Doenjang
Encyclopedia
Doenjang (or doenzang or bean paste, HS code
: 2103.90.1010) is a traditional Korea
n fermented
soybean
paste. Its name literally means "thick paste" in Korean
.
To produce doenjang, dried soybeans are boiled and stone-ground into coarse bits. This paste is then formed into blocks, which are called meju
. The blocks are then exposed to sunlight or warmth. When so exposed, dried rice plants are attached to the surface of the soybean blocks. Dried rice plants are readily available in Korea and are a rich source of bacteria (Bacillus subtilis
). The fermentation process begins at this stage. The Bacillus subtilis bacteria reproduce, consuming soybean protein and water in the meju. The unique smell of the meju is mainly the ammonia produced by the bacteria. One to three months later, depending on the block size, the meju are put into large, opaque pottery
jars with brine and left to further ferment, during which time various beneficial bacteria
transform the mixture into a further vitamin
-enriched substance (similar to the way milk
ferments to become yogurt). Liquids and solids are separated after the fermentation process, and the liquid becomes Korean soy sauce (Joseon ganjang
; ). The solid, which is doenjang, is very salt
y and quite thick, often containing (unlike most miso
) some whole, uncrushed soybeans.
While traditional homemade doenjang is made with soybeans and brine only, many factory-made variants of doenjang contain a fair amount of wheat flour just like most factory-made soy sauce does. Some current makers also add fermented, dried, and ground anchovies
to accentuate the doenjangs savory flavor.
, and sometimes gochujang
to produce ssamjang
, which is then traditionally eaten with or without rice wrapped in leaf vegetable
s such as red leaf lettuce. This dish is called ssambap. This combination of leaf vegetable and doenjang (or ssamjang) often complements popular Korean meat dishes, for example samgyeopsal
, bulgogi
, and bossam
.
It can also be used as a component of soup broth, for example in a popular stew (jjigae
) called doenjang jjigae
which usually includes tofu
, various vegetables such as chile peppers, zucchini
and scallion
, and (optionally) mushrooms
, red meat
, or scallop
s.
s and beneficial vitamins, mineral
s, and plant hormone
s (phytoestrogens) which are sometimes claimed to possess anticarcinogen
ic properties. In Korean traditional meals, the menu has concentrated on vegetables and rice, but doenjang, which is made of soybeans, has a great deal of lysine, an essential amino acid that rice lacks. Linoleic acid
(53% of the fatty acids) and linolenic acid (8% of the fatty acids) have an important role in normal growth of blood vessels and prevention of blood vessel-related illness. Unlike miso
, which is usually not boiled, doenjangs efficacy still exists after boiling, in dishes such as doenjang jjigae.
as essential flavorings, and explored the origins of the condiments, particularly focusing on Sunchang County
, where most Korean soy sauce is produced. The article pointed out that doenjang does not contain any artificial additives and in fact has healthy amounts of essential vitamins, such as vitamin C
and vitamin B12
. The health benefits of doenjang are rumored to extend longevity, and this is illustrated by the fact that out of the 32,000 people in Sunchung county, eight are over 100 years old and many are over 90. The article was influential throughout China, resulting in many Chinese restaurants adding doenjang stew, modified slightly to Chinese tastes, to their menus shortly after publication. South Korea's JoongAng Ilbo covered this story in China on December 13, 2007.
Dajiang, a type of fermented soybean paste popular in northeast China, bears a great similarity in texture and taste to Korean doenjang. The tradition of eating dajiang is said to have been started by the Manchu people, who originally occupied China's northeastern provinces. Northeastern Chinese people enjoy eating raw vegetables in the summer, and dajiang is used like a salad dressing to add flavor.
Harmonized System
The Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System of tariff nomenclature is an internationally standardized system of names and numbers for classifying traded products developed and maintained by the World Customs Organization , an independent intergovernmental organization with over 170...
: 2103.90.1010) is a traditional Korea
Korea
Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...
n fermented
Fermentation (food)
Fermentation in food processing typically is the conversion of carbohydrates to alcohols and carbon dioxide or organic acids using yeasts, bacteria, or a combination thereof, under anaerobic conditions. Fermentation in simple terms is the chemical conversion of sugars into ethanol...
soybean
Soybean
The soybean or soya bean is a species of legume native to East Asia, widely grown for its edible bean which has numerous uses...
paste. Its name literally means "thick paste" in Korean
Korean language
Korean is the official language of the country Korea, in both South and North. It is also one of the two official languages in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in People's Republic of China. There are about 78 million Korean speakers worldwide. In the 15th century, a national writing...
