Gochujang Is So Much More Than a Condiment

[GM]

I have some on hand, it's a useful condiment... Amazon has many choices, as does SquallMart:

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=gochujang&tag=namespacebran183-20

https://www.walmart.com/search?q=gochujang&typeahead=gochujang&cat_id=976759

NY Times article below [ paywalled; as a giving Christian, I did you all the courtesy of posting the entire article]; also several useful links here:

https://www.allrecipes.com/article/what-is-gochujang/

https://www.bonappetit.com/search/gochujang?content=recipe


https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/31/dining/gochujang.html

Gochujang Is So Much More Than a Condiment

In Korean cooking, it’s a foundational ingredient, and just the beginning
of an endless assortment of delicious meals.

By Eric Kim - March 31, 2023

Whenever Euny Hong’s mother flies Korean Air, she asks for an extra tube of gochujang, the crimson fermented chile paste, for her in-flight bibimbap. Later, at restaurants, she’ll take the tube out of her purse and squeeze some gochujang onto her plate.

“It’s so embarrassing,” said Ms. Hong, a cultural critic who has written multiple books on Korean culture, including “The Birth of Korean Cool” and “The Power of Nunchi.” But recently, while talking to some friends, she learned that many other Korean mothers of a certain generation seemed to do this, too.

The thing is, gochujang — a mix of glutinous rice, fermented soybeans and gochugaru, the glorious red-pepper powder, among other additives — might be good in a pinch when you’re out and about, and in need of spice, but it’s not quite a sauce. Not in the way Sriracha or Tabasco are, anyway. It’s a jang, a foundational ingredient in Korean cooking, meaning you usually need to add other ingredients to it: Soy sauce, vinegar and garlic are common accompaniments, turning it into a sauce, glaze or marinade. (Swirled with brown sugar and butter, it also works surprisingly well in a cookie.)

The thing is, gochujang — a mix of glutinous rice, fermented soybeans and gochugaru, the glorious red-pepper powder, among other additives — might be good in a pinch when you’re out and about, and in need of spice, but it’s not quite a sauce. Not in the way Sriracha or Tabasco are, anyway. It’s a jang, a foundational ingredient in Korean cooking, meaning you usually need to add other ingredients to it: Soy sauce, vinegar and garlic are common accompaniments, turning it into a sauce, glaze or marinade. (Swirled with brown sugar and butter, it also works surprisingly well in a cookie.)

But even in bibimbap, which Ms. Hong referred to as “the gateway drug to gochujang,” most recipes call for cutting the hot pepper paste with nutty sesame oil.

In its truest form, gochujang is sold as a thick paste, often in plastic tubs and glass jars, and ready for cooking. The kind labeled a sauce or condiment is the same paste, thinned out with other ingredients such as sugar and vinegar. Generally speaking, where you’re meant to cook with the jang, you’re meant to eat with the jang-based sauce.

But even in bibimbap, which Ms. Hong referred to as “the gateway drug to gochujang,” most recipes call for cutting the hot pepper paste with nutty sesame oil.

In its truest form, gochujang is sold as a thick paste, often in plastic tubs and glass jars, and ready for cooking. The kind labeled a sauce or condiment is the same paste, thinned out with other ingredients such as sugar and vinegar. Generally speaking, where you’re meant to cook with the jang, you’re meant to eat with the jang-based sauce.

When O’Food, a branch of the Seoul-based Daesang Corporation, released a gochujang sauce in a squeeze bottle, the company didn’t know that it would become its best-selling product.

Daesang’s gochujang sales have outpaced those of a growing slate of competitors. Scott Choi, the director of sales at Daesang America, attributes that success to a number of factors, including rising international interest in South Korean culture and a short ingredient list that highlights the paste’s essence without additives like corn syrup. “Our goal was to make a gochujang that’s untainted,” Mr. Choi said.

Gochujang is one of the youngest jangs, a sort-of sibling to doenjang (soybean paste) and ganjang (soy sauce), and all united by their layered, fermented flavors.

More than just sweet and spicy, gochujang is loaded with gamchil mat, or savoriness, the kind that makes you smack your lips. It’s the source of that unknowable depth found in dishes like tteokbokki, budae jjigae and buldak.

“Cayenne hits you more in the front, but gochujang subsides in the back and I think that’s why people really like it,” said Deuki Hong (no relation to Euny Hong), the chef and owner of the Sunday Family restaurant group in San Francisco.

That foundational flavor, Mr. Hong said, is “something that you can’t cheat, you know?”

You may not be able to cheat it, but you can iterate on it. That’s the whole point of a jang. In these garlicky, buttery noodles, for instance, honey and sherry vinegar are added to round out gochujang’s deep heat into a mellowness that’s at once sweet, savory and tangy. The brick-red butter sauce glosses and slicks, as is gochujang’s wont.

In this burbling stew, plush baby potatoes, white beans and Tuscan kale underpin a warm savoriness reminiscent of South Korean gochujang jjigae, a pantry-friendly camping staple, and dakdori tang, a dish of gochujang-braised chicken and potatoes.

