Gubaeki Village in Miryang and the Taste of Traditional Jjang

The jars are arranged so that doenjang is stored in the upper tiers and ganjang (soy sauce) in the lower tiers. Surrounded on all sides by mountains, this place offers an ideal natural environment for making jang.

Through market days, Nam-i buys seasonal vegetables to eat with doenjang, along with rye and other ingredients, enjoying exchanges with neighbors and the lively atmosphere of the market.

This rye flour is the key ingredient that gives jjang its distinctive nutty, sweet flavor. Since Miryang was once a major wheat-growing area, rye has long been a familiar grain there.

Gubaeki got its name because reaching the village required crossing a steep mountain, bowing nine times to the ground along the way, making it a remote and difficult place to reach.

Nam-i came to this remote village intending to spend her retirement there. By chance she tasted a neighbor's jjang stew and fell for its flavor. Without any plan to go into the doenjang business, she took up jang-making, and she has carried on this tradition for 25 years.

The gaeddeok meju is smoked over a fire of rice husks and dried thoroughly over the course of autumn for two and a half months. The dried gaeddeok is then mixed with rye flour, cheonggukjang, and other ingredients to ferment.

In the old days, when soybeans were scarce, barley gaeddeok was used as a substitute for meju, and jjang could only be eaten in winter. It was a precious food.

The gaeddeok is steamed in a cast-iron cauldron for about an hour, then gently smoked over rice husks to drive off moisture. It is then naturally fermented under the eaves from September through November, roughly two and a half months, to deepen its flavor.

After all the ingredients are thoroughly combined, the mixture is aged for about a week, and the delicious jjang is complete.

Jjang is used as a ssamjang (wrapping sauce) or as a base for stew. Compared with ordinary doenjang, it has a sweeter taste and is less salty.

It also has a chewy texture and is easy to digest, so it can be enjoyed without worry even with hoban-yeop ssam (wrapped in pumpkin leaves), which tends to lead to overeating.

Nam-i feels deep fulfillment from the thank-you messages of people who remember the taste of her jjang, and this connection is a major motivation for preserving jjang, a traditional food that is being forgotten.

She expresses a desire to help, in any way she can, ensure that jjang, Korea's unique traditional food, does not die out.