Korean Job Discussion Forums

[alexthethird]

Hi,

I'm a pickling enthusiast who'd rather not bring her supplies to Korea with me. Are things like a 23-quart pressure canner (http://www.amazon.com/Presto-23-Quart-Aluminum-Pressure-Cooker/dp/B0000BYCFU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1305558826&sr=8-1) along with some canning jars (http://www.amazon.com/Ball-Regular-Mason-Canning-Case/dp/B000X1O8BI/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1305558843&sr=8-3) available in Seoul? In other towns? I'll be near Jinju. Didn't know if this eMart people speak of would have this kind of thing...

Appreciate the help!

[aaron.southkorea]

Hey! We are fellow picklers! We make Brother Finger Pickles here in Seoul. If you want more info, you can PM me or send an e-mail to brotherfingerpickles (at) gmail (dot) com

I'm not sure what you like to pickle and/or your process. We make cucumber pickle spears that are quite delicious. As far as supplies, we've found a dill supplier who gets us bulk dill... finding dill at the Foreign Mart in Seoul is outrageous. For example, 2 or 3 sprigs for about W3000. Ridiculous! Our wholesaler gets it for us cheap!

The spices we use for our brine are a mix of things we brought from home and things we can find here. For example, Seoul offers some good foreign marts to get dill seed, mustard seed, celery seed, etc. Tumeric, peppercorns, and chili flakes are easier to find as are bay leaves and you can always make your own garlic salt.

For jars, we use some pretty basic jars from the local Daiso (like a dollar store). The jars are 1500 won a piece and are perfect pickling jars. For the Bell jars, you can expect to pay quite a bit more. We got some at a foreign mart (Haddon House in Seoul) for around 7000 to 10000 per jar. Also ridiculous. We've found some cheaper here and there, but overall, the Daiso jars work perfectly. We've been able to get big pots to boil the finished jars for about 20000 to 40000. Don't know about pressure cookers here, however.

Basically, it's possible here, but it just depends on what you are looking to pickle. There's is a pretty big contingent of fermenters/picklers in Seoul. We had a festival recently in Seoul. Article is here: http://hiexpat.com/index.php?option=com_myblog&show=no-yogurt-pickles-cheese-for-some-expats-thats-a-challenge.html&blogger=Groove&Itemid=168&aItemid=168

Good luck!