What was kimchi like before the introduction of chili?
The hot kimchi with plenty of chili
like today's began to apprear in the seventeenth century, when chili
was introduced and became popularly used. What would it have been
then without chili? It is hard to imagine a kimchi without the sweet-hot
flavor of chili for us Koreans who are used to the complex flavors of
kimchi.
There are a few documents written in the Koryo Dynasty (918-1392)
which let us have a glimps of how kimchi was developed. A poetry
book written by Lee Kyubo (1168¡1241) has a line saying, "turnip with
soy sauce is good for summer; with clean salted-water good for whole
winter." "Turnip with soy sauce" would mean a kind of pickled kimchi
food, and turnip "with clean salted-water" would mean a kind of
Dongchimi, which we take the liquid as
well as the solid. The poet also sings about turnip: "the best is when the
root is fat, when frost forms; it is like a Korean pear when slice with
a knife." Turnips at that time must have been a good breed.
These lines mean that, besides the pickled varieties, Dongchimi
kinds of kimchi were new but already popular in the thirteenth century,
and that it was not only for preserving purposes but also for seasonal
enjoying.
There are a few other documents where kimchies like Nabak Kimchi,
wild leaf mustard kimchi and bamboo shoot kimchi are mentioned. From these
documents we can conclude that there were largely three varieties of kimchi
including pickles with a little liquid but for the solid, Dongchimi
for both liquid and solid, and pickles with no liquid. Also we can conclude
that the most popular vegetables for these kimchies were turnip,
cucumber, and eggplant.
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