Gamjatang (Pork Neckbone Soup)
Gamjatang (Pork Neckbone Soup)
Gamjatang is my absolute favorite Korean dish. So let me tell you a long drawn out story about it…In December of 2018, I was in Koreatown in L.A. at the Decibel Magazine Beer and Metalfest with my Metal homies Brian, Kevin, and Marcos. Mike showed up the next day. We had just finished watching Armored Saint at the Whiskey and made it back to Koreatown and were super hungry. It was after midnight. We stumbled into this 24 hour Korean restaurant called Yanji Gamjatang. We all ordered our food. I remember getting blood sausages with tteokbokki. It was really good. But what Marcos was eating is what I really wanted. He got a large bowl of gamjatang. It looked absolutely amazing. I kinda obsessed over it for months.I went back to Koreatown in February 2019 for a short vacation, mostly to eat. It was after midnight again and I went directly to Yanji Gamjatang. I ordered a bowl of gamjatang. It was massive. It was spicy. It was one of the best things I’ve ever eaten. So I had to learn to make it.Gamjatang has a lot of steps in preparation, but all are very simple. The most important step is making sure the broth is clean and free of impurities. To do this, the neck bones need to be soaked in cold water to remove any excess blood. Then the bones need to be boiled for 8 minutes then washed under cold water. This will eliminate any scum that would float to the top of the broth from the bones. After these steps, the rest of the cooking process is a piece of cake.
Ingredients
Pork Broth
- 2-3 lbs pork neck bones
- 1/2 onion
- 2 green onions
- 6 garlic cloves
- 5 slices ginger
Seasoning
- 1 tbsp gochugaru pepper flakes
- 1 tbsp gochujang paste
- 2 tsp doenjang paste
- 1 tbsp soup soy sauce
- 1 tbsp garlic minced
- salt and pepper to taste
Stew
- 6 oz cabbage
- 2 large potatoes cubed
- 8 perilla leaves roughly chopped
- 2 green onions chopped
Instructions
- Soak the neck bones in cold water for 1 hour, changing the water half way through.
- Bring a pot of water to boil. Boil the neck bones for 8 minutes. Strain. Rinse and wash each bone under cold water.
- In a large stock pot, add the neck bones, onion, green onion, garlic, and ginger slices. Add 8 cups of water.
- Bring to a boil. Boil for 10 minutes uncovered. Cover. Reduce the heat to medium low. Simmer for 50 minutes.
- While the bones are simmering, mix together all of the seadoning ingredients. Set aside.
- In another smaller pot, bring water to a boil. Blanch the cabbage for 1 minute.
- Scoop out the cabbage and drain. Add one tbsp of the seasoning mix and set aside.
- In the same pot of water, boil the potatoes for 10 minutes. Strain and set aside. Disregard how shitty this picture is.
- Uncover the pot of neck bones. Scoop out the onion, green onion, and ginger slices. Add in the cabbage, potatoes, and the seasoning. Simmer for 10 minutes.
- Add in the perilla leaves and green onion. Cook for 5 more minutes.
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