- Doenjang is healthy. It’s the barometer of health.
- Doenjang is our family treasure. It protects our health.
- It’s made with the soybeans grown in Korea. So doenjang is the best for Koreans.
- Delicious doenjang is all we need to make tasty food. Herb doenjang soup is great in spring, and doenjang can accompany rice and vegetables in summer. It’s better when vegetables and herbs are seasoned with doenjang rather than salt or soy sauce. It only takes doenjang to make a tasty meal.

Hearty doenjang stew with big chunks of tofu is all we need to finish up a bowl of rice. Doenjang is an indispensable part of Korean cuisine. Here’s Dr. Choi Hye-sun of the Rural Development Administration.

Doenjang is a nutritious fermented food made with cooked soybean. Blocks of cooked soybean are fermented to create that pungent flavor. Soybean paste is an essential seasoning and the most fundamental basis of Korean cuisine. It represents Korean people’s sturdiness.

Korea’s signature fermented ingredients – hearty doenjang and spicy gochujang – have long been the most important factors in keeping Koreans healthy. Gochujang has already captured the palates of people all over the world as Korean cuisine is recognized around the world as one of the most delicious and healthful cuisines. Following the footstep of gochujang is doenjang, which is slowly but surely enjoying growing popularity around the globe. Here’s Dr. Choi Hye-sun of the Rural Development Administration to explain more.

The latest food trends can be summed up as health, wine, and local foods. Accordingly, the value of traditional fermented food has been widely recognized. Kimchi, Korea’s iconic food of spicy fermented cabbage, was registered with the Codex Alimentarius Commission, the international food standard setting body, as were gochujang and doenjang in 2009. Korea is now recognized as a global powerhouse of fermented food and has built a platform for doenjang export. Doenjang export grew from 3,481 tons in 2009 to 3,616 tons in 2010, a four percent increase. That shows how doenjang export is growing gradually but steadily.

Traditionally, February by the lunar calendar is said to be the best month to make doenjang. Doenjang made at this time of the year is supposedly less likely to spoil even when made with little salt. No wonder Korean homemakers looking after their families’ health are busy making their own doenjang.

This is a traditional cooking class taking place in southern Seoul. Master of traditional seasoning maker, Jo Suk-ja, is teaching a classroom full of women how to make delicious doenjang.

Homemakers mistakenly think that good soybeans are all it takes to make good doenjang. That is not so. It needs not only good soybeans, but also good water, a good clay urn, good air, and love and care. It also takes good quality salt. Inferior salt makes doenjang taste bitter. You also have to use unblemished soybeans and the clay urns should be placed where they can be under the sunlight all day long.



The two-month-long doenjang-making process begins with cooking soybeans.

Soybeans are boiled at high heat for 40 minutes and simmered in low heat for four hours. That way, the soybeans are cooked to tender perfection. The cooked soybeans are pressed into rectangular blocks, which are then hung up in a row with straw ropes and dried in clean air. The blocks should be left out in a drafty place for thirty to forty days until white fungus appears on the surface, a telling sign that the meju, a fermented soybean block, has ripened.

The real doenjang-making process begins with well-dried meju. The clay urns should be thoroughly cleaned and dried before they’re filled with stacks of meju. Then, salt water with the right level of salinity is poured into the urns.

The finishing touch is the coal, dried jujube, and red chili peppers.

The jujube is to give doenjang that sweet aftertaste, the sesame seed a nutty flavor, and the red chili pepper is for preservation. People used to have different methods for keeping doenjang unspoiled during the fermentation process. Some people planted peach trees around the urns or decorated the urns with red cloth to keep the evil spirits away. The coal was used for sterilization and removal of impurities.

For the next two months the urns containing the mejus are looked after with tender loving care. They are exposed to the warm sunlight and washed with damp cloth. Such care is said to be a crucial part of attaining great-tasting doenjang and soy sauce.

These urns are my treasures. Every morning I wash off dust from the urns like I wash my face. The urns are kept clean so they can breathe. When the sun comes out after the rain, it is good to open the lid to let in fresh air and sunlight. I’d rather wash the urns than wash my fact. The sunlight allows the mejus to ferment well. The sun is an all-important ingredient in doenjang-making.

A good urn is an essential factor in determining the flavor of Korean jang, fermented seasoning. Traditional Korean clay urns are made with firmly packed clay and painted inside and out with organic lye. They are baked at 1200 degrees Celsius for ten days. Since the urns are not glazed, they have minute air holes for oxygen and carbon dioxide to pass through. In addition to the breathing holes, sunlight plays a crucial role in perfect fermentation. Glass or cheesecloth lids are place on the urn, which are left to ferment under the sun for 50 days. Then, at last Korea’s traditional flavors are completed.

