Ox bone soup is very popular all year round in Korea, but especially in the winter. This is my mother’s recipe. When I was young, sometimes in the winter she used to make us drink it every morning and every night until we got tired of it. “It’s good for your body, take some, you will grow taller” : )
In Korea, ox leg bones (called sagol 사골) are very expensive. When I came to America for the first time about 20 years ago, I couldn’t believe these bones were so cheap!
The milky broth is achieved by simmering for hours and hours. There’s no rule for how many hours you have to boil it, but you need simmer until you get a milky broth, and the bones are smooth with no more meat sticking to them. All the bone marrow should be boiled away so that there’s a cavity in the center of each bone. The inside of the bones should look like a sponge.
Koreans like to joke that if a Korean husband sees his wife making this soup, he starts to get nervous. He knows he’s going to be eating the soup for days or even weeks!
“Why she is making this? Is she going to leave home for days? Maybe she will visit her parents or take a trip with her friends?”
So, when he sees the wife boiling bone soup, he may say ask: “Where are you going?” : )
It’s served with rice and kimchi; you don’t need many side dishes when you serve this. If you keep this soup in the fridge, and warm rice in the rice cooker, and some kimchi and beef portioned out in the fridge, you’ll have instant meals for a long time, all you have to do is heat it up. I heard that some American housewives do a similar thing with lasagna. They make a big batch before they go away, so their husbands and children will have delicious food to eat until they come back.
Don’t ask me: “Maangchi, I want to make only 1 bowl of this soup.” This is the smallest batch of ox-bone soup that I can imagine! I used to make it with 10 pounds of bones: ) So just make a lot, and eat it over a few days.
Ingredients (for 6 servings)
2½ pounds of ox bones, 2 pounds beef flank (or brisket or round), water, Korean radish (or daikon radish), onion, green onions, kosher salt, black ground pepper, toasted sesame oil.
Directions
- Soak the ox bones and the beef in cold water for 20 minutes to remove any blood.
- Rinse bones in cold water a couple of times to remove any bone chips. Drain the water.
- Boil 14 cups water (3½ quarts) in a large pot
- Put the bones and beef into the pot of boiling water. Boil for about 10 minutes.
- Turn off the heat and take out the bones and beef. Get rid of the water.
- Rinse and drain the meat in cold water to remove the excess fat.
- If you only have one pot to use, clean it thoroughly with kitchen soap.
- Put the bones and the beef back into the pot
- Add about 12 cups of water (3 quarts), 1 medium size onion, and 1½ pounds of peeled radish to the pot. Bring to a boil over medium heat.
- When it starts boiling about 20-30 minutes later, lower the heat to simmer for 3 hours.
- Turn off the heat and take the beef and radish out of the pot. Leave the bones behind.
- Put the beef and radish into a bowl.
- Pour the brownish broth out of the pot and into a large bowl. We’re going to keep boiling these bones and collect the broth into this collecting bowl as we go along. Keep it in the fridge during this process.
If you have a larger pot, you could keep boiling the bones and adding water over hours and hours, but with a small pot we need to do it in stages and collect in this collecting bowl. - Fill the pot with water again (about 3 quarts) and boil over medium high heat for about 20 minutes. When it starts boiling, lower the heat and simmer for 2½ to 3 hours.
- Turn off the heat, open the lid, and pour the broth into the collecting bowl. It will be a lot whiter than the first time we poured it out.
- Fill your pot with water again and boil over medium high heat for about 20 minutes. When it starts boiling, lower the heat and simmer for 2½ to 3 hours.
- Turn off the heat, open the lid, and pour the broth into the collecting bowl. This time it will be really white, but thin.
- Cool down the collecting bowl and cover it with plastic wrap. Keep it in the refrigerator for several hours until all the fat floats to the top and gets solid. This is going to be our bone soup.
Let’s serve!
- Take the bone soup out of the fridge. Remove the solid fat from the top with a spoon or strainer.
- Slice the cooked beef thinly, about 1/8 inch thick. Cut radish into ¼ inch thick slices
- Reheat the bone soup and ladle the soup into a serving bowl.
