Types of Soup Stock

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    • #50552
      kpon
      Member

      Hello,

      My parents are from Pusan on the coast of S. Korea, so in our house, a lot of our meals are seafood-based. My Mother would simmer stock made from dried anchovies, shiitake mushrooms, onion, and dried kelp for hours and hours, and that would be the base for virtually all soups/stews we had.

      After learning different recipes from Maangchi, I noticed that several soup recipes don’t call for stock (e.g. dried pollack soup), while others call for anchovy-based stock (e.g. soft tofu soup, bean paste stew), and still others call for beef-based stock (e.g. rice cake soup, spicy beef and vegetable soup). This is quite different from what I’ve seen growing up.

      Is there a general rule of thumb for what kind of stock should be used for certain types of recipes?

      Maangchi (or others) — Please help!

    • #55330
      Sali
      Participant

      I am not Maangchi… But with soup stock it’s very largely about what you personally like. Soup stock is meant to enhance the flavors of the dish, so for example beef stock is good in dishes which contain beef. But if you like anchovy stock more, use that! The one your mother made is a good general-purpose stock. Some ingredients already have a strong flavour so they don’t need stock. Experiment and see what you like best. :)

    • #55331
      chirp
      Participant

      Yes and No. Some need that specific stock, but some don’t. For instance, Miyeokguk can be based on beef, or mussels (Honghap) or anchovies or even Fxxx chicken(like they do on the ROK army). But you can never use anchovies on Yukgejang or any “Should be meat based” soup.

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