김장 (Kimjang): Korea's Winter Kimchi-Making, Then and Now

What 김장 Is

김장 isn't just "making kimchi." Any batch of kimchi can be made at any time of year — that's 김치를 담그다 (gimchireul damgeuda). 김장 is the big one: a single session, usually a day or two, when a household makes enough kimchi to last through the winter. The verb is 김장하다, and the season is 김장철 (gimjangcheol).

The day itself is only the last step of a year-long cycle. According to Korea's national heritage service, salted seafood such as shrimp and anchovy jeot is prepared in spring, sea salt is bought in summer, and red pepper is dried into powder in late summer. Late autumn brings the cabbage and radish. The traditional rule of thumb, recorded in the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture, is to start once daytime temperatures have settled at about 6–7°C for two weeks — so mountain areas go about a week earlier than the rest of the country.

The work comes in stages. First the napa cabbage (배추, baechu) is salted so it softens — the verb is 절이다 (jeorida). Then comes the seasoning paste, 양념 (yangnyeom): red pepper powder, garlic, salted seafood and radish. Finally everyone sits around the cabbage and rubs the paste between every leaf. The encyclopedia also records the treat that goes with it: the household boils pork for the helpers, who wrap it in the tender yellow inner cabbage leaves with some of the paste. Boiled pork like this is 수육 (suyuk).

That tradition is still alive: on kimjang day, many households boil or steam pork — 수육 (suyuk) or 보쌈 (bossam) — and eat it with the kimchi they've just made. Freshly made kimchi like this is not the same thing as 겉절이 (geotjeori). 겉절이 is a quick kimchi made any time by tossing cabbage in the seasoning paste; the cabbage isn't salted first, so it's crisp and fresh rather than fermented. Kimjang kimchi is salted, then left to ripen through the winter.

See also: What a Korean Home Meal Looks Like: 밥, 국 and 반찬

Then and Now

Some families still make kimjang every year, but far fewer than before. The first reason is simply effort: salting, washing and seasoning dozens of cabbages takes a great deal of time and hands.

How much a family makes depends on how many people it has to feed — a big household makes a lot, a small one much less. In the past, even grown children who had moved out often came back for kimjang: the whole extended family gathered, made dozens of heads of cabbage — sometimes more than a hundred — and divided the kimchi among their households.

The second reason is housing. Traditional kimjang ended with the kimchi packed into large earthenware jars, 김장독 (gimjangdok), which were buried in the ground so the kimchi would ferment slowly and not freeze. That needs a yard. Most Koreans now live in apartment complexes — in the 2025 census, 54.5% of all households lived in apartments — so there is no ground to bury anything in. If you're curious what Korean apartment life looks like from the renting side, see renting an apartment in Korea.

The cost is tracked every year too. The Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corporation (aT) surveys 14 key ingredients for a family of four making 20 heads of cabbage: in mid-November 2025 that came to 201,151 won, 5.6% less than the year before.

The Kimchi Refrigerator

The modern answer to the buried jar is the 김치냉장고 (gimchinaengjanggo), a refrigerator built to keep kimchi at a steady low temperature — something you'll find basically only in Korea. Its main job is still kimchi. The trick is to open it as little as possible: every opening lets the cold out, and a steady low temperature is what keeps kimchi tasting good for a long time. So people take out as much as they'll eat soon and keep that in the regular fridge, leaving the bulk in the kimchi refrigerator.

For the same reason, it's a good place for other things you store for a long time and rarely take out: rice and other grains, fermented pastes (장류 — 고추장, 된장, 청국장), homemade fruit liqueurs (담금주), homemade fruit syrups (수제청), dried seafood (건어물) and meat. Plenty of homes, though, don't have one at all.

Buying Kimchi Instead

Instead of making a winter's supply, many people buy mass-produced kimchi whenever they want some. A neighborhood 반찬가게 (banchan-gage, side-dish shop) sells it by the container, and the big food companies each make a wide range of kimchi. Kimchi is still the side dish that's almost always on the table — see what 반찬 means and what a Korean home meal looks like — it just no longer has to come from your own family's kimjang.

Words and Sentences

Common Mistakes

• Calling every batch of kimchi 김장. A small batch in spring or summer is 김치를 담그다. 김장 is the big once-a-year session for winter.
• Using 만들다 as the main verb. 김치를 만들다 is understandable, but the natural verb is 담그다. Its polite form is 담가요 — 담궈요, though common in casual writing, is a misspelling.
• Writing 절이다 as 저리다. 절이다 is to salt; 저리다 means a limb has gone numb or tingly. They sound almost the same.
• Translating 배추 as plain "cabbage." 배추 is napa (Chinese) cabbage, the one used for kimjang. Round Western cabbage is 양배추 — literally "Western 배추."
• Assuming every Korean home makes its own kimchi. Many buy it, and many homes have no kimchi fridge — asking 김장하세요? is fine, but don't be surprised by 아니요, 사 먹어요.

Sources

Related Knowledge

• What Does 반찬 (Banchan) Mean? Side dishes, kimchi first
• What a Korean Home Meal Looks Like: 밥, 국 and 반찬
• Renting an Apartment in Korea: 전세 vs 월세
• Korean Counters: 개, 명, 마리 and friends