, since the fresh seafood and fruit shorten its life. To serve, set a parcel in a bowl, fold back the leaves, and share it at the table. Use clean utensils and discard if it smells off or turns slimy.

Origin & History

Bossam-kimchi — also called ssam-kimchi — is a kimchi parcel. Squares of salted cabbage and radish are mixed with fruit, nuts, mushrooms and seafood in a chili seasoning, arranged inside a cup of large cabbage leaves, topped with garnishes and wrapped closed, then ripened in individual small crocks under a fish-sauce brine. At the table the outer leaves are folded back like petals to reveal the filling.

The Encyclopedia of Korean Folk Culture ties it firmly to Gaeseong, the old Goryeo capital and a city of wealthy merchants. Wrapping a whole parcel needs long, broad leaves, so the dish likely dates only from the late 1800s, after the semi-heading Gaeseong and Seoul cabbages were established in Korea; the Gaeseong cabbage, longer and broader-leaved with a narrow waist, was considered the better of the two for wrapping. The oldest written account the encyclopedia cites is a 1924 Chosun Ilbo article in which An Sun-hwan, owner of the famous Myeongwolgwan restaurant, explained the court method; the first cookbook recipe appeared under the name ssam-kimchi in the 1934 enlarged edition of Bang Sin-yeong's Joseon yori jebeop.

Costly ingredients, hours of handwork and the need for a separate crock for every parcel made it a dish of palaces and rich households, and because it keeps poorly it was made only briefly in the coldest part of winter. The folk encyclopedia records a Gaeseong-born woman remembering that each little crock was opened only for elders or guests. From the late 1980s, and through franchises in the 1990s, the name was borrowed by restaurants serving boiled pork (bossam) with a sweet, crunchy radish kimchi, so many people now picture that instead of the original wrapped kimchi.

Key Ingredients

Nutrition

Estimated, per serving (about ¼ parcel, about 75 g)
Calories~31 kcal
Protein~2.6 g
Fat~0.5 g
Carbohydrates~4.9 g
Fiber~1.3 g
Sodium~405 mg

Notable forVitamin C · Vitamin K

Estimated by summing Korean Food Composition Table values for the main ingredients (salted napa cabbage, radish, pear, chestnut, jujube, pine nuts, minari, leaf mustard, chives, octopus, oysters, chili powder, salted shrimp, garlic, ginger, sugar and fish sauce) and dividing by 32 servings. Several ingredients lack fiber, vitamin and (for oysters) sodium values in the table, and mushrooms, abalone and the full brine are not counted, so treat these figures as approximate. Actual values vary with ingredients, portion size and preparation.

Health Benefits

  • Many foods in one bundle: cabbage, radish, leafy greens, fruit, nuts and seafood together give a broader mix of nutrients than most kimchi, for few calories.
  • Vitamin C: fresh radish, pear, jujube and leaf mustard all contribute vitamin C; a serving supplies an estimated 7 mg or more.
  • A milder kimchi: Gaeseong-style bossam-kimchi is seasoned less intensely than everyday kimchi, which is part of why it was so prized.

Regional Variations

  • Gaeseong: the signature style, rich with chestnut, pear, jujube, pine nuts, stone-ear mushroom, shiitake, octopus and abalone, ripened under salted yellow-croaker brine.
  • Seoul–Gyeonggi and Hwanghae: made in a few elite households of the region, often with family touches — the head family of the Joseon scholar Bak Se-dang stands the cabbage and radish upright in special bowls to form a rose shape and crowns it with scored "pomegranate" radish kimchi.
  • Restaurant "bossam kimchi": the modern pork-restaurant side dish of thick, sweet seasoned radish strips shares the name but not the method.

Sources

  1. 01보쌈김치 - 한국민속대백과사전 (Encyclopedia of Korean Folk Culture)
  2. 02Korean Food Composition Table: Kimchi cabbage (Baechu), Salted — National Institute of Agricultural Sciences
  3. 03Selecting and Serving Fresh and Frozen Seafood Safely - U.S. Food and Drug Administration
  4. 04Is my kimchi safe to eat? - Oregon State University Extension Service

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