Gim (), also romanized as kim, is a generic term for a group of edible seaweeds dried to be used as an ingredient in Korean cuisine, consisting of various species in the genera Pyropia and Porphyra, including P. tenera, P. yezoensis, P. suborbiculata, P. pseudolinearis, P. dentata, and P. seriata.
Along with wakame and sweet kelp, gim is one of the most widely cultivated and consumed types of seaweed in Korea. The dried sheets of gim are often rolled to wrap and be eaten with rice. Gimbap is a fancier adaptation, in which gim is not only rolled with rice, but also meat, fish, or vegetables. Gim also can be eaten without rice by roasting with sesame oil or frying and cutting it to make side dishes (banchan) such as bugak.
History
The earliest mention of edible seaweed in Korea is recorded in the Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms (1280s); this text, created during the Goryeo era, documents the history of the Three Kingdoms Period of Korean history between 57 BCE and 668 CE. The book contains passages that say the Silla dynasty would use gim for part of their dowries. It is conjectured that the gim of this period was harvested from rocks and driftwood rather than being cultivated.
Gim was later mentioned numerous times in the Veritable Records of the Joseon Dynasty. Throughout the record, gim is referred as 海衣, meaning sea cloth or sheet.
In the record, the geographical survey conducted during the regime of the King Sejong the Great described gim as the representative product of Chungcheong, Gyeongsang, and Jeolla provinces. The record showed how King Seonjo was urged to sooth the hardship of the country's eastern coastal people who were required to produce and submit gim as a royal offering. The record also told the story of how King Hyojong suspended the royal submission of gim upon hearing that a single piece of gim costed 20 pieces of cottons. According to the record, people strictly had to submit gim as a royal offering by a specific size. This led many people to glue a piece of gim on a frame using saliva or other means to fit the size. King Jeongjo, citing that such practice was bad for hygiene, firmly warned the governors of the provinces to not enforce specific offering sizes for gim.
Gim was also mentioned in non-royal literature.
The sheet of gim was described in Baekheonjip (), where the author Lee Kyung-suk (1595-1671) wrote the poem about receiving gim as a gift from his belated acquaintance and comparing its thinness to paper.
In (), the encyclopedia written by the Joseon scholar Yi Ik who lived from 1681 to 1764, the author described that gim, reddish algae growing on the rocks of sea, was processed into a sheet.
The method of seasoning seaweed with sesame oil was recorded in a cookbook in the 19th century of Joseon Dynasty, Siuijeonseo: "...spread sesame oil mixed with red pepper powder and sesame seeds. After that, sprinkle sesame seed or pine nut powder, then dry and roast it before serving".
Cultivation
Production of gim in Jeolla and Gyeongsang Provinces is reported in books from 15–16th century, including Sinjeung Dongguk Yeoji Seungnam|Revised and Augmented Survey of the Geography of Korea (1530) and Gyeongsang-do Jiriji | Geography of Gyeongsang Province (1425). In these books, gim is mentioned as a regional delicacy.
Gim cultivation is the oldest aquaculture in Korea and there are several stories from oral tradition about its origins. One version tells the story of an old lady in Hadong, South Gyeongsang Province who discovered a log covered in gim floating down the Seomjin River. This inspired her to cultivate the gim on upright support poles made of bamboo. Another legend says gim was named after Gim Yeoik (1606–1660)―the first person to have cultivated gim after seeing a drifting oak branch covered in it. Yeoik's story takes place on Taein Island which is located in the mouth of Seomjin River in Gwangyang, South Jeolla Province, during the reign of King Injo (1623–1649). Gim cultivation continued to expand and spread throughout the southern coastlands of Korean Empire (1897‒1910).
Early cultivation methods using bamboo or oak sticks were eventually replaced by newer methods that utilized nets, developed in the 19th century by a fish harvester who was inspired by gim that grew naturally on fish fences installed in the tidal waters of Wando, South Jeolla Province. Floating rafts have been used for mass production since the 1920s.