Serious question, I just read that a single jar of kimchi can have over 100 different kinds of bacteria
Honestly, I was reading this article from a university food science page last night, and it said a proper batch of homemade kimchi can develop more than 100 distinct bacterial strains. I always figured it was just a few, like lactobacillus doing most of the work. Tbh, it kind of blew my mind thinking about all those tiny cultures working together in my last batch, which was just napa cabbage, gochugaru, and some fish sauce I had. It makes me wonder if my usual 7-day ferment on the counter is even long enough for that whole community to get established properly. I found it on the Cornell University website while looking up why my last jar got a bit too fizzy. Has anyone else come across this and maybe adjusted their ferment time because of it?