(𝐸𝓃𝑔. 𝓋𝑒𝓇𝓈𝒾𝑜𝓃) 𝑅𝑜𝓎𝒶𝓁 𝓇𝑒𝒸𝒾𝓅𝑒 𝑀𝒶𝑒𝓀𝒿𝑒𝑜𝓀

” sanggung (higher ranked court lady) Jeong was living her life quietly, but Jeong surpisingly won high praise from the king with her first dish which was Maekjeok as she used deonjang (soybeanpaste) instead of ganjang (soy sauce) to marinate the pork. An ancient recipe that is good to get rid of pork’s strong odor.”

What is maekjeok

It is a kind of bulgogi marinated in soybean paste and soy sauce. The difference with the bulgogi served in modern Korea is that chili pepper paste was not used in the past. Thinking that meat would have been the major food in the dynasties preceding Joseon, it is assumed that soybean paste was used a lot to get rid of the odors, tenderize the meat and also give a deep flavour. Grilling marinated meat has been Korea’s preferred method of meat cooking ever since the Goguryeo Dynasty (37 BC- 668 AD)

Recipe

ingredients

400gr of pork neck meat

10gr of onion

10gr of chives

2 cloves of garlic

3gr skinned ginger

2 Tbsp cooking oil

meat marinade

1 Tbsp Korean soybean paste

1 Tbsp water

1 Tbsp grain syrup or honey

1 Tbsp refined rice wine

1/2 Tbsp sugar

1/2 Tbsp sesame oil

1/2 Tbsp sesame seeds

In case you can’t find korean soybean paste, I think the closest to the taste would be japanese soybean paste, so you can use that one.

Preparation

Chop up the chives and onion and finely chop the garlic and ginger. I used scissors for all the ingredients which made it way easier to me.

Put soybean paste in a bowl, add soy sauce and water and mix well. After that, add all the chopped veggetables.

add all the ingredients for the marinade, mix well and add the meat, massaging it to mix well with the sauce. Leave for 30 minutes.

Put a table spoon of cooking oil in a pan or use a grill pan, cook the pork and after it gets a nice color from both sides, cut it into bite sized pieces and cook in lower heat until it is done.