Doenjang. [The Taste of Nature: Meju, Water, Onggi, Sea salt and Sunshine] #3.

The blocks that are well fermented and show wide hints of white or yellow bacteria are hanged with weaved rice straws either inside the room or racks outside depending on the environment throughout the rest of the winter. The reason for using rice straws during this process is to inoculate the Meju blocks with Bacillus subtilis, a ferment bacillus that is inextricable for the Doenjang to exist, and other natural microbes that later help the fermentation of the Doenjang. How these Meju blocks turn out determines the fate of the Doenjang and Ganjang. Magic, one might say.     

Usually around January (March at the latest), households start making Doenjang. The fermented blocks of Meju are thoroughly scrubbed and washed with clean water before going into the Onggi, a Korean ethnic earthenware used in making various Korean Jangs, Jangajjis(vegetables pickled in sauces), etc. The Onggi too needs to be carefully selected, cleansed, and sterilized with hardwood charcoal in order to produce high quality Doenjang. The secret of this particular earthenware is that it has invisible breathing pores. Without these pores, the ingredients inside are not able to enjoy the far-infrared radiation, consequently leading to poor taste and efficacy of the Doenjang. Therefore, it is recommended to use Onggis that are coarse with rough surfaces and not covered with enamel. Also, traditional Doenjang makers are usually known to use Onggis that are made during the winter, while pots made in the summer are thought as unfit for food storage due to easy decomposition.

    

    Water is another significant component that is directly connected to the final result of the Doenjang. This is one of the major reasons for traditional Doenjang makers to select the countryside as their home grounds, with the enormous merit of clean, pure, and most of all, deeply tasty water that it offers. In the olden days, the water for making Jang was selected under careful consideration. In ‘Gyuhap chongseo’, a living guidebook for women that was written in the Josun Dynasty, it says that ‘Excellent water is the key to tasteful Jang. One should not use the water from the well after rain, but draw fine water∙∙∙.’ Nowadays contamination has made it impossible for people to use surface water. Most of those who live in big cities are left with a single choice; using tap water. It is said that using the tap water after storing it overnight is an ‘okay way’ to make Jang, but the fact that the taste is never the same is recognized as well. Fortunately, there are still many rural areas with natural bedrock water that is relatively safe from pollution, giving us the wonderful opportunity to experience the tasteful, nature-friendly past.

   Now comes the salt. Few of us gravely ponder in the supermarket over buying a pack of salt. Most likely, we tend to choose white, refined salt that looks, feels, tastes familiar. In the case of Korea, after being freed from Japanese colonial rule in 1945, unrefined sea salt was considered unfit for the table based on the reason that due to sea contamination, heavy metals such as arsenic and lead were detected from it. What people back then did not know was that this problem had an easy solution; remove the bittern or roast the salt as a whole. Recently the realization of how important it is to eat healthy is bringing new light to unrefined sea salt. Unlike white salt which is sodium chloride extracted from sea salt, sea salt does not contain as much salinity (White salt contains over 99% of salinity whereas sea salt contains 80%). Instead, it carries rich minerals that not only improves our health but creates an entirely different level of taste in food as well.

   Jang, which is basically food that is cured with salt can easily create an unhealthy image for its seemingly excessive saltiness. However the actual saltiness of the traditional Jang is not as strong as one might expect, thanks to the wonders of sea salt. Besides, Jang works in Korean cuisine not only as seasoning but as salt itself and not as an ingredient that requires to be salted. Considering the abundant minerals, microbes, and enzymes within the Jang, one can carefully suggest that Jang may enhance the nutritional value of our food compared to simple white salt.    

Doenjang. [The Taste of Nature: Meju, Water, Onggi, Sea salt and Sunshine] #2.

Rows of musty yellow brown bricks of soybeans that are soaked, boiled, and mashed are the first thing that catches my eyes as I enter the room. I sniff, and the earthy smell of well-cooked, fresh beans is still full in the air.

    “How long do they have to sit and dry?” I ask my teacher.

    “A few days, until the outside is fairly dry with cracks showing on the surface of the bricks,” she replies, briskly wiping her wrinkled hands on a purposefully messy apron.    

    These ‘bricks’, which are the start and foundation of making traditional Doenjang, are called Meju. The history of Meju traces back to the early Three Kingdom Period, appearing in ‘The Chronicles of the Three States’ for the first time. Here it is said that King Shinmoon of Silla sent Meju as a wedding gift to the bride’s family. It proves its applauded existence in China as well through the book ‘History of the Three States’(290) where it records that ‘the people of Goguryeo have admirable skills in making Jang and brewing alcohol’. As mentioned above, being the main source of protein, the importance and value of Meju were profound back then. Naturally, households(especially those in higher social status) were required to preserve and improve their Meju of family tradition, finding pride in those that were successfully made and turned into delicious Doenjang and Ganjang.

    Unfortunately, making Meju from scrap is considered unnecessary in most of the households these days. Although the recipe itself is not as difficult as one might think, the strong smell of the Meju blocks during the process of fermentation can be more than most modern families are willing to bear. After drying the Meju blocks in the sun, it takes about 2~3 months for the blocks to thoroughly ferment while sitting on the warm spot of the ondol floor inside the house. In other words, members of the house have to stand the smell throughout the cold winter which is not something easy to do, especially when you can buy Deonjang or Ganjang as much as you like at the store.

     

    Unlike the unappealing smell of the Meju however, the potential nutrition it holds within can be described as remarkable. It all begins with the science hiding behind that rough and bumpy ugliness. Meju is made with 100% soybeans, which is the crucial difference compared to general Nuruk(traditional fermented malt blocks used to make alcohol) or Miso(Japanese soybean paste) that do not use fermented blocks in the first place. This implies that the Meju itself absorbs the entire package of the nutritional value that soybeans offer and more, making magic with the healthy bacteria and molds that later set in.