by Christopher Weeks on Mon Feb 19, 2018 12:17 pm
I think the way it works is that the cabbage doesn't absorb any of the salt. The salt causes fluid to flow across the cabbage's cell walls, out into the brine, to try and dilute the solution. However, if you're roughly kneading salt and cabbage (more typical with kraut than kimchi), it probably physically pushes some in. And of course, however you cause salt and cabbage to interact, unless you carefully rinse it, there's going to be some clinging to the surface.
I realize this may be useless since you're trying to calculate dietary intake, but it's all I have.