- Add a few slices of the beef and radish to the soup. Serve with warm rice and kimchi, along with chopped green onions, minced garlic, kosher salt, and black ground pepper.
- Add some salt, chopped green onion, and black ground pepper to the soup. Mix it well with your spoon. You can add warm rice to the soup and enjoy!
*tip: The amount of salt you put in depends on your taste, but I suggest starting with 1 ts and adding more if it’s too bland.
*tip: The amount of salt you put in depends on your taste, but I suggest starting with 1 ts and adding more if it’s too bland.Spicy version:
- Tear about 1 cup worth of cooked beef into thin strips. Put them in a mixing bowl.
- Add 2 tbs chopped green onion, 2 ts soy sauce, 2 ts hot pepper flakes, a pinch of black ground pepper, and 2 ts toasted sesame oil. Mix it well with a spoon.
- Ladle the boiling soup into a serving bowl and add a few slices of radish and the mixture of seasoned beef.
- Serve with warm rice, kosher salt, and kimchi.
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Hi Maangchi,
I understand the recipe is called ‘ox-bone soup’ but are beef bones the same thing? Or can they be substituted? I’m not entirely sure if Australian butchers have ox. I don’t want to spend all that time boiling bones and find out that i’ve gone out and bought the wrong thing. Wanna make something warming and comforting before our winter here in this hemisphere ends! Thank you.
Yes, it’s made with beef bones. : )
hello maangchi, i just wondering if there’s any substitute of the ox bone for making the ox bone soup. i’m barely thanks for your reply. i just love your website.
You can use oxtail instead of ox bone.
thank you so much maangchi.
Hi Maangchi,
I am giggling to myself, this is my third post about seolleongtang, I actually make it often. Sometimes I use it as a base stock for muguk.
Today I am making a pot of ox bone soup for my mother who will visit me this week. We have just found out she has a rare cancer that is making her bones weak. This soup will be good for her bones because it is full of calcium.
She is not Korean but enjoys Korean food.
yeah you are such a good daughter! Serve with fermented kkakdugi (cubed radish kimchi). Yummy!
Hi, I have a question… In steps 4-6 why do you boil for 10 minutes and throw the water out? nutrients aren’t lost that way are they? And why do you rinse off spare fat then, too? I see the soup ends up with plenty of fat so its not to avoid fat or anything… I’m sorry for the questions, I’m new to cooking and can’t wait to be trying this fabulous sounding recipe. For nutrition i will be buying some 100% organic grass fed/finished beef bones & knuckles to make a super-nutritious broth and this looks perfect.
Thank you for your advice/insight.
I do it to make sure to remove all the excessive blood and bone fragments which will make a clear broth.
wow does this take a long time to make! i got the milky broth with the third boil of soup. there is a depth of flavor that is really tasty!
Congratulations on your successful seollongtang making!
Hi Maangchi! I was wondering if it’s the process of pouring out the broth and refilling it with water, that makes the broth milky white.
I made it, let’s say, the lazy way: I just boiled the bones in a large stock pot with lots of water. I ended up with a very yellowish broth, not white at all!
Thanks :)
Pour the brownish broth into a large stainless steel bowl, then add fresh water to the bones in the pot and boil. Then you will get milky broth.
Hi Maangchi,
I live in Long Beach, Ca. I have watched all of your Korean, cooking shows on You Tube and love all of your Korean recipes…please tell me where I can purchase the Korean, ingredients and spices to make your dishes you display, on line or locally.
I really wish to cook the Korean foods that is on your site.
You can reply back to me at my personal email address: derekaduncan@gmail.com.
Yours Regards Truly,
Derek
Hi Derek,
This is the list of Korean grocery stores of the United States. All were submitted by my readers. I hope you can find one in your area. https://www.maangchi.com/shopping/us
Hi Maangchi,
Thank you for the link. I really appreciated it.
Kind Regards,
Derek
Hi Maanchi, it is me again, elusive Orion looking for help! I recently learned that my girlfriend (from korea) may be expecting my child. Well, I am very happy to hear this, and I would like to celebrate by cooking some delicious food for her. In Korea, what is recommended I cook to promote a healthy baby, and to help my girlfriend’s struggle?
