The essential condiments of the Korean people’s diet are soy sauce, bean paste and peppered bean paste.
According to historical book Samguksagi, the Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms which was compiled in the period of Koryo Kingdom (918-1392), the soybean malt of Chaeksong was a speciality of Palhae (late 7th century-early 10th century) and bean paste and soya were regarded as one of the wedding presents in Silla (early mid-1st century-935).
Korean ancestors used them as main spices for soup, stew and other dishes and added hot pepper and other materials to use it as side dishes.
According to specialists, soybean well known for its high nutritive value contains the highest percentage of proteins, but its digestibility is only 70 percent when boiled. This will be 90 percent when bean curd is made with it and nearly 100 percent when bean paste and soya are made.
“As they harmoniously contain not only proteins but glucide, minerals, vitamins and various other nutrients, soybean paste and sauce are rated as leading health foods even at present,” said Pae Son Yong, lecturer at Pyongyang Jang Chol Gu University of Commerce.
Here is a basic recipe for bean paste and sauce. First boil soya beans thoroughly, pulp them in a mortar and ball the paste for malt before hanging the balls at the upper part of the pillar or under the eaves for natural fermentation. This process is done around Riptong, the 19th of the 24 seasonal divisions or the beginning of winter which falls in early November.
Three months later, crumble the balls to expose the pieces to the sun, before filling a sterilized earthenware jar with them and salty water.
And two to three months later, pour the black water out of the jar into a pot and boil it to make soy sauce. Leave the remainder in salty water in the jar until it is fermented to become savoury bean paste.
If you add powdered red pepper and various spices to the bean paste and leave it fermenting, you will get hot pepper paste.
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