Spent 3 days fighting a bad batch of kimchi before realizing the issue

I made a big batch of napa cabbage kimchi last Saturday and after day 2 it smelled kinda off, not the usual tangy ferment smell. Turns out my jar lid was cracked letting air in, which I only caught after pulling everything apart and starting over. Has anyone else wasted a whole ferment on something this dumb?

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phoenixking4mo ago

Did you try salvaging any of it or just dump the whole thing? I once left a batch of sauerkraut in my garage for two months cause I forgot about it and it turned into this weird sour vinegar sludge that smelled like feet.

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thea_carter4mo ago

Oh boy, that sounds rough! I actually read somewhere once that if your ferment goes too long without checking it, the bacteria can shift and produce all kinds of weird stuff. That vinegar smell you mentioned might have been acetic acid bacteria taking over. I remember a science article saying that happens when air gets in. I would have dumped that batch too, smells like that are usually a sign things have gone bad. Better safe than sorry with food like that.

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