‘Without time, there is no flavour’: a South Korean grand grasp at the artwork of the easiest soy sauce

In the luxurious foothills of Damyang county, South Jeolla province, rows of earthenware jars stand underneath the Korean sky. Inside every clay vessel, a quiet transformation is happening, person who has been happening in this land for hundreds of years.

This is the area of Ki Soon-do, South Korea’s sole grand grasp of conventional elderly soy sauce, the place endurance isn’t only a distinctive feature however the very important factor in her craft.

“Here, try this,” Ki says, casting off the heavy lid from one of the most 1,200 pots. She dips a ladle into the darkish liquid, liberating a fancy aroma. “Smell it first, then taste just a droplet.”

The flavour unfolds slowly, first salty, then deeply savoury, with hints of one thing virtually floral. It bears little resemblance to the bottles labelled “soy sauce” in western supermarkets.

“Korean traditional soy sauce needs three things: soybeans, water and salt,” Ki explains. “And care and time. Without time, there is no flavour. In modern life, everyone is rushing. But some things cannot be rushed.”

At 75, Ki is the 10th-generation custodian of her circle of relatives’s sauce-making legacy. When she married right into a prestigious circle of relatives at 23, she inherited now not only a family however the accountability for protecting fermentation tactics courting again 370 years.

Ki is a standard jang maker, a time period that describes a circle of relatives of fermented soybean condiments that season just about each and every Korean dish: ganjang (soy sauce), doenjang (soybean paste), and gochujang (fermented chilli paste). These aren’t simply seasonings however the foundational flavours that outline Korean delicacies.

“Our jang and doenjang are like the roots of Korean people,” Ki says firmly. “When we talk about Korean food, we’re talking about jang. Without it, you cannot call it Korean cuisine.”

What started as a home legal responsibility for Ki has since reworked right into a undertaking to safeguard a cornerstone of Korean culinary heritage. In December 2024, after years of devoted paintings via Ki and different conventional jang makers, their craft used to be formally recognised via Unesco as an intangible cultural heritage of humanity, a testomony to generations of meticulous preservation.

‘We begin only after bathing to purify ourselves’

Unlike heavily produced industrial sauces and pastes, Ki’s procedure starts in wintry weather when soybeans are boiled, beaten and formed into blocks known as meju.

These blocks are tied with rice straw and hung indoors, the place the really useful micro organism from the straw lend a hand increase distinctive flavours throughout fermentation. After round 50 days, they’re submerged in brine made with bamboo salt, which Ki creates via baking sea salt inside of bamboo at prime temperatures.

“The day for boiling meju must be a good day,” she says. “We begin only after bathing to purify ourselves and saying prayers. This requires extraordinary devotion, but our family has followed these same rituals for 370 years. It’s how we’ve always done it.”

The ensuing solids that sink to the ground turn out to be into doenjang, whilst the liquid will transform ganjang after round a 12 months of fermentation. The most valuable of all is her jinjang, a soy sauce elderly for greater than 5 years that has evolved a intensity of flavour that has captivated best cooks from world wide who’ve made pilgrimages to her sanctuary.

Her willpower won world consideration in 2017 when her then 360-year-old “seed sauce” referred to as ssiganjang, a circle of relatives heirloom often replenished with every 12 months’s best possible batch (in some way very similar to a sourdough starter), used to be decided on to season pork ribs served to then US president Donald Trump throughout a state dinner party. The press marvelled at a sauce that used to be “older than American history”.

Ki additionally produces gochujang. In the 7th month of the lunar calendar, she ferments meju made in particular for the paste, which is then powdered and blended with steamed glutinous rice, chilli powder, ganjang, and malt syrup from sprouted barley. Among her creations is a particular strawberry gochujang, which makes use of Damyang strawberries for a herbal sweetness that balances the warmth and saltiness.

Ki believes that her devotion to standard fermented meals has benefited her personal well being. “I’ve never been hospitalised or taken regular medication,” she says matter-of-factly. “Everyone pursues happiness, and to be happy, you need to be healthy. People now eat fast food, but fermented foods maintain health. What could be better than that?”

Today, Ki works along her circle of relatives, who additionally lend a hand organize their conventional meals corporate. Together, they’re dedicated to protecting historic strategies whilst discovering techniques to proportion their heritage with a much wider target market. To proportion her conventional wisdom, Ki established a fermentation faculty in 2023.

Changing seasons

Yet Ki worries about the way forward for conventional jang-making. Where as soon as each and every Korean family had its personal jang recipes and jars, as of late maximum Koreans succeed in for factory-produced bottles and tubs.

The local weather disaster poses every other problem. “Korea used to have four distinct seasons, but winter is shorter, spring passes quickly, and summer is long,” Ki laments. The warmth impacts fermentation, turning doenjang darker and accelerating moisture loss. Unwanted micro organism proliferate within the hotter temperatures, forcing variations.

“We used to make larger meju, but too many different bacteria would grow,” she says. “So we cut the meju size in half to shorten the fermentation time. I’ve also planted balsam flowers around the pots to provide shade during the summer. If the climate continues to warm, we may need to move our jang to cooler storage places.”

Beyond her personal productions, Ki sees herself as a part of a broader battle to maintain cultural wisdom in an age of comfort. The Unesco popularity of jang-making as an intangible cultural heritage has given her each satisfaction and a way of accountability.

As the afternoon mild casts shadows throughout her treasured jars, Ki displays on her existence’s paintings. “This isn’t just about jang,” she says. “It was my fate to inherit this tradition, and it has become my destiny to preserve it.”