Chunjang

Chunjang (pâte de soja noire coréenne)

What it is

Chunjang descends from Chinese tianmianjiang, reworked in Incheon's Chinatown in the early twentieth century by Shandong migrants cooking for dock labour; caramel colouring, added during ageing, gives it the near-black gloss the wheat paste never had. Straight from the tub it is bitter and sour — jjajang exists only because someone thought to fry it first.

In the kitchen

Fry it alone in a generous slick of oil, roughly one part oil to two parts paste, for two or three minutes before anything else touches the pan. Skip that and the sauce stays bitter however much sugar you add.

Goes with

Pork Onion Potato Zucchini Cucumber Ginger White sugar

Same species

Dark soy sauce Doenjang Douchi Edamame Fermented bean curd Guk-ganjang

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