Two months later the meju blocks and salt water are separated. The meju blocks are mashed and combined with more cooked soybeans and salt.

Doenjang and soy sauce are separated after 50 days. Water is added to make soy sauce, and more cooked soybeans and salt are added to the mashed meju blocks to make doenjang. The mixture is put back into the urns to rest for about 15 days after which you can hear the bubbling sound, the sign of fermentation. Kimchi and wine also make that sound when fermenting. That bubbling sound tells you that it’s being fermented.

The sound of fermentation – this is the sound of health. This is why doenjang is considered one of the healthiest food ingredients in Korea. Here’s Dr. Choi Hye-sun of the Rural Development Administration to explain more.

Doenjang, made with soybeans, is a great source of protein. It’s also super food because various beneficial microorganisms are added during the natural fermentation process. The digestion and absorption rate of doenjang is very high, about 30% higher than other beans. It’s because the microorganisms in doenjang produce enzymes, which break down protein into amino acids and help with digestion and nutrient absorption. Doenjang also features many benefits. It is known to fight cancer, prevent obesity, and boost the immune system, which are all results of diverse micro-biotic actions that take place during fermentation. The microorganisms found in doenjang are all probiotics beneficial to the host organism.



Another six months are needed to completely mature the doenjang. Koreans consume an inordinate amount of doenjang every day, but it takes more than ten months of hard work and care to turn soybeans into delicious doenjang.

- This is exactly like the doenjang my mother used to make. It’s the doenjang from my childhood. It’s delicious.
- This color is so appetizing. This warm yellow glow is the right color.

It’s not surprising that the product of such hard and loving work tastes great. But the work is so time-consuming and labor-intensive that many Korean households now buy factory-produced doenjang rather than make it at home. The recent awakening of health-consciousness, however, has prompted more Koreans to try their hands at home-made doenjang. This new trend is evident in sold-out doenjang-making classes held at the Seoul Agricultural Technology Center.

- I feel like a rich woman. I would be really happy to this many doenjang urns at home. I wish all these urns were mine.
- I wanted to learn how to make doenjang myself. It’s good that I got a chance to learn it today.
- Doenjang is indispensable. We should eat more beans, more doenjang. We should never run out of doenjang, which is why I’m here today.
- I should learn how to make doenjang because my mother is getting old. The flavor of good doenjang is the basis of all great cooking. Doenjang is really important in our meals.

It has become trendy among Koreans to make doenjang at home. Even foreigners have grown more interested in the signature Korean seasoning. At the 2012 Madrid Fusion, a world-renowned gastro festival, in January, a variety of events focused on Korean soybean-based seasonings took place, garnering keen attention from chefs from all around the globe. Here’s Choi Jeong-yun, project team leader of Sempio Foods for more.

The Madrid Fusion was a chance for chefs from around the world to discuss the latest culinary trends and project the next hot thing in the gastronomic world. Sempio Foods of Korea took part in this event to introduce Korea’s soybean-based seasoning varieties. It is very meaningful that Korean food was selected as a key topic in such a prestigious trade show. The event’s organizing committee was composed of celebrity chefs and food journalists, who thought Korean cuisine would play an important part in the global culinary scene and decided to incorporate Korean food, especially the fermented Korean food, into the presentations.

At the event Sempio Foods won the attention of show participants by introducing ten different sauces based on Korean soy sauce, doenjang, and gochujang. Choi Jeong-yun from Sempio Foods tells how foreign chefs were most impressed by the deep flavor of doenjang.

The chefs gave high marks for the nutritional value of soy beans used in doenjang. They were already well aware of the healthful benefits of fermented beans without us telling them so. They were even more impressed by the flavors of doenjang-based sauces, by how deep and rich they tasted.

The doenjang-blue cheese sauce, made two iconic fermented foods of the east and the west, was a huge hit in Madrid. Sempio Foods team manager Choi Jeong-yun says that at the trade show one celebrity chef used doenjang and cheese to modify the traditional onion soup and won high praises for the ingenious combination of Korea and Spanish foods. Sempio Foods also introduced the “jang-pairing map” to show how to pair up Korean doenjang with western ingredients and cooking methods.

Korean doenjang is emerging as a novel ingredient in the world culinary scene. It will continue to capture the palates of people around the world with its healthful qualities and addictive flavor.