Full Recipe
Author
Food Network | 2026-04-13
Description
This kimchi is your gateway to fermentation. If you're going to make only one kimchi from my book, Hand Taste: Cook Like a Korean Grandmother, this is the recipe to make. I developed this recipe for two reasons: so I could have a batch of kimchi ready to eat in a few days and so I could make it in small spaces, including tiny apartments in New York City, without it taking over. “Mak” loosely translates to imperfect or haphazard, but I prefer to think of it as “effortless.” You don't have to be a kimchi expert to make a batch of kimchi you'll be proud of. What makes it different from traditional pogi kimchi is that the napa cabbage is chopped before it's fermented, which makes the fermenting step go faster. This also means mak kimchi doesn't keep for as many months as pogi kimchi, but when it gets overripe, it's perfect for kimchi hot sauce. There's about 30 minutes of busy work required to make this kimchi, stretched out over time. Factor in 1 hour for the cabbage to brine and drain, 2 days to ferment at room temperature and 1 day to ferment in the refrigerator. Have your largest bowl or pot ready to fit the chopped cabbage as it brines (at least 16-cup capacity). You'll also need a blender or food processor (a mini one works well), rubber gloves for mixing the kimchi and 2 glass quart jars.
