[Anchor Lead]
The fermented soybean paste doenjang, with its signature taste, is essential to Korean cuisine. Koreans say that when you lose your appetite, some green chilies dipped in doenjang will do the trick and restore your taste buds. Take a look.
[Pkg]
Sauce ripens under the clear blue sky. It's none other than doenjang, fermented soybean paste. The making of doenjang starts from meju which are blocks or lumps of fermented soybeans.
[Soundbite] Kim Yeong-seok(Doenjang Manufacturer) : "The taste of doenjang is determined by the yearly temperature and the person making it."
Meju blocks are first washed, removed of the rice straws and dust, and then dried. While they are being dried, brine is made. You can determine the perfect salinity of 18 degrees by floating a raw egg on the salt water and when the surface of the egg is just about the size of a 500 won Korean coin.
[Soundbite] Kim Yeong-seok(Doenjang Manufacturer) : "Brine of low salinity gives doengang a sour taste while high salinity gives a bitter taste. The right level of saltiness makes good doenjang."
Now place the meju blocks in jars and also put in some bamboo sticks to push down the meju so they won't rise. Then pour in the brine along with some dry peppers and charcoal. Close the lid and the meju will be fermented under the sun for 50 long days. After this time has passed, the meju is taken out of the salt water. The light brown liquid eventually becomes soy sauce or ganjang in Korean. And the solid parts turn into doenjang. The meju blocks are smashed apart by hand and go back into the jar. We need to wait another year for the doenjang paste to be ready for consumption. It would be wonderful to make doenjang this way at home but of course, it's not really feasible. Many homes just use store bought varieties.
[Soundbite] Song Hyeon-joo(Housewife) : "I usually use store bought doenjang. But I've come to use it in various ways, thinking of how to elevate the taste of the paste."
Here's a way
