Rice
Korean Cookery
Chapter 2 · Rice and the Korean Table
Shopping list for this chapter
The basics
In Chapter 1 the meal started with bap, cooked rice. The bap article says it was traditionally cooked in a cast-iron gamasot for large families, that today an electric rice cooker is usually used, and that a heavy-bottomed pot or a stone dolsot also works. Most of the passages about cooking carry "citation needed" tags, so I give them as the article's description and not as settled fact.
Kinds of bap
| Name | What it is, per the article |
|---|---|
| Ssalbap / baekmi-bap | White rice |
| Heungmi-bap | Black rice |
| Hyeonmi-bap | Brown rice |
| Chapssal-bap | Glutinous rice |
| Japgok-bap | Multi-grain rice |
| Ogok-bap | Five-grain rice, eaten on Daeboreum |
| Kongbap, bori-bap, patbap | Rice with beans, barley, red beans (single added grains) |
| Namul-bap, gamja-bap, gulbap | Rice cooked with vegetables, potato, oyster |
The article also says bap is "widely considered as medicinal by many Koreans", sourced to a 2017 paper. I make no health claim here.
The method the article describes
- Scrub and rinse the rice several times. The cloudy washing water is called tteumul (the description is tagged "better source needed").
- Soak about 30 minutes. Brown rice and large grains need several hours or overnight.
- In a regular pot, cook over medium-high heat with the lid on for about ten minutes, stirring, then simmer on low for five to ten more minutes.
Nurungji and sungnyung
The nurungji article says: "After boiling and serving rice, a thin crust of scorched rice will usually be left in the bottom of the cooking pot." It "can be eaten in its crisp state as a snack or as an after meal rice tea by adding hot water", and can be reboiled with water to make nurungji bap. It says the 17th-century medical book Dongui Bogam records it as "considered as a remedy" for food that is hard to swallow or upsets the stomach; I pass that on as a historical record, not advice. The bap article calls the infusion sungnyung. The nurungji article only lists sungnyung in a link and does not describe it, so my directions below for the tea are mine.
Spoon and chopsticks
The sujeo article says sujeo is the term for the set of utensils: metal chopsticks (often stainless steel, flat-ish in section) and a long-handled shallow spoon. It states:
- Using both at once is described as a recent way to eat faster; food is more often eaten with chopsticks alone.
- "The spoon may be laid down on the rice bowl, or soup bowl, if it has not been used."
- Chopsticks should not be stood upright in food, especially rice, which "is considered to bring bad luck" because it resembles offerings at graves.
- Holding the spoon and chopsticks together in one hand is not good manners, "especially while eating with elders."
The article does not say which side the rice or soup goes on. Chapter 1's table gave the individual bowls (rice, soup) and the shared dishes in the middle. Chapter 5 adds, from the guk article, that the soup is served to the right of the rice. Any further placement is not in my sources, so follow what you are shown if you eat with Korean friends.
Cooked rice: general food-safety advice (mine, not from the articles): cool leftover rice quickly, keep it in the fridge, eat it within a day and reheat until steaming hot all the way through.
Steam and hot water: lift the lid away from you.
Try it
Plain short-grain rice in a pot
Use short-grain (sushi or Korean) rice, which the course assumes throughout. Measure by volume with a mug or cup.
Ingredients (2 portions)
- 1 cup short-grain rice
- 1 cup water, plus 2 tbsp (my starting ratio; see the experiment)
- Put the rice in the pot. Cover with cold water, swirl, tip off the cloudy water. Repeat several times until it runs less cloudy.
- Add the cooking water and leave to soak for 30 minutes.
- Put the lid on and bring to the boil over medium-high heat, stirring once or twice; the article says about ten minutes.
- Turn the heat to low and simmer, lid on, for five to ten minutes.
- Turn the heat off and leave covered for about 5 minutes (my step). Fluff gently with a spoon and taste a grain: it should be tender with a little bite.
If the rice is hard add a splash of water, cover and steam on the lowest heat a few minutes. If mushy, use less water next time. For one portion use half a cup of rice in a small pot, and expect the timings to shift.
Nurungji and a cup of rice tea
Cook the rice as above, but in the last stage, once the water has gone, leave the pot on low heat for an extra few minutes so a thin crust forms (my timing; start with 3 to 5 minutes and look).
Ingredients (2 portions)
- 1 cup short-grain rice, cooked as above in a heavy-based pot
- 2 cups hot water, for the tea
- Spoon the loose rice out into bowls, leaving the crust in the pot.
- Option 1, snack: lift out pieces of the crisp crust and eat them with a pinch of salt.
- Option 2, rice tea: pour about 2 cups of hot water on the crust, simmer gently for a few minutes (mine), and drink it after the meal, as the article describes for "after meal rice tea".
If the crust sticks hard, soak the pot in hot water before scrubbing; do not scrape it dry.
Setting the table
Put a bowl of rice and a bowl of soup (a soup recipe arrives in Chapter 5, so use a bowl of the rice tea from the second recipe for now) and a spoon and chopsticks for each person, with the ssamjang from Chapter 1 and some cucumber in the middle to share. Lay the spoon beside the rice, never stand the chopsticks upright in the rice, and use the spoon for rice and soup.
Experiments
Challenges
Explain the method for cooking rice in a pot as the bap article describes it, say which parts were tagged "citation needed", and say what the article does not give.
Name five kinds of bap from the table and say what makes each different. Then say which you would try first and what you would add to make it a meal.
Cook the rice, form a crust and make the rice tea. Then write down your water ratio, how long the crust took, and the table manners from the sujeo article that you followed.
Quick Reference
- Method: rinse, soak about 30 minutes, medium-high with lid about 10 minutes, then low 5 to 10 minutes
- Mine, untested: 1 cup rice to about 1 cup plus 2 tbsp water; rest 5 minutes
- Nurungji: scorched crust, eaten crisp or boiled in water as rice tea
- Sujeo: metal chopsticks and spoon; do not stand chopsticks in rice
- Leftover rice: cool quickly, fridge, reheat hot (general advice)
Next chapter: Banchan, small side dishes to eat with the rice.