There are many different kinds of rice flour (Ssalgaru) but short grain rice flour (Mepssalgaru) is made with short grain rice and is used to make fluffy rice cakes like Mujigaeddeok (rainbow rice cake), among other things.
You can find this in the frozen section of a Korean grocery store. It’s sold frozen so that it’ll retain its moisture. If you can’t find it in a store, you can also make it at home with this recipe.
There is more information and discussion about making rice flour out of rice on the forum.



Posted on Sunday, September 7th, 2008 at 10:31 pm. Last updated on April 24, 2019.
Tagged: 멥쌀가루, frozen rice flour, frozen rice powder, Korean cooking ingredients, korean food, korean ingredients, maepssalgaru, rice cake ingredient, rice flour, short grain rice flour, ssalgaru
Recipes that use frozen short grain rice flour (naengdong mepssalgaru):
hai maangchi,
I live in new york city, I want make rainbow rice cake, where grocery you buy frozen rice flour?
thx u.
안녕하세요 i went to korean grocery store in paris and found 쌀가루 (and yes it s written in korean) but it wasn’t in the frozen section.. And when i visited the frozen section they don’t have 쌀가루 in there so i decided to bought the one i found before to make 가래떡.. But after rewatched ur video and read some comments, found out that “frozen flour” was seem really important.. Furthermore when i read the package thouroughly, i found out that it was produced in america.. So do you think it is still short grain rice flour? Can i still use it to make 가래떡?
Thank you for the respons :D
There are 2 types of ssalgaru that I’ve been using in my recipes so far.
Chapssalgaru (which is dry)
https://www.maangchi.com/ingredient/sweet-rice-flour
and Mepssalgaru (which is wet & frozen)
https://www.maangchi.com/recipe/mepssalgaru
The reason I use frozen Mepssalgaru in the garaetteok recipe is because the rice flour needs to be made with the short grain rice soaked and ground. Dried rice flour will never work, so you need to buy frozen or make your own: https://www.maangchi.com/recipe/mepssalgaru
I love your rainbow rice cake recipe but I’m still troubled with the flour… you said that it can be homemade too… Is sweet rice = sticky,glutinous rice? Please let me know.
Hi maangichi, I recently foun your page, and I like a lot your videos. I would like to make the rainbow rice cake. I am from Mexico so I do not if I can use any rice flour, because is difficult to find the same ingredients, I have the same problem with the mugwort power. I hope you can get me a tips about this.
Thank you for you time.
Please check this out. The answer is posted here. https://www.maangchi.com/talk/topic/rainbow-rice-cake
https://www.maangchi.com/talk/topic/how-to-make-rainbow-rice-cake-with-dry-rice-flour
You can replace mugwort powder with green tea powder or use food coloring.