Arri London wrote:

>> One ingredient that most Westerners seem to avoid when making kimchee is
>> some sort of smelly fermented fish added into the recipe. If you have an
>> Asian market near you, look for Japanese 'shiokara,' and add 1-2 TBS to
>> your recipe. (It's often sold in small bottles and has a very strong
>> smell!) In Korea people store their kimchee in large pots OUTSIDE their
>> homes; on roofs, back stairs, etc., as the smell is too strong to keep
>> them inside. This might be what is missing from your recipe. Many
>> westernized recipes tone this down by using dried shrimp which gives a
>> very different flavor.
>
>
> That's why the recipe stated 'fermented shrimp' or dried shrimp. Other
> recipes I've seen use other fermented fish products. The kimchi in jars
> sold locally doesn't contain those things though.

I don't think dried shrimp won't give it the fermented flavor that
fermented shrimp would. There are several good fermented seafood pastes;
from Malaysia belacan or petis udang, Indonesian trasi, the Cambodian
prahok, Thai gkabi (kapi,) etc., but for people without access to these,
raw oysters would work fine. I keep dried shrimp on hand for Chinese
dishes and as treats to feed my cat!

A lot of 'commercially made kimchee,' made OUTSIDE of Korea, uses acetic
acid to give it the 'fermented' bite of naturally-made kimchee. In fact,
about 10 years ago the Korean food producer's association was up in
arms trying to block other countries kimchee made with acetic from even
being called "Kimchee!"

In Korea, the end of October/beginning of November is the traditional
time for making kimchee, and it's a neighborhood event. You can see
gigantic piles of cabbages on sale in the street markets, and people
purchasing 5-10 cabbages at a time to go along with a dozen large Daikon
and other vegetables in preparation for kimchee making. The smell in the
air is almost overpowering! If you like Korean food, it's wonderful!