My first kimchi batch molded over after 3 days in the jar

Started my first kimchi last Tuesday with a recipe from a Korean cooking blog. Checked on it this morning and found fuzzy white spots all over the top layer. Anyone know if I can scrape that off and save the bottom or do I need to toss the whole thing?

2 comments

2 Comments

amy_murphy154d agoMost Upvoted

My first batch got the same fuzzy white spots on day 3 and I freaked out. I scraped off about an inch of the top layer (carefully, so none of the moldy stuff touched the good kimchi underneath) and the rest was totally fine. I actually kept eating it for another week and it was great - tangy and bubbly, no weird taste or smell. Just make sure you use a clean spoon every time you dig in going forward, that's what my friend (who's Korean) told me to do.

rileyl673d ago

Oh man, I totally get that panic when you see something weird growing on your first batch. It's so hard to tell the difference between scary mold and just normal yeast or whatever, especially when you're new to this. That is really reassuring to hear from @amy_murphy15 that scraping it off worked fine, I've heard the same thing from a few people now about kimchi being pretty resilient once it gets going. The clean spoon rule is a big one too, I think cross contamination is how most batches go bad honestly.