Sulfur Duck Yeot, Simmered Over Two Days

The core ingredient of sulfur duck yeot is the sulfur duck, a bird known as a tonic food. The workshop raises about 1,000 of them itself and uses them as the main ingredient.

The ducks are fed barley rice and natural sulfur and other herbs. The workshop selects the 2-year-5-month-old birds, whose medicinal quality is considered best, and uses every part where the medicinal properties collect, including the internal organs, in the yeot.

The first stage of making the yeot uses 16 herbs in total, including thick cinnamon bark, safflower seed and honeysuckle. Freshwater snails are added as well, to encourage the duck and the herbs to work together.

Thirty bottles of about 1.8 L each are produced from 37 ducks. This first stage is cooked over strong heat for roughly 10 hours.

Temperature is the most important factor in making the yeot. Each herb has its own suitable temperature, so careful control of the fire is essential.

Gas flames are judged too hot for simmering the herbs, so only pine firewood at least 30 years old is used to keep the heat right.

If it is not stirred properly, the bottom scorches and the quality of the yeot drops.

In the second stage, the remaining 12 herbs, including seed types, are added, and the temperature is adjusted again to suit each herb's properties.

Nine 2-year-5-month-old sulfur ducks are simmered for two days with 17 herbs. Because the ducks are fed sulfur, they produce almost no fat, a trait the process takes advantage of.

The solids are strained out, and only the broth and the essence formed from all the ingredients are kept, with the bones removed.

Using the yeot in dishes such as tteokbokki or bibimbap is said to help restore energy and aid digestion.

The herb-infused liquid, simmered for 48 hours, is used with 30 kg of glutinous rice to make a medicinal rice. The cauldron is worth about 10 million won, so not even a momentary mistake is tolerated.

To keep the bottom of the pot from scorching, the mixture must be stirred without pause for one hour. If it is too hot, fermentation does not proceed properly, so hitting the right temperature is crucial.

Glutinous rice and the medicinal liquid are left to ferment for eight hours, which completes the sulfur duck sikhye. The worker explains that it greatly helps people with indigestion or trouble digesting food.

It is pressed by hand rather than by machine, with careful attention so that no bitter taste develops.

To get the right consistency for the yeot, it is stirred by hand all the way to the end.

The batch started large, but the finished sulfur duck yeot comes to roughly 50 pieces per kilogram, a rare, small-batch tonic. Children often order it for their parents to help restore their energy, the workshop says.