.
Production
Meju
Meju , also known as maljang , is a brick of dried fermented soybeans in Korean cuisine. While not consumed on its own, it serves as the basis of several Korean condiments, such as doenjang, gochujang, or ganjang. Meju is produced by boiling soybeans, then crushing them in a mortar...
. The blocks are then exposed to sunlight or warmth. When so exposed, dried rice plants are attached to the surface of the soybean blocks. Dried rice plants are readily available in Korea and are a rich source of bacteria (Bacillus subtilis
Bacillus subtilis
Bacillus subtilis, known also as the hay bacillus or grass bacillus, is a Gram-positive, catalase-positive bacterium commonly found in soil. A member of the genus Bacillus, B. subtilis is rod-shaped, and has the ability to form a tough, protective endospore, allowing the organism to tolerate...
). The fermentation process begins at this stage. The Bacillus subtilis bacteria reproduce, consuming soybean protein and water in the meju. The unique smell of the meju is mainly the ammonia produced by the bacteria. One to three months later, depending on the block size, the meju are put into large, opaque pottery
Pottery
Pottery is the material from which the potteryware is made, of which major types include earthenware, stoneware and porcelain. The place where such wares are made is also called a pottery . Pottery also refers to the art or craft of the potter or the manufacture of pottery...
jars with brine and left to further ferment, during which time various beneficial bacteria
Bacteria
Bacteria are a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria have a wide range of shapes, ranging from spheres to rods and spirals...
transform the mixture into a further vitamin
Vitamin
A vitamin is an organic compound required as a nutrient in tiny amounts by an organism. In other words, an organic chemical compound is called a vitamin when it cannot be synthesized in sufficient quantities by an organism, and must be obtained from the diet. Thus, the term is conditional both on...
-enriched substance (similar to the way milk
Milk
Milk is a white liquid produced by the mammary glands of mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals before they are able to digest other types of food. Early-lactation milk contains colostrum, which carries the mother's antibodies to the baby and can reduce the risk of many...
ferments to become yogurt). Liquids and solids are separated after the fermentation process, and the liquid becomes Korean soy sauce (Joseon ganjang
Ganjang
Ganjang is a kind of Korean soy sauce made from fermented soybeans. Ganjang is a uniquely Korean condiment.Traditionally, Koreans start processing soybeans around the 10th month of the lunar calendar. They soak soybeans overnight and then boil them. They then pound the soybeans into a powder and...
; ). The solid, which is doenjang, is very salt
Salt
In chemistry, salts are ionic compounds that result from the neutralization reaction of an acid and a base. They are composed of cations and anions so that the product is electrically neutral...
y and quite thick, often containing (unlike most miso
Miso
is a traditional Japanese seasoning produced by fermenting rice, barley and/or soybeans, with salt and the fungus , the most typical miso being made with soy. The result is a thick paste used for sauces and spreads, pickling vegetables or meats, and mixing with dashi soup stock to serve as miso...
) some whole, uncrushed soybeans.
While traditional homemade doenjang is made with soybeans and brine only, many factory-made variants of doenjang contain a fair amount of wheat flour just like most factory-made soy sauce does. Some current makers also add fermented, dried, and ground anchovies
Anchovy
Anchovies are a family of small, common salt-water forage fish. There are 144 species in 17 genera, found in the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans. Anchovies are usually classified as an oily fish.-Description:...
to accentuate the doenjangs savory flavor.
Use
Doenjang can be eaten as a condiment in raw-paste form with vegetables, as flavored seasoning or even as a dipping condiment. However, it is more commonly mixed with garlic, sesame oilSesame oil
Sesame oil is an edible vegetable oil derived from sesame seeds. Besides being used as a cooking oil in South India, it is often used as a flavor enhancer in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and to a lesser extent Southeast Asian cuisine.The oil from the nutrient rich seed is popular in alternative...
, and sometimes gochujang
Gochujang
Gochujang is a savory and pungent fermented Korean condiment. Traditionally, it has been naturally fermented over years in large earthen pots outdoors, more often on an elevated stone platform, called jangdokdae in the backyard...
to produce ssamjang
Ssamjang
Ssamjang is a thick, spicy paste used with food wrapped in a leaf in Korean cuisine. The sauce is made of doenjang, gochujang, sesame oil, onion, garlic, green onions, and optionally brown sugar.-Use:...
