I fell down a youtube rabbit hole of people making homemade kimchi, but I was surprised to find none of the ingredients or techniques I associate with fermented foods / fermentation in general. At first I thought it was the salt added to the cabbage that made a brine, but I realized it was to reduce the water content of the cabbage, with the salt washed away thoroughly. Then I assumed it was fermented like sauerkraut, until I found out those are two different species of cabbage. I also noticed there wasn’t any added microbes or enzymes like when making wine or cheese, so what causes the reaction?
In: Biology
The bacterias (or fungi) are already present. For most of history, people did not know about the causes of fermentation and it was just something that happened with the environment. It is part of the “terroir”.
You will get fermentation if you put leaves or peels in water with sugar. That is how some starters are made.
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