But don’t let anyone, even me, tell you that you can’t eat this jang straight out of the tube.

Ms. Hong’s Korean Air story reminded me of how my father would rub a tablespoon of his mother’s homemade gochujang into a bowl of white rice when he was a little boy in 1960s Seoul. And how decades later, my mother would surprise him with a 10-year-old jar of gochujang that my grandmother had made before she died, a parcel from the past that had been carefully preserved in our basement freezer.

I watched as my father took a small spoonful of the paste and rubbed it into his rice. When he took a bite, he said he didn’t think he would ever taste that flavor again.

That’s the effect of gochujang. Once you experience it, it never really leaves you..."

</>

[Thomas]

Thanks for posting the article.

[GM]

You are welcome...

Of course, some of the sour miserable cranks here might accuse me of "copyright violations " in posting whole articles, but
they are *most* welcome to go fuck themselves...

There is nothing more frustrating than someone providing links that are either paywalled, or require "registration" to view...

;-)

--
GM

[Bryan Simmons]

I wouldn't want to discourage you from reading the NY Times.
>
> --
> GM

--Bryan

[GM]

It's a vile leftist rag, but they have some okay food articles, and as a history buff I love perusing their archives...

--
GM

[Ed P]

On 4/3/2023 7:08 PM, GM wrote:

>>>
>> I wouldn't want to discourage you from reading the NY Times.
>>>
>
>
> It's a vile leftist rag, but they have some okay food articles, and as a history buff I love perusing their archives...
>

It is so vile yet you use it for searches? Isn't that hypocritical?

Which newspaper has the best reputation?
The New York Times

For more than 150 years, Times readers have expected their newspaper to
provide the most thorough and uncompromising coverage in the world. The
Times has won more Pulitzer prizes than any other news organization and
remains No. 1 in overall reach of U.S. opinion leaders

How reliable is The Times newspaper?
A Reuters Institute survey in 2021 put the number of digital subscribers
at around 400,000, and ranked The Times as having the sixth highest
trust rating out of 13 different outlets polled. The Times Digital
Archive is available by subscription.

[GM]

On Monday, April 3, 2023 at 8:23:34 PM UTC-5, Ed P wrote:
> On 4/3/2023 7:08 PM, GM wrote:
>
> >>>
> >> I wouldn't want to discourage you from reading the NY Times.
> >>>
> >
> >
> > It's a vile leftist rag, but they have some okay food articles, and as a history buff I love perusing their archives...
> >
> It is so vile yet you use it for searches? Isn't that hypocritical?
>

Of course not - I have a historical "bent", ya know...

> Which newspaper has the best reputation?
> The New York Times
>
> For more than 150 years, Times readers have expected their newspaper to
> provide the most thorough and uncompromising coverage in the world. The
> Times has won more Pulitzer prizes than any other news organization

Sure, they even got Pulitzers for Stalin apologists* (Walter Duranty) and more recently, " Russia gate " - which was exposed as a TOTAL hoax...

These days, a Pulitzer ain't worth even the price of a prize in a Cracker Jack box...

They've been doing the " fake nooze "schtickle for 90 years now:


https://www.npr.org/2022/05/08/1097097620/new-york-times-pulitzer-ukraine-walter-duranty

*The New York Times' can't shake the cloud over a 90-year-old Pulitzer Prize

The New York Times is looking to add to its list of 132 Pulitzer Prizes — by far the most of any news organization — when the 2022 recipients for journalism are announced on Monday.

Yet the war in Ukraine has renewed questions of whether the Times should return a Pulitzer awarded 90 years ago for work by Walter Duranty, its charismatic chief correspondent in the Soviet Union.

"He is the personification of evil in journalism," says Oksana Piaseckyj, a Ukrainian-American activist who came to the U.S. as a child refugee in 1950. She is among the advocates for the return of the award. "We think he was like the originator of fake news."

and
> remains No. 1 in overall reach of U.S. opinion leaders
>
> How reliable is The Times newspaper?
> A Reuters Institute survey in 2021 put the number of digital subscribers
> at around 400,000, and ranked The Times as having the sixth highest
> trust rating out of 13 different outlets polled. The Times Digital
> Archive is available by subscription.

"Lol, Ed!"

;-P

--
GM

[Hank Rogers]

When trump gets elected next year, he will get rid of that vile
leftist rag.

[GM]

No reason to do that, the whole ROTTEN outfit will simply "self - combust" and go "POOF!"...

Like a puff of John Kuthe's " pumpkin pie " Mary Jane wafting over Bel Nor...

--
GM

[Cindy Hamilton]

The Times is substantially left of center in its opinion Its reporting
skews left somewhat. If one is looking for a left-wing rag, I suggest
The Nation.

On the right, there are a plethora of sources of varying reliability
that enjoy much more impact than anything the left has. You
proverbially can't swing a cat without running into a citation from
The Gateway Pundit.

