Kimchi seasoning
The red paste of gochugaru, garlic, ginger and fish sauce rubbed into cabbage for kimchi.
Also: kimchi paste, yangnyeom, kimchi spice
Kimchi seasoning, yangnyeom, is a thick paste made from coarse gochugaru, minced garlic and ginger, fish sauce or salted shrimp, a little sugar and a rice-flour porridge that helps it cling. Salted napa cabbage leaves are layered with the paste, then packed in jars to ferment for days or weeks. The paste gives the characteristic red colour and balanced heat, sweetness and umami, and lactic bacteria add sourness. Before the sixteenth century, kimchi was white or seasoned with other spices, since chilli arrived only after contact with the Americas. Kimjang, the communal making of kimchi, is on UNESCO's intangible heritage list.