A Field Guide to Kimchi Types

There is no single official count of kimchi varieties; Korean reference works list dozens of named types, and households add their own. Rather than a catalog, this guide offers four ways to sort them: by main ingredient, by brine, by season and by region. For how kimchi is made, see making kimchi; for its history, kimjang and chili peppers in Korea.

Old categories

Koreans have classified kimchi for centuries. The Encyclopedia of Korean Culture notes that the nineteenth-century encyclopedia Imwon gyeongje-ji grouped preserved vegetables into four classes, distinguished largely by whether they were simply salted, fermented with grain, finely chopped, or left to sour into a lactic ferment. The vocabulary changed too: early texts used the characters ji and jeo, and later forms such as chimchae and dimchae gradually became kimchi. Chili-red kimchi is relatively recent; the 1766 Jeungbo sallim gyeongje is among the first texts to record chili in kimchi recipes.

By main ingredient

• Napa cabbage: The national standard is baechu-kimchi, whole or halved napa cabbage layered with a chili and garlic paste. Its relatives include chili-free baek-kimchi, quick, cut-up mak-kimchi, the fresh, unfermented geotjeori, and the elaborate wrapped bossam-kimchi of Gaeseong.
• Radish: Korean radish gives cubed kkakdugi, chunky seokbakji, and whole-radish chonggak-kimchi made with chonggak radish; young radish greens become yeolmu-kimchi.
• Cucumber: Stuffed oi-sobagi is the classic summer kimchi.
• Greens and alliums: Pa-kimchi (green onion), buchu-kimchi (garlic chives), gat-kimchi (mustard greens), and layered kkaennip-kimchi (perilla leaves).
• Seafood kimchi: Coastal kitchens add fish, squid, oysters or abalone; abalone kimchi (jeonbok kimchi) is known in Gyeongsang and Jeju.

By brine: dry versus watery

A second division is whether the vegetables sit in seasoned paste or float in liquid.

• Paste kimchi coats the vegetables with chili, garlic, jeotgal and often a rice-flour porridge, with only the liquid the vegetables release.
• Mul kimchi (물김치), watery kimchi, is made to be eaten with its brine, spoon and all. Dongchimi, whole radishes in clear salt brine and once a winter staple, is the archetype; the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture describes it as an early form that predates chili. In the north its icy broth was traditionally used for cold noodles such as mul-naengmyeon. Nabak-kimchi, thin squares of radish and cabbage in a lightly pink brine, is especially associated with spring. Baek-kimchi and summer yeolmu-kimchi are often made watery as well.

Watery kimchi is usually lower in chili and more refreshing, and it is commonly served alongside rich or dry foods such as rice cakes and tteok.

By season

Kimchi followed the garden. UNESCO's description of kimjang, inscribed in 2013, outlines a year-long cycle: salting shrimp and anchovies in spring, buying sea salt in summer, drying chilies in late summer, and the communal kimchi-making of late autumn that carried households through winter. Around that cycle sit shorter-lived kimchi:

• Spring: Fresh geotjeori from tender cabbages and bomdong, nabak-kimchi, and green-onion and chive kimchi.
• Summer: Oi-sobagi, yeolmu-kimchi and other light, quick-fermenting kimchi made in small batches, because heat speeds souring.
• Autumn and winter: The kimjang batch of baechu-kimchi, plus dongchimi, chonggak-kimchi, gat-kimchi and seokbakji, meant to ferment slowly in the cold.

By region

Climate and local seafood shaped regional styles (see the region pages for more):

• Northern provinces: Colder weather meant lighter salt and chili, more watery kimchi, and generous use of brine; dongchimi and baek-kimchi were central.
• Seoul and Gyeonggi: Balanced seasoning with saeujeot or salted croaker; elegant kimchi such as bossam-kimchi and jang-kimchi seasoned with soy sauce.
• Jeolla: Richly seasoned kimchi with plenty of chili, glutinous rice paste and strong jeotgal; gat-kimchi is a specialty.
• Gyeongsang: Saltier and spicier kimchi with less liquid, often seasoned with myeolchi-aekjeot.
• Gangwon and Jeju: Kimchi with local seafood, such as fish and squid on the east coast.

Generalizations like these are only a starting point. Families guard their own recipes, and a household in Busan may make kimchi more like one in Seoul than its neighbor. For storage and food safety, see fermented foods and sodium in Korean food.