I thought maybe a soup, but is there something better?
Thank you very much!
Orion.
Orion, yay! congratulations!
There is no such things special food for a pregnant woman in Korea but she should eat a well balanced diet. Miyeokguk is always considered a healthy soup for women. Your girlfriend will be impressed if you give her a bowl of miyeokguk! https://www.maangchi.com/recipe/miyuk-guk
After having a baby, it’s customary for Korean women to have miyeokguk (seaplant soup) for 1 month.
For your special party for her, how about making galbi? https://www.maangchi.com/recipe/la-galbi
And you can leave your post and questions on the forum too. I’m sure many people will think you are cool and they may give you good advice!
https://www.maangchi.com/talk/forum/general-discussion
Hello Maangchi,
I’m trying to find Seolleongtang in your books but I can’t find it in either of the 3, is it scheduled for book #4?
Hi Maangchi,
I love your website! How would I adjust this meal for 45 people? I have to cook a meal for our church in two weeks time and I was thinking of making this but didn’t want to stuff the meal up!
ow ow, this soup is a great choice for a large group! This recipe is for 4-6 serving and it says “2.5 pounds of ox bones, 2 pounds beef flank (or brisket or round),” so you will need about 28 pounds of ox bones (about 13 kilograms and 22 pounds of beef brisket.
Make a lot and boil it for a few days until you get milky broth. Add more water as needed. Take the meat out when it gets tender and keep it in the fridge. Otherwise, the meat will be overcooked and it will turn mushy.
Serve with rice and kkakdugi. Check out my kkakdugi recipe that I posted today. https://www.maangchi.com/recipe/kkakdugi
If you serve this soup for the people, please update me and upload the photo, if you can.
Yeah – I had a chat with my mum. My mum is going to cook beef soup this week (because we don’t want to have 45 hungry people if I stuff it up!). I will then give your recipe a try and if it works, will make it for church next time (will definitely post a pic of this!)
Thanks so much Maangchi! :)
Hi Maangchi!!! I tried this recipe yesterday and it was super yummy!!!!! Though I couldn’t find Ox bone in Singapore so I substitute it with Ox Tail, It still turned out pretty good!!!
(Ox tail can’t make the soup look milky white tho). My husband loves Korean food so much that I’ve tried making dishes from your website quite a few times. All the recipes I’ve tried here were great successes. Thank you very much!!!
I’m going to try this recipe sometime this week :)! How much do ox bones usually cost? I was at my local Korean market today and it was about $0.70 a pound, is that a fair price?
When I make this, I tend to get a lot of yucky looking reddish/brownish crud in the broth. I thought maybe I didn’t soak the bones and meat in cold water long enough to remove the blood, so I tried soaking for few hours, and still same result. What am I doing wrong?
Nothing wrong.
Did you do the step 14 in the recipe?
“Fill your pot with more water and boil another 2-3 hours”
Repeat this 2 or 3 times. The first batch is usually a little dark, but the second and the third batch will be whiter.
The first batch of soup is usually not milky. If you like to see the difference, pour the soup from the first batch into a stainless bowl and set aside. Then fill the pot with cold water and boil it for hours. You will see the color of the soup is so milky and white. Then add the soup from the first batch to the second batch. This is the method for making a large quantity of bone soup.
Basically if you keep boiling the soup and adding more water, the soup will get milky.
Hi Maangchi – I boiled my sa-gol for >20 hours….and it’s still not milky white!!!
It tastes alright, and leaves a sticky feeling on your lips? (when cooled in the fridge, it actually turned into jelly…) what did i do wrong??
Hello Tokki123! : )
“when cooled in the fridge, it actually turned into jelly…)” It sounds like yours is well done! Add more water and keep boiling until it gets milky.
There is quite a bit of collagen in some cuts of meat like oxtails. (I haven’t tried cooking ox bones but I think it pretty similar– maybe just less collagen. Seems like you got a collagen-filled piece though!) Collagen turns gelatinous in the fridge. Just heat it up and it will be fine. It should dissolve. You can also dilute it with water. The sticky felling is also just the collagen. Yum!
