KOREA

Without soybeans, Korean cuisine would look very different, but without fermentation, it would be almost unrecognizable. While Koreans are famous for using salt to ferment various ingredients, fermenting soy products has created a vast array of Korean pantry essentials. Many of these can be stored for months without refrigeration, with doenjang being a standout. Often translated as “savory fermented soybean paste,” this term is somewhat misleading, as other Korean soy products are also savory pastes. Doenjang stands out with its strong aroma, light brown color and its role as a base for countless soups, stews and condiments.

Writer. Tim Alper

Without the soybean, Korean cuisine would look very different. But without fermentation, it would be almost unrecognizable. While Koreans are famous for using salt to ferment all sorts of preparations and ingredients, fermenting soy products has allowed cooks to create a vast array of what have since become Korean pantry essentials.

Many of these can be stored for months at a time without the need for refrigeration. And perhaps chief among these is doenjang. This ingredient is often translated into English as “savory fermented soybean paste.” This is something of a misnomer, considering the fact that many other Korean soy products are also savory and stored as pastes.

What distinguishes doenjang from many other Korean pantry essentials is its strong and distinctive aroma, as well as its light brown color. The base of endless soup, stew and condiment recipes, it rarely arrives at the table as-is, unlike its spicy cousin gochujang and its saltier relative, ganjang (soy sauce).

ⓒ TongRo Images Inc

MAKING DOENJANG

To make doenjang according to the traditional Korean method, cooks must start work months in advance. Toward the end of fall, they begin by making meju, round or square bricks of pre-soaked soybeans. Cooks first boil raw beans, which start to break down in the cooking water. They then grind the mixture into a thick paste in a stone mortar.

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• ⓒ Getty Images Korea.

This is then compressed and left to dry. Cooks then tie up blocks of dried mixture using rice straw. They next hang these blocks from ceiling beams for several months, which helps with the slow fermentation process.

When the cold weather begins to thaw, cooks often take their meju outside to dry further in the sun. To make the final product, cooks put meju in jangdok (earthenware pots) with salty water, sometimes floating lumps of charcoal or whole chilies on the surface to stop harmful bacteria from breeding in the mixture.

Traditionally, Koreans also believed that this helped scare off malevolent spirits, who would be loath to enter a pot guarded by spicy peppers. In the final step, cooks press the mixture, with the solid “residue” becoming doenjang.

ⓒ Getty Images Korea.

TIMELESS RECIPES

Historians cannot say for sure when exactly Koreans began making doenjang. However, the fact that salt-preserved bean pastes are also common in other Asian countries seems to suggest that the practice of fermenting beans in this part of the world began a very long time ago indeed.

Korean doenjang differs quite markedly from other Asian bean pastes, however. In Sichuan cuisine, cooks make use of a broad bean paste named doubanjiang. In Japan, miso is a common soup base that?like doenjang?makes use of soybeans. But doenjang is quite unlike both: While the Chinese and Japanese bean pastes use other ingredients, authentic Korean doenjang is made using only salt, water and soybeans. The result is a paste that has a richer flavor than the milder miso, and is not spicy like Chinese doubanjiang.

Although its exact origins remain unknown, records show that doenjang had already become an integral part of Korean cuisine long ago. The historical record first talks of soybean fermentation on the Korean peninsula in the 3rd century CE. The Chinese Jin Dynasty writer Chen Shou, in his classic The Records of the Three Kingdoms, writes that the people of the Korean kingdom of Goguryeo were “skilled at brewing fermented soybeans.”

Goguryeo tomb paintings also feature representations of the aforementioned earthenware pots Koreans still use to make and store doenjang today. This would suggest that the practice of making doenjang was already fully developed by Chen Shou’s time.

Centuries later, famous historical texts feature detailed explanations of how to make and store doenjang. They also note that doenjang was served at royal feasts and that pots of the paste were sent as aid supplies to areas affected by famine.

TRADITION MEETS MODERNITY

There are scores of modern Korean recipes that use doenjang. But without any doubt, the most famous of all is doenjangjjigae, a simple stew that uses a base of doenjang and other ingredients like kelp and anchovies. Cooks are free to add a wide range of ingredients to this, including tofu, mushrooms, aehobak (a zucchini-like squash) and sometimes meat such as pork.

It is also the star of the show in a popular dipping sauce known as ssamjang (red chili and soybean paste), where it is combined with garlic, sesame oil and other ingredients such as nuts. Diners typically fill lettuce leaves with a dollop of ssamjang and enjoy this preparation with rice and various delicacies.

In more recent times, doenjang has gone global. You can now find tubs of commercially made doenjang, some imported from Korea, some made locally, in supermarkets the world over. Cooks have begun using it to make everything from savory pasta and dipping sauces to cakes, brownies and other desserts.

Doenjang also features in all sorts of recipes on cooking websites, video-sharing apps and Western media sites, where chefs explain how it is a perfect fit for caramel puddings, carrot tarts and steak marinades. Restaurant chefs across Europe also seem to have fallen for this unique Korean ingredient. Even in the smallest, most remote British villages, it is no longer uncommon to come across a pub cooking that served doenjang-marinated roast meat or vegetable preparations.

As the popularity of Korean food and ingredients continues to grow, there can be little doubt that doenjang will continue to delight diners?both in its homeland and beyond?for many years to come!

ⓒ Shutterstock. A scene from a supermarket in Malaysia, on display are doenjang, ssamjang and gochujang (red chili paste), all representing the quintessential flavors of Korea.