Pickled vegetables and fish
Most green vegetables, fish, fruits and meat may be pickled for preserving and storing for a long period.
Pickling foodstuffs inhibits the decomposition of nutrients and suppresses their undesirable spoilage by the microorganisms, thus creating a favourable environment for the desired storage.
Various preservatives are used. Salt, vinegar, soybean sauce and paste, and rice bran are used in pickling vegetables, and meat and fish are mainly pickled with salt. Sugar is used in processing fruits. And below is introduced the pickling of vegetables.
The Korean people preferred to preserve vegetables with soybean sauce or paste from olden times. Pickled vegetables include garlic, radishes, cucumbers, green peppers, broad bellflower roots, kelp and so on.
A variety of fish and their residues may be salted and added with other seasonings, and then left in a certain temperature to mature. Such pickled fish dishes are unique to Korea.
The Korean people had long processed in several ways the fish caught in large amounts in spring and summer in order to preserve them for dishes in autumn and winter.
Among the old methods of preservation are drying, salting, and freezing, and the most widely used method was salting.
The method of processing fish with salt was suitable for handling a large amount of harvested fish under any weather conditions and in any places.
In the course of salt-processing, people found out that in the same temperature conditions the lower content of salt would ferment some fishes to produce peculiar tastes and smells.
Such peculiar tastes and smells are produced through complex biochemical processes, as proteins, fats and other components in the fish become dissolved and the decomposed products react with each other to form new ones. Adding several spices and seasonings improved the taste and flavour.
The Korean people used pickled fish as side dishes and in making kimchi and other dishes.
Pickling foodstuffs inhibits the decomposition of nutrients and suppresses their undesirable spoilage by the microorganisms, thus creating a favourable environment for the desired storage.
Various preservatives are used. Salt, vinegar, soybean sauce and paste, and rice bran are used in pickling vegetables, and meat and fish are mainly pickled with salt. Sugar is used in processing fruits. And below is introduced the pickling of vegetables.
The Korean people preferred to preserve vegetables with soybean sauce or paste from olden times. Pickled vegetables include garlic, radishes, cucumbers, green peppers, broad bellflower roots, kelp and so on.
A variety of fish and their residues may be salted and added with other seasonings, and then left in a certain temperature to mature. Such pickled fish dishes are unique to Korea.
The Korean people had long processed in several ways the fish caught in large amounts in spring and summer in order to preserve them for dishes in autumn and winter.
Among the old methods of preservation are drying, salting, and freezing, and the most widely used method was salting.
The method of processing fish with salt was suitable for handling a large amount of harvested fish under any weather conditions and in any places.
In the course of salt-processing, people found out that in the same temperature conditions the lower content of salt would ferment some fishes to produce peculiar tastes and smells.
Such peculiar tastes and smells are produced through complex biochemical processes, as proteins, fats and other components in the fish become dissolved and the decomposed products react with each other to form new ones. Adding several spices and seasonings improved the taste and flavour.
The Korean people used pickled fish as side dishes and in making kimchi and other dishes.