Learning to Make a Medicinal Rice Cake from an 80-Year-Old Master

Bokryeong grows from the roots of pine trees and is excellent for diuretic, tonic, and calming effects. Kim Young-sook, a food master (No. 53) who is passing on the medicinal rice cake recorded in the Donguibogam, has walked the path of southern Korean cuisine for 60 years, and makes this precious food from ingredients that cost 80,000 to 100,000 won per 2 kg of bokryeong alone.

Bokryeong is a mushroom that grows on the roots of dead pine trees. It is a precious medicinal herb with excellent diuretic, tonic, and calming effects, and is also used in Sipjeondaebo-tang. The material cost of 2 kg of bokryeong alone exceeds roughly 80,000 to 100,000 won.

Master Kim adds dried Chinese yam powder and lotus seed powder to the bokryeong johwagko, deepening its flavor.

These ingredients carry the meaning of a medicinal rice cake that the elders in the master's family enjoyed as a snack for their health.

Cho Yeon-do began the laborious hand work of pounding sun-dried bokryeong in a mortar, the traditional way, into powder.

The bokryeong powder is mixed evenly with rice flour and sifted without lumps. Red bean crumbs are spread on the steamer base so the rice cake won't stick.

Glutinous rice cakes crumble easily while steaming, so the shape is set with a knife beforehand to keep the form intact.

Cho personally made and used a steam seal (sirubeon) to keep steam from escaping between the steamer and the pot.

Doneness is checked by inserting a bamboo skewer; if white powder comes off on the skewer, it means the cake is not yet fully cooked.

To bring out bokryeong's digestive and health benefits, the cooking method differs between the traditional way and a modern steamer. Before steaming, walnuts and dates are placed on the dough as garnish and decorated with pine needles to complete Master Kim's bokryeong johwagko.

The rice cake is described as easy to digest and healthy thanks to the bokryeong, and the difference between traditional and modern steamer cooking was also explained.

As Cho Yeon-do tasted the bokryeong johwagko, he said the texture of the walnuts set it apart from ordinary rice cakes.

The cake avoids artificial sweetness and preserves the natural flavor of its ingredients, and the bokryeong helps with digestion.

In the Jindo region, mosi, the ramie used to make summer fabric, is used as an ingredient for songpyeon. The master gathers mosi grown naturally without pesticides herself. The shapes are uneven, but she values it as a healthy ingredient.

Mixing rice flour with boiled mosi leaves and kneading until the dough becomes sticky is key to creating the chewy texture of mosi-leaf songpyeon.

Master Kim and Cho Yeon-do carried the songpyeon they made to the village hall, where they shared them with the elders and exchanged warmth.

There, residents agreed that Jindo's specialties, cabbage, green onions, and deumbuk (seaweed), are the most delicious.

Cho and Master Kim sourced deumbuk, a precious seaweed harvested directly from the rocks of Jo Island, along with green onions and fish from Jindo Arirang Market. Master Kim prepares her regional southern Korean dishes with these local specialties.

Master Kim chose three main ingredients: deumbuk, green onions, and fish.

Deumbuk in particular is a precious seaweed harvested directly from rocks off Jo Island and is hard to find in markets.

Shellfish and sea bream and other seafood that grow among the rocks were lined up throughout the market. Cho Yeon-do, who visited the market, admitted to a fear of fish, but he confirmed the warmth of the market by greeting local residents, including the township chief.

Cho said he has an aversion to fish because he is afraid of their eyes, yet felt the warmth of the market as he exchanged greetings with local residents there.

Cho bought a gourd at a market stall, something rarely seen in autumn. Gourds were once a famine crop that filled hungry stomachs in the past, and are hard to find as an ingredient today.

He prepares to try a new dish using gourd 'mulja-da,' grown naturally in the wild without chemical fertilizer.

Believing that food is a culture that must continue without interruption, Master Kim passes down her recipes to her daughter-in-law and successors.

The daughter-in-law, who inherited her mother-in-law's taste, is carrying on the tradition by proving her skill in various cooking competitions.

Master Kim presented a gourd namul dish that the elders in the countryside used to enjoy. The 'mulja-da' gourd she uses means one grown naturally without applying any chemicals.

Cutting the skin with a saw to cook the gourd shows the many hours and care that characterize traditional cooking.

Cho Yeon-do overcame his fear of fish, took up preparing the sole (seodae) himself, and realized that care in using ingredients is the core of the master's cooking.

Cho Yeon-do gently rinsed the ttaeumbuk (a delicate ingredient) to prepare it.

The prepared ttaeumbuk is briefly boiled in the broth made from the sole, and the master advises that careful checking is important because it dissolves if boiled too long.

While preparing the ingredients, Cho broke a ladle, a mistake of his own.

Master Kim advised that patience is needed even during the heat of cooking, and encouraged him as he learned the process with limited experience.

Master Kim teaches that the key to seasoning is to add little by little to adjust the taste, rather than adding a lot at first.

Too much seasoning can make the dish too salty, so caution is needed. The master urges sensory adjustment that comes from long experience rather than fixed measurements.

Master Kim is passing down her cooking skills to her daughter-in-law and grandchildren, and one of her grandsons has enrolled in a culinary school to major in cooking.

Grounded in the philosophy that experience is the teacher and that the food you make yourself is health itself, she is continuing the lineage of regional cuisine.