🇰🇷 South Korea · Korea
YukgaejangKorean spicy beef soup
A fiery red Korean soup of long-simmered brisket torn into shreds, with bracken fern (gosari), soybean sprouts and plenty of scallion, seasoned with gochugaru and soup soy sauce, and eaten with rice.
Origin and history
The Encyclopedia of Korean Culture defines yukgaejang as a soup of long-boiled beef, torn by hand, seasoned and served hot and spicy, a food of the hottest days of summer. Sources only offer anecdote about its beginnings, so no date or founder is claimed.
Make it at home
- Makes
- 6 servings
- Total time
- 1 h 45 min
- Hands-on
- 35 min
Ingredients
- 900 g2 lb beef brisket, excess fat trimmed
- 3.5 L15 cups water
- 250 g9 oz gosari (cooked bracken fern shoots), ready-soaked, cut in 6 cm (2 1/2 inch) lengths; optional but traditional
- 350 g12 oz soybean or mung bean sprouts, rinsed
- 3 bunches scallions, cut in 6 cm lengths; thick white parts split lengthwise
- 2 tbsp soup soy sauce (guk-ganjang)
- 3 tbsp gochugaru (Korean red chili flakes), coarse or fine; adjust to heat preference
- 3 tbsp sesame oil
- 4 tsp minced garlic
- 1/2 tsp sugar
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- sea salt, to taste, about 2 tsp
Method
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1. Put the brisket and water in a large pot, bring to a boil and skim the grey foam as it rises.
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2. Lower the heat and simmer for about 1 hour, until the meat is tender but still holds together when lifted.
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3. Lift out the brisket and let it cool until you can handle it. Keep the broth in the pot, and skim off excess fat if you like.
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4. Tear the beef along the grain into thin, fork-length shreds.
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5. In a large bowl, mix the shreds by hand with the soup soy sauce, gochugaru, sesame oil, garlic, sugar, pepper and the gosari, then work in a couple of handfuls of scallion.
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6. Return the seasoned beef and the remaining scallions to the broth and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Cook for 10 minutes.
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7. Add the bean sprouts and simmer 20 minutes more, until the broth is deep red with a layer of chili oil and the scallions are limp and sweet.
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8. Taste and add salt or more gochugaru as needed. Serve very hot with rice and kimchi.
Notes
- The soup should be thick with shredded beef and vegetables and look fiery red; its signature is the mountain of scallions that melt into the broth. Korean sources describe it as a summer food for sweating out the heat (i-yeol-chi-yeol, fighting heat with heat).
- Gosari (bracken) is a usual vegetable in home recipes; dried bracken must be soaked and boiled before use, and some cooks leave it out because the preparation takes hours. If you cannot find it, the soup is still good.
- For extra richness some cooks whisk beaten egg into the simmering soup a few minutes before serving, as in egg drop soup. Adding more gochugaru and sesame oil gives the layer of red chili oil that restaurants serve.
- Related beef soups are galbitang and seolleongtang, which are mild, not red.
- Make-ahead: it tastes better on the second day and freezes well.
Adapted from Encyclopedia of Korean Culture (Academy of Korean Studies), entry on yukgaejang, Kimchimari, Yukgaejang, and The Subversive Table, Yukgaejang.
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