Korean Home Cooking

What this topic covers

Korean home cooking gets its flavor less from fancy technique than from repeating a handful of basic combinations. This topic picks the seven dishes made most often at home and breaks each one into an ingredient list, the cooking order, why it goes wrong, and ways to vary it. All quantities are examples for two servings, and since every household seasons differently, it is best to start a little under-seasoned and adjust at the end. The guides are written for people cooking in Korea as well as for readers in Japan and English-speaking countries, so hard-to-find ingredients come with suggested substitutes.

How a Korean meal is built

A Korean table is built around rice, a soup or stew, and a few side dishes. Rice is the center, the soup or stew brings warmth and liquid, and the side dishes add salty, sour and nutty contrasts. That is why each side dish is seasoned fairly boldly: it is meant to taste right when eaten with plain rice. For a first home meal, one stew, some kimchi and one vegetable or egg dish is plenty.

• Rice: the center of the meal, it balances the seasoning
• Soup and stew: soups are thinner and lighter, stews are thicker and fuller
• Side dishes: two or three from kimchi, seasoned vegetables, stir-fries, braises and egg dishes

The basic pantry

Korean seasonings look numerous, but the ones used daily are few. With the items below you can make all seven dishes in this topic. It helps to tell apart soup soy sauce, used for broths, and regular brewed soy sauce, used for stir-fries and braises. Soup soy sauce is lighter in color but saltier; regular soy sauce is darker and slightly sweet. If you buy only one, buy regular soy sauce and season broths with salt.

• Pastes and sauces: regular soy sauce, soup soy sauce, gochujang (chili paste), doenjang (soybean paste)
• Powders and oils: Korean chili flakes, sesame oil, toasted sesame seeds
• Aromatics: garlic, green onion, onion
• Others: sugar, salt, vinegar, black pepper

Measuring and seasoning

A tablespoon in these recipes is 15 mL and a teaspoon is 5 mL. Everyday eating spoons are often a bit smaller, so measuring with them may leave a dish slightly bland. Korean broths reduce and get saltier as they boil, so check the seasoning last, just before turning off the heat. If a dish turns out too salty, adding tofu or vegetables that absorb salt dilutes the flavor less than pouring in water. Pastes vary in saltiness between brands, so the same spoonful can give different results; add a little at a time when using a new product.

Common misconceptions

A few common misunderstandings about Korean food are behind many first-time failures. Knowing them in advance makes cooking much easier.

• All Korean food is spicy: bulgogi, steamed egg and most seasoned vegetables are not spicy at all
• More gochujang means more flavor: it is sweet and salty, and too much makes a dish heavy and pasty
• One soy sauce is enough: soup and regular soy sauce differ in salt and sweetness, so swapping them changes the result a lot
• Stew gets better the longer it boils: tofu and vegetables break apart and the broth turns cloudy

Finding ingredients abroad

In Japan, gochujang, kimchi and sesame oil are fairly easy to find even in regular supermarkets, and Korean grocers or online shops carry doenjang and Korean chili flakes. In English-speaking countries, an Asian grocery store is the surest option. Japanese miso is sweeter and milder than doenjang, so a straight swap changes the taste, but a darker miso used in adjusted amounts can get you in the same direction. Chili flakes from other cuisines are often much hotter than Korean ones, so start with half or less.

Allergies and food safety

Korean seasonings often contain common allergens. Soy sauce, doenjang and gochujang usually contain soybeans, and many soy sauces and gochujang products contain wheat. Sesame oil and seeds, eggs, and seafood such as anchovies for broth or salted shrimp are also common. When cooking for guests, ask about allergies in advance and check product labels. Cook pork, ground meat and eggs all the way through, do not leave cooked food at room temperature for long, and refrigerate it once it cools. Bring leftover stew back to a full boil before eating it again.

The seven guides and a reading order

If you are new to this, start with the sauce guide to learn the basic ratios, warm up with the simple egg dishes and seasoned vegetables, move on to the stews and bulgogi, and finish with bibimbap, which brings everything together. Each guide can also be read on its own.

• Kimchi stew: the basic stew made with sour kimchi and pork
• Soybean paste stew: dissolving the paste and the order of vegetables
• Bibimbap: a full bowl of vegetables and gochujang sauce
• Bulgogi: choosing the meat and how long to marinate
• Rolled omelet and steamed egg: two egg dishes that are all about heat control
• Basic seasoned vegetables: spinach, soybean sprouts and bracken
• Basic Korean sauces: ratios for soy-based and gochujang-based sauces