Welcome to Korea cuisine of Annie

1. Ingredients for Muk (Dotori-muk)

-Primary ingredients: Acorn and water
-Secondary ingredients: Seasoning (chili powder, soy sauce and sesame oil) and vegetables

2. Taste evaluation

-Spicy:☆☆☆☆☆
-Salty:☆☆☆☆☆
-Sweet:☆☆☆☆☆
-Sour:☆☆☆☆☆
-Original taste of ingredients: ★★★★☆

3. Introduction to Muk (acorn jelly salad)

Muk is a Korean traditional dish made with fine powder of old fruits or grains. Not only it tastes good, it also uses healthy ingredients for human body.

Muk was invented a long time ago. The history of the most popular Muk called Dotori-muk even dates back to the New Stone Age.

It is assumed that the cuisines using sediments of grains have been developed along with various processes since they started to grow grains a long long time ago. Since then, the leftovers from cooking mung beans porridge was called Sak and it started to be known as Muk.

Our ancestors thought that there are certain flavors for each season so they used to enjoy Nokdu-muk or Cheongpo-muk (mung-bean jelly salad) in spring, Dotori-muk in summer and autumn, and Memil