Hello. What is the red spicy paste called in korean that you use to put in this soup to make it spicy? It is like a paste texture.
yes, It’s called dadaegi. You can make it by mixing hot pepper flakes, minced garlic, sugar or honey, and fish sauce.
I wanted to say thank you for this recipe! I’m going to try it soon. I had this at a Korean restaurant yesterday and I could not figure out how they got the soup so white!
boil boil boo-oil until you get milky broth! : )
I am going to make it today – I can’t believe it takes 12 hours! Longest soup ever. I bought the ox bones at the Korean grocery in Wellington – it is made by a Korean butcher in Auckland and was expensive ($18 for 1.3 kg).
$18.00 for 1.3 kilo? Expensive! If you make it again later, buy it at a bucher shop o a grocery store iwhich will be much cheaper than in a Korean store.
Rainy, rainy night, I’ve got a big pot of bones on the stove, we will have delicious soup tomorrow.
Also, I was thinking that Korean women must have a lower rate of osteoporosis because of all the calcium in this soup.
Hi Maangchi I made the Ox bone soup Yesterday and I got it. I didn’t lower too much the hit, I put medium low hit, and it cooks really well =) I would like to show you a picture but I don’t know how
http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/188899_10150150462871103_567886102_7817440_3586227_n.jpg
Well this is from my space I’m not sure if you could see it
yay! Milky broth, tender beef, and chopped green onion! delicious! Let me twit about your ox bone soup!
Thanks next time, I’ll try other of your delicious recipe. You are a really good cooker and I thank you so much for sharing your recipe for us ^^
Hello. Big fan of your site. I’ve admired the pictures and recipes for awhile now. Had Seolleongtang at a restaurant called Sul Lung Tang where I live in Washington state. I fell in love, lol.
There’s an H-Mart nearby, so I bought some beef shank bones and Korean radish. I plan on simmering my bone soup tomorrow, as I clean the house. I’m excited but a little nervous that I might not get the milky color desired, as some people have had problems. I’m sure it will be delicious either way.
Thank you for this recipe, and all the work you put in to this website.
-Derek
good luck with your bone soup. Be sure to soak the bones in cold water before boiling and simmer the bone soup for a long time until you get milky broth.
The soup turned out excellent. It was a few shades of yellow darker than yours, but it turned out far paler than I thought it would. Joy!
I’m a big proponent of home made food being cheaper and more delicious. I ate 4 BIG bowls of Seolleongtang for about $16 worth of ingredients; the restaurant by my home sells them for $10 each bowl. That made me very happy.
Thanks again, and I look forward to making more of your recipes in the future.
” I’m a big proponent of home made food being cheaper and more delicious. ” great! So am I!
Making this soup again tonight. =-)
Hi Maangchi,
How come I can’t get the milky white consistency in the ox bone soup? I let it simmer for 3 hours and it is still yellowish looking.
Thanks.
I would add more water and keep simmering until the color of broth turns milky white.
Hi Maangchi,
I found your site when I was looking for a kimchi recipe. Thanks to you, I now make kimchi on a regular basis. Its great! Now, I’m looking forward to trying your other recipes. But I don’t know where to start! Bibimbap, jjajangmyun, jobchae? It all looks so good. This oxbone soup looks absolutely delicious!
I just want to ask, does it necessarily have to be the leg bone? Because my local market would most likely only have the spine (which we also use to make soup, but not the milky kind).
Thank you for your great recipes! Love them. Love food. Love you!
“I now make kimchi on a regular basis” Great news! You make your own homemade delicious kimchi.
Yes, you can use spine bones to make bone soup. Good luck with your Korean cooking!
I tried to make this and it looked good and milky when I was cooking it, but after I put it in the fridge overnight, the next day the whole bowl of soup was gelatinized! When you microwave it, it turns back into soup, but it’s not milky anymore.
yes, that’s right!
