Korean Pantry

Korean kitchen wisdom for everyday North American cooking: jang and fermentation, food-as-medicine ingredients, and what to buy at H Mart, Costco and Trader Joe’s.

Five unlabeled jars and tubs of napa cabbage kimchi lined up on a kitchen counter with a bowl of kimchi in front
Five Store-Bought Kimchis, Read by the Label

Sodium, sugar, fish sauce or not, pasteurized or live, and price per ounce. Five jars [...]

05
Nov
A row of earthenware onggi jars half-buried in the snowy yard of an old Korean farmhouse in winter light
Kimchi Was Red for Only the Last Third of Its History

A 1145 chronicle mentions pickle jars. Chili peppers reached Korea around 1600 and took a [...]

04
Nov
Kimchi fried rice in a wide bowl topped with a crispy-edged fried egg, scallion and crumbled seaweed
Kimchi Fried Rice With a Crispy Egg: The Sour Jar Is the Point

Fifteen minutes, one pan, and the oldest kimchi in your fridge. Day-old rice, a spoon [...]

03
Nov
Dark red gochujang in an earthenware onggi jar with a wooden spoon
Gochujang: How a Chili from the Americas Became Korea’s Red Heart

The paste Koreans call the taste of home is made from a pepper no Korean [...]

29
Sep