Third attempt in a year.
It’s the right texture, but I’m still missing something. It’s not as good as store bought, but good enough. And I’m working on improving that zest.
Kimchi sans fish sauce. Via https://www.liveeatlearn.com/how-to-make-kimchi/
Soooo bottled water instead of tap to make a brine? Assuming the former has no chlorine while the latter does
Distilled water does not have chlorine!
With kimchi, I used very little water (only the amount the recipe suggests). The veggies I use( Chinese cabbage) contains a lot of water naturally and my batch always overflows once fermentation happens.
You should search around, but depending on what your tap water contains you may be able to just use counter top filtered water if you let it stand for awhile. Bottle spring water is a safe bet though, and should have extra minerals in there to give a bit of a kick to the taste. Just like bread fermentation, it’s all about the water source.
Yeap, most people are gonna be fine with regular chlorinated tap water as long as they let us sit for a while. People having problems with their starters because of tap water is due to their municipality using chloramine instead of chlorine. It’s not as volatile as chlorine, so it can stick around in unaerated water for days.