Yay! I was looking for a recipe for seolleongtang a few weeks ago and was so disappointed that I couldn’t find one here and now here it is! Can’t wait to try it. I was visiting Pusan around this time last year and had this soup for the very first time. It was so soothing and warm. Now that it is getting cold here in California, it makes me grave it even more. But when I had it there it was with noodles and rice. Do you know what kind of noodles I should use for that? Thanks!
ah you could use noodles, too.
The photo of the noodles:
https://www.maangchi.com/ingredients/somyeon
How to cook the noodles is posted here:
https://www.maangchi.com/recipe/kongguksu
I’m wildly excited to see this recipe!
I’ve tried to make it 3 times (before seeing your site) and each time it was a disaster. My mom would try to explain what to do on the phone and then I’d find myself regretting that I didn’t cook in the kitchen with her more when I was little.
Anyways, I’m definitely making this. Am picking up the ingredients on my way home from work tomorrow. I’m so excited about it that I hope I can sleep tonight. Yeeeeeee-ay!!!!!
“I’m so excited about it that I hope I can sleep tonight. Yeeeeeee-ay!!!!!” wow, you are like me! Cheers! btw how did it turn out?
My husband and I got into a heated argument because he said that if I scaled down the recipe to just “1 bowl” I would only need 1/2 lbs of beef bone and still be able to make a quality ox bone soup. I refused, saying you still need a certain amount of *minimum* beef bones to create enough milky broth. Who is correct, maangchi? I am right?
haha, I think you still can make white milky broth with a small piece of bone, too. : ) Keep boiling boiling until you get white milky soup.
Maangchi thank you for posting this recipe!! This is one of my new favorite Korean foods.
I tried making it during the long weekend (although could only find oxtail bone and beef feet)
Not perfect (couldn’t get the broth totally white and milky) but it was still very tasty!
http://kitchendreamer.blogspot.com/2010/11/seollangtang-korean-oxbone-soup.html
awesome, I twitted about your blog! It looks great! Don’t worry about getting it totally white. The first time you boil it, it’s not going to be milky because the blood inside the bones is getting boiled out, but the second and the third time will be more and more milky.
Hi Maangchi,
Thank you for posting this recipe.
This is one of my favorite Korean soup and always wanted to learn how to make it.
I thought this soup is very diffcult to cook, but after watching your video, I think I have the confidence to make it for my husband to try.
Thank you so much for sharing.
Carolyn
Maangchi,
My broth wasn’t milky at all.
Do you know what I could have done wrong?
Thank you
Maangchi, I just realized that I used ox-tail instead of ox-bone. I guess it was the reason why my broth wasn’t milky.
Anyway, it still taste very good. My whole family loves it. Thank you for the recipe Maangchi. =D
Don’t worry about getting it totally white. The first time you boil it, it’s not going to be milky because the blood inside the bones is getting boiled out, but the second and the third time will be more and more milky.
Hi Maangchi – love your website and all the wonderful recipes!! Is this the same as ox tail soup? Is there a difference whether I use ox tail or ox leg bone? Thanks!!
Use ox leg bones for this recipe.
i was just about to ask u ths recipe…i thnk i saw it once in korean drama ‘shining inheritance’…since then i was wondering about the soup. hehe. i’l definitely try this recipe ;D
tq.
awesome! Let me know how your seolleongtang (ox bone soup turns out.
I am on holidays in the gold coast and just walked out a restaurant where I had that dish, eh so full I put rice in mine and when I got back from the hotel I was like I wonder if Maangchi has this on her site and bingo you do :-) Ill be making this when I get back home. And your right I only had ox bone in mine and it was not enough extra meet would have been good :-) hope your well, thanks for having such a great site! I love it.
Bingo! lol
OMG Solungtang or (seollentang, seolleong-tang, seollongtang)
Thank You, Thank You!!
I can’t wait to try your recipe!!
10 pounds of bones that’s what you will need to feed all your family members. Good luck with making delicious seolleongtang!
Thank you Maangchi. Just watch this video make me salivate already. Man, it just sooo…. good.
My mouth waters when I watch my own eating scene. lol
I love this soup!
nice! now you can make it!
You are right it is very easy to make this soup. But it taste so good!
Your version looks so delicious, too! (ox tail soup)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAjcqrxYBzM