Letter of Recommendation: Kimchi Storage Container

I love making kimchi: I use a combination of a recipe my Korean friend Hyunsuk gave me and this recipe. But it was always a bit of a struggle because I only had quart canning jars for fermentation and storage—which worked but were a hot mess (or, technically, a cold, bright-red mess). And then there is the sad story of the beautiful glass pickling jar whose bottom cracked out and splattered a fresh batch of kimchi all over my kitchen floor and cabinets because apparently it is a bad idea to run those jars through the sterilization cycle in your dishwasher…. Anyway, while I’m saving up for a legit onggi from Jeolla-do, I found this 4.9L Art Zone plastic fermentation and storage container at my local Korean grocer (you can buy them a couple places online, but I can’t recommend anywhere in particular—and there are lots of similar designs out there, some in stainless, which is nice).

This new container revolutionized my kimchi-making process. It’s so much easier to layer the cabbage quarters in the long, rectangular space, and the neat gasketed insert with the fermentation lock lets you press the oxygen out of the kimchi while letting CO2 escape during fermentation; it also keeps the insides of the container clean, while the locking top keeps everything in your fridge from smelling like kimchi…. And it fits neatly on the top shelf of my refrigerator. Until I can get a Korean-style refrigerator with a dedicated kimchi drawer someday, or a full-on jang dokdae (fermentation garden!) like this one at Baekyangsa Temple, this is as close to kimchi heaven as it’s going to get around here.