Research on the birth (起源) and names (語源) of foods such as kimchi is important to understand traditional food culture. kimchi, an ‘add flavored, fermented, pickled, vegetable food’ was initially prepared with the simple purpose of increasing storage capabilities, but later, through a complex process of change, morphological diversification occurred. In addition to the basic name of ‘kimchi’, each variety has its unique name and history. This study was conducted through qualitative research using various research methods, such as oral records and interviews, as well as investigation of data from literature, including ancient literature, modern cookbooks, newspapers, magazines, papers, and videos. The study sought to investigate the context and the meaning of the name Chonggak kimchi. In addition, it is a compilation of how the name spread through the ages and evolved to its current name. The name Chonggak kimchi did not exist during the Joseon Dynasty and Japanese occupation and first appeared in the records in the late 1950s. Nevertheless, the original name of ‘Altarimu kimchi’ evolved and finally became a part of the standard Korean language (標準語) in 1988. In the process of the name spreading and becoming popular, the movie “Chonggak kimchi (1964),” starring Shin, S.I., and Eom, A.R. played a significant role. It was also confirmed that this was a meaningful and valuable case of contentization of traditional food culture, regardless of the intention behind the same.

The Chinese Sigyeong records the foods of the Primitive Pickling Period, pickling being a universal vegetable storage method, but does not indicate the origin of the pickled vegetables or the location of the source of transmission. Kimchi mainly used salt and sauce-based soaking materials at the beginning of the Fermented Pickling Period (beginning in the 1st to 3rd centuries A.D.), and it differed from the Chinese method, which used alcohol and vinegar. In the Umami-Flavored Pickling Period (beginning in the 14th and 15th centuries A.D.), jeotgal, fermented seafoods, were added, and pickles with a completely new identity were created, one different from any other pickles in the world. Lastly, entering the Complex Fermentation and Pickling Period (beginning in the 17th and 18th centuries), the technical process evolved using a separate special seasoning containing red pepper as the secondary immersion source after pickling in brine, the primary immersion source. As a result of this, kimchi was transformed into a food with a unique form and taste not found anywhere else. The unique characteristic of kimchi is that the composition of original materials, a combination of salted marine life and vegetable ingredients, is its core identity, and there is a methodological difference in that it is completed through a second process called saesaengchae (生菜)-chimchae (沈菜).

In South Korea, increase in kimchi import from China has emphasized the importance of noticing the origin of production area, largely because of the price and safety concerns. Nevertheless, identification of it depends on a complex physicochemical method. Hence, the objective of this study is to develop a statistical algorithm applicable for analyzing volatile compounds measured by electronic nose so that the device can be used for simple classification of kimchi by its production origin. Discriminant function analysis (DFA), one of multi-variate analysis, was mainly used for analyzing big-size data of volatile compounds detected from kimchi produced either in South Korea or China. Result showed that DFA could completely separate 69 varieties of kimchi by its origin of production (39 from South Korea and 30 from China). This result suggests that volatile compounds can be an index for identifying origin of kimchi and consequently, electronic nose is an optimal option for identifying origin of kimchi production when combined with multi-variate statistics.