--
Cindy Hamilton

[Graham]

On 2023-04-04 4:31 a.m., Cindy Hamilton wrote:
> The Times is substantially left of center in its opinion Its reporting

Depends where you put the centre!

[Cindy Hamilton]

Here:

https://adfontesmedia.com/interactive-media-bias-chart/

This works for the U.S. In other countries, YMMV.

--
Cindy Hamilton

[Graham]

MM certainly V!
I most civilised countries, the centre would be significantly to the
left of the US one.

[Bruce]

lol, indeed

[Bruce]

Centre in the US is right-wing in many other countries.

[dsi1]

On Sunday, April 2, 2023 at 8:09:44 AM UTC-10, Thomas wrote:
> Thanks for posting the article.

When we were on the mainland in 1976 we saw a Hawaiian BBQ restaurant. We thought that was a pretty good deal so we went it. It wasn't a Hawaiian restaurant - it was really a Korean restaurant. That was even better for my wife. She ordered the bibimbap. I'd never seen such a pretty dish before. She was puzzled by the sauce though. She was expecting gochujang but got some watery stuff instead. She asked for some real gochujang which puzzled the staff. They probably never seen a white person that knew what gochujang was. After some moments of confusion, the owner told the waiter to get the real stuff out of a container in the kitchen. She got her gochujang and and she dumped it on the bibimbap. Then she mixed the whole thing up. I was somewhat horrified that she messed up that beautiful dish. Evidently, it's completely normal - but it's still a shame.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QQ67F8y2b8&t=1298s

[Bruce]

On Wed, 5 Apr 2023 11:54:42 -0700 (PDT), dsi1 <dsi...@hawaiiantel.net>
wrote:

>On Sunday, April 2, 2023 at 8:09:44 AM UTC-10, Thomas wrote:
>> Thanks for posting the article.
>
>When we were on the mainland in 1976 we saw a Hawaiian BBQ
>restaurant. We thought that was a pretty good deal so we went it. It
>wasn't a Hawaiian restaurant - it was really a Korean restaurant.
>That was even better for my wife. She ordered the bibimbap.

You're triggering Cindy.

>I'd never seen such a pretty dish before. She was puzzled by the sauce
>though. She was expecting gochujang but got some watery stuff
>instead. She asked for some real gochujang which puzzled the staff.

I wonder if "real gochujang" also mainly consists of corn syrup.

[Hank Rogers]

Uncle, that bibimap and googlechang always confuses the hell out of
white mainlanders. Yoose gots to stick to hiwayan eateries if yoose
want da real asian grub.

[Leonard Blaisdell]

On 2023-04-04, Cindy Hamilton <hami...@invalid.com> wrote:

> On the right, there are a plethora of sources of varying reliability
> that enjoy much more impact than anything the left has. You
> proverbially can't swing a cat without running into a citation from
> The Gateway Pundit.

Are you serious? The left owns ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, MSNBC, The Washington
Post and the NYT. Oh, and the left has owned all of them since 1946 or,
alternatively, when newer media, above, was created.
The only time the main media has changed their mind, under a left-wing
President, was Viet Nam. Name once that they supported a conservative
point of view. Meanwhile, they screech their nonpartisan outlook; and
look up brainwashed in an old dictionary. The new ones won't tell you the
truth.

[Bruce]

On 6 Apr 2023 01:26:22 GMT, Leonard Blaisdell

The communists are coming, Leo. Have you checked your wife for
communist tendencies lately? They may have gotten to her!

[Leonard Blaisdell]

On 2023-04-06, Bruce <Br...@invalid.invalid> wrote:

> The communists are coming, Leo. Have you checked your wife for
> communist tendencies lately? They may have gotten to her!

You again? AI would be so much better.

[Bruce]

On 6 Apr 2023 02:11:23 GMT, Leonard Blaisdell

That's an idea, Leo! Censor all the left-wingers and replace them with
AI.

[Michael Trew]

On 4/5/2023 14:54, dsi1 wrote:
> On Sunday, April 2, 2023 at 8:09:44 AM UTC-10, Thomas wrote:
>> Thanks for posting the article.
>
> When we were on the mainland in 1976 we saw a Hawaiian BBQ
> restaurant. We thought that was a pretty good deal so we went it. It
> wasn't a Hawaiian restaurant - it was really a Korean restaurant.
> That was even better for my wife. She ordered the bibimbap.

You've triggered Bruce. He's still traumatized about the 5 different
times Cindy posted about Bibimbap over the past several years.

[Cindy Hamilton]

I am serious. The facts support the center-left and the mainstream
media. The economy does better under Democratic governments (absent
a crisis like Russia invading Ukraine). Supply-side economics just
doesn't work. People have more actual freedom thanks to the Democrats.
The GOP is only interested in making the rich richer. They have no
policy except cutting taxes. That's not a government.

--
Cindy Hamilton

[Bruce]

Cindy, please stop confusing Leo with facts. Don't you know that Leo's
fact intolerant? Leo's all about gut feelings. The brain stays
dormant.