, which is then traditionally eaten with or without rice wrapped in leaf vegetable
Leaf vegetable
Leaf vegetables, also called potherbs, green vegetables, greens, leafy greens or salad greens, are plant leaves eaten as a vegetable, sometimes accompanied by tender petioles and shoots...
s such as red leaf lettuce. This dish is called ssambap. This combination of leaf vegetable and doenjang (or ssamjang) often complements popular Korean meat dishes, for example samgyeopsal
Samgyeopsal
Samgyeopsal is a popular Korean dish. Commonly served as an evening meal, it consists of thick, fatty slices of pork belly meat . The meat, usually neither marinated nor seasoned, is cooked on a grill at the diners' table...
, bulgogi
Bulgogi
Bulgogi is a Korean dish that usually consists of marinated barbecued beef, although chicken or pork may also be used. It is listed at number 23 on World's 50 most delicious foods readers' poll complied by CNN Go in 2011.-Etymology:...
, and bossam
Bossam (food)
Bossam is a type of ssam in Korean cuisine in which steamed pork is wrapped in a leaf vegetable such as red lettuce or sesame leaf, often accompanied by a condiment known as ssamjang. It is usually topped with raw or cooked garlic, onion, pepper, or, most commonly, sweet kimchi...
.
It can also be used as a component of soup broth, for example in a popular stew (jjigae
Jjigae
Jjigae is a Korean dish similar to a Western stew. There are many different varieties but it is typically made with meat, seafood or vegetables in a broth seasoned with gochujang, doenjang, ganjang or saeujeot. Jjigae is typically served in a communal dish and boiling hot.A Korean meal almost...
) called doenjang jjigae
Doenjang jjigae
Doenjang jjigae is a variety of jjigae or stew-like Korean traditional dish, made with doenjang and available ingredients such as vegetables, mushrooms, seafood, or dubu . It is regarded as one of the representative dishes of food in Korea.-External links:* at TasteofKorea.org** at JoongAng Daily...
which usually includes tofu
Tofu
is a food made by coagulating soy milk and then pressing the resulting curds into soft white blocks. It is part of East Asian and Southeast Asian cuisine such as Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indonesian, Vietnamese, and others. There are many different varieties of tofu, including fresh tofu and tofu...
, various vegetables such as chile peppers, zucchini
Zucchini
The zucchini is a summer squash which often grows to nearly a meter in length, but which is usually harvested at half that size or less. It is a hybrid of the cucumber. Along with certain other squashes, it belongs to the species Cucurbita pepo. Zucchini can be dark or light green...
and scallion
Scallion
Scallions , are the edible plants of various Allium species, all of which are "onion-like", having hollow green leaves and lacking a fully developed root bulb.-Etymology:The words...
, and (optionally) mushrooms
Edible mushroom
Edible mushrooms are the fleshy and edible fruiting bodies of several species of fungi. Mushrooms belong to the macrofungi, because their fruiting structures are large enough to be seen with the naked eye. They can appear either below ground or above ground where they may be picked by hand...
, red meat
Red meat
Red meat in traditional culinary terminology is meat which is red when raw and not white when cooked. In the nutritional sciences, red meat includes all mammal meat. Red meat includes the meat of most adult mammals and some fowl ....
, or scallop
Scallop
A scallop is a marine bivalve mollusk of the family Pectinidae. Scallops are a cosmopolitan family, found in all of the world's oceans. Many scallops are highly prized as a food source...
s.
Nutrition and health
Doenjang is rich in flavonoidFlavonoid
Flavonoids , are a class of plant secondary metabolites....
s and beneficial vitamins, mineral
Mineral
A mineral is a naturally occurring solid chemical substance formed through biogeochemical processes, having characteristic chemical composition, highly ordered atomic structure, and specific physical properties. By comparison, a rock is an aggregate of minerals and/or mineraloids and does not...
s, and plant hormone
Plant hormone
Plant hormones are chemicals that regulate plant growth, which, in the UK, are termed 'plant growth substances'. Plant hormones are signal molecules produced within the plant, and occur in extremely low concentrations. Hormones regulate cellular processes in targeted cells locally and, when moved...
s (phytoestrogens) which are sometimes claimed to possess anticarcinogen
Carcinogen
A carcinogen is any substance, radionuclide, or radiation that is an agent directly involved in causing cancer. This may be due to the ability to damage the genome or to the disruption of cellular metabolic processes...
ic properties. In Korean traditional meals, the menu has concentrated on vegetables and rice, but doenjang, which is made of soybeans, has a great deal of lysine, an essential amino acid that rice lacks. Linoleic acid
Linoleic acid
Linoleic acid is an unsaturated n-6 fatty acid. It is a colorless liquid at room temperature. In physiological literature, it has a lipid number of 18:2...
(53% of the fatty acids) and linolenic acid (8% of the fatty acids) have an important role in normal growth of blood vessels and prevention of blood vessel-related illness. Unlike miso
Miso
is a traditional Japanese seasoning produced by fermenting rice, barley and/or soybeans, with salt and the fungus , the most typical miso being made with soy. The result is a thick paste used for sauces and spreads, pickling vegetables or meats, and mixing with dashi soup stock to serve as miso...
, which is usually not boiled, doenjangs efficacy still exists after boiling, in dishes such as doenjang jjigae.
Knowledge and use of doenjang outside Korea
Doenjang is considered one of the essential sauces of authentic Korean cuisine. However, the condiment has historically been unknown outside of Korea, although recent international articles have resulted in an increase in its popularity. A 2007 Chinese article on the "Sauces of Korea" listed doenjang and gochujangGochujang
Gochujang is a savory and pungent fermented Korean condiment. Traditionally, it has been naturally fermented over years in large earthen pots outdoors, more often on an elevated stone platform, called jangdokdae in the backyard...
as essential flavorings, and explored the origins of the condiments, particularly focusing on Sunchang County
Sunchang County
Sunchang County is a county in North Jeolla Province, South Korea.Sunchang's claim to fame is its red pepper paste, or gochujang, which is supposed to be distinct from other recipes...
, where most Korean soy sauce is produced. The article pointed out that doenjang does not contain any artificial additives and in fact has healthy amounts of essential vitamins, such as vitamin C
Vitamin C
Vitamin C or L-ascorbic acid or L-ascorbate is an essential nutrient for humans and certain other animal species. In living organisms ascorbate acts as an antioxidant by protecting the body against oxidative stress...
and vitamin B12
Vitamin B12
Vitamin B12, vitamin B12 or vitamin B-12, also called cobalamin, is a water-soluble vitamin with a key role in the normal functioning of the brain and nervous system, and for the formation of blood. It is one of the eight B vitamins...
. The health benefits of doenjang are rumored to extend longevity, and this is illustrated by the fact that out of the 32,000 people in Sunchung county, eight are over 100 years old and many are over 90. The article was influential throughout China, resulting in many Chinese restaurants adding doenjang stew, modified slightly to Chinese tastes, to their menus shortly after publication. South Korea's JoongAng Ilbo covered this story in China on December 13, 2007.
Dajiang, a type of fermented soybean paste popular in northeast China, bears a great similarity in texture and taste to Korean doenjang. The tradition of eating dajiang is said to have been started by the Manchu people, who originally occupied China's northeastern provinces. Northeastern Chinese people enjoy eating raw vegetables in the summer, and dajiang is used like a salad dressing to add flavor.
See also
- TươngTuongTương is the name applied to a variety of condiments a kind of fermented bean paste made from soybean and commonly used in Vietnamese cuisine....
- MisoMisois a traditional Japanese seasoning produced by fermenting rice, barley and/or soybeans, with salt and the fungus , the most typical miso being made with soy. The result is a thick paste used for sauces and spreads, pickling vegetables or meats, and mixing with dashi soup stock to serve as miso...
- DajiangDajiang (food)Dajiang is a type of fermented soybean paste that is popular in Northeast China. The tradition of eating dajiang is said to have been started by the Manchu people, who originally occupied China's northeastern provinces...
- CheonggukjangCheonggukjangCheonggukjang is a fermented soybean paste used in Korean cuisine. It contains whole as well as ground soybeans.- Production :It can be made in 2 to 3 days through fermentation of boiled soybeans, adding Bacillus subtilis, which is usually contained in the air or in the jip, dried rice plants,...
- Fermented bean pasteFermented bean pasteFermented bean paste is a category of fermented foods typically made from ground soybeans, which are indigenous to the cuisines of East and Southeast Asia...
- Yellow soybean pasteYellow soybean pasteYellow soybean paste is a fermented paste made from yellow soybeans, salt, and water; wheat flour, though not formerly used, is often used as an additional ingredient in the modern day, and potassium sorbate may also be used as a preservative...
- Korean cuisine
