What to do if there is white foam on kimchi

Pickled cabbage is a dish with a unique flavor. Many places in Sichuan have the habit of making pickled cabbage, and the method is very simple. However, various problems often occur in the process of making kimchi. A typical problem is that there is a lot of white foam in the kimchi. The occurrence of this situation will definitely make people worry that it will affect the quality of the kimchi. So, what should we do if there is white foam on the kimchi? Let’s take a look at the specific countermeasures below.

When white foam appears, if the kimchi soup has become dark, turbid, thick (similar to thin rice soup), and very sour, it means that the kimchi has become rotten and can no longer be eaten.

But if the kimchi soup is still clear, but there is a layer of "white foam" or "white film" floating on it, this is normal. Do not stir the white foam or white film at this time. You can boil some water, put an appropriate amount of salt in the water to dissolve it, and let it cool. Then tilt the jar mouth, pour in salt water, wash away the white film or white foam, and then use the following method to deal with it:

1. Add some white wine. You can add some white wine to the jar, then cover it with a sealed bowl, and the condition will improve in two days.

2. Adding some perilla is also very effective. Just add one or two ounces of perilla to a jar of kimchi.

3. Fry a handful of broad beans in a clean, oil-free frying pan, wrap them in gauze and put them in a jar so that no white film will grow.

4. Add some green peppercorns, bitter gourd or pepper leaves, and the flowers will quickly fade and the taste will be particularly fragrant. In addition, red-skinned white-heart radish, ginger, and garlic all have the effect of killing white foam and white film, so you can put a little bit of them in. The ginger should be sliced ​​and the garlic should be flattened for better results.

5. Adding some raw celery stalks to the soaking frequently can also effectively prevent the formation of white foam.

You can choose any of the above treatment methods, the results are very good. However, after completing these treatments, you should also remember to stir the kimchi jar frequently, which can effectively prevent the formation of white foam. At the beginning, stir it once a day, and after three days, stir it every three days. This is a critical step. Many people have taken care of other details, but do not know that they need to stir the mixture frequently, which results in the production of white foam or production failure.

So why is stirring so important? Because lactic acid bacteria are anaerobic bacteria, they cannot reproduce in large quantities in the presence of oxygen. Many bacteria are aerobic and will multiply in large numbers in the presence of oxygen.

We all know that there will be some air at the mouth of the kimchi jar, which is inevitable. Therefore, the oxygen content in the soup on the surface is relatively high, the concentration of lactic acid bacteria is the lowest, and the concentration of miscellaneous bacteria is the highest, so white foam is easy to produce. When stirring, the soup on the surface will mix with the soup at the bottom, thereby increasing the concentration of lactic acid bacteria in the surface soup, inhibiting the reproduction of miscellaneous bacteria, and preventing white foam from being produced.

So, how often should you stir it? This is a difficult question to answer. Because the production of white foam will be affected by many conditions. For example, when making kimchi with lettuce, cabbage, cucumber, eggplant, etc., white foam is easy to be produced, while when making kimchi with red-skinned white-heart radish and ginger, white foam is not easy to be produced. In addition, adding or not adding things like peppercorns, white wine, and perilla also makes a difference. Summer is also different from winter, white foam is most likely to occur in summer.

Therefore, the best way is to observe it frequently, at least once every three days and stir it.