Salt the Cabbage

The next step is to salt the cabbage. Tear some of the bigger leaves off the outside of the cabbage and salt them. These will be used as a top layer over the kimchi as it ferments. Then cut the cabbage lengthwise into quarters, then sprinkle salt between the leaves. Or, just chop the cabbage into whatever size you want it, and mix with salt. You want enough salt so that, when you taste the cabbage, it tastes like a good soup: not too salty, not too bland.

Alternatively, you can soak the cut cabbage in salt water, with a mix of 1 cup salt to 10 cups of water.

The salt needs to be sea salt or kosher salt, so that it does not have iodine or anti-caking ingredients. Iodine has a harsh flavor, and in some circumstances can turn things black. The anti-caking powder floats to the top of the Kimchi juice and looks like mold.

You can get sea salt at a Korean store in large bags for a very reasonable cost

Soak the cabbage for a few hours or overnight, until it is wilty. This process kills some of the bacteria on the surface of the cabbage, which may not have the best flavor, and helps “jumpstart” the fermenting process.

Also, though it might not make much sense, the wiltier cabbage makes crispier kimchi. The salt removes some of the water from the cells, so that when they ferment and absorb water, they don't burst the cell walls. This works for kimchi, kraut, and pickles. It's always better to "wilt" the ingredients first.

It does not matter much if you use too much salt. After the cabbage is done salting, rinse all the salt off the cabbage. The cabbage will have absorbed some of it, so it will taste a little salty still.

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