Seolleongtang

Marrow bones boiled hard for most of a day until the broth turns milky white, with the first boil thrown away.

Beef. Not vegetarian — contains beef.

Ingredients

• 2 kg beef leg and knuckle bones, split
• 500 g beef brisket
• 4 litres water, plus more for soaking
• 1 onion, halved
• 6 spring onions
• 1 head garlic, halved
• fine salt, spring onions and black pepper, at the table

Method

1. THE FIRST BOIL IS THROWN AWAY AND THE WATER CHANGED. Bones covered with cold water, brought to a hard boil for ten minutes, and the whole lot poured down the sink -- then the bones and the pot scrubbed under the tap. What comes out in that first boil is blood and scum, and it is the difference between a clean-tasting broth and one that tastes faintly of liver however long it then cooks. The pot must be washed too, or the ring of grey scum round it goes straight back in.
2. AND THE BONES ARE SOAKED IN COLD WATER FOR HOURS FIRST, changed two or three times, which draws most of the blood out before any heat touches them. Three hours minimum and overnight is better. This and the discarded first boil are two separate steps doing the same job, and both are needed.
3. THEN IT IS BOILED HARD, NOT SIMMERED, and that is the opposite of almost every other broth on this site. The milky white colour is marrow and collagen driven into emulsion by sustained rolling agitation; at a gentle simmer you get a clear, thin, perfectly nice beef broth and not this dish at all. This is also exactly where it parts from the galbitang on this site, whose broth must stay clear and is therefore never boiled hard.
4. SIX TO EIGHT HOURS, TOPPED UP WITH BOILING WATER. Cold water added to a boiling pot breaks the emulsion and the colour drops out.
5. IT IS SEASONED AT THE TABLE AND NOT IN THE POT. It arrives deliberately bland -- salt, spring onion and pepper go in by the bowl. Salted during cooking it concentrates past edible over eight hours of reduction.
6. Bones covered with cold water and SOAKED 3 hours or overnight, the water changed 2 or 3 times.
7. Drained, covered with fresh water, and boiled HARD 10 MINUTES.
8. THE WATER POURED AWAY, the bones rinsed and the pot scrubbed.
9. The bones returned with the 4 litres of water and brought to a rolling boil.
10. Boiled hard 3 HOURS, topped up with BOILING water as it falls.
11. The brisket, onion, spring onions and garlic added, and boiled a further 2 hours. The brisket lifted out once tender, cooled and sliced thinly.
12. The bones boiled on for a further 1 to 3 HOURS, until the broth is opaque and milky.
13. Strained. The fat left to rise and skimmed, or chilled and lifted off as a cap.
14. Reheated to boiling and ladled over the sliced brisket and a little cooked rice or somyeon noodles in deep bowls.
15. Salt, sliced spring onion and pepper put on the table for each person to season their own bowl.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under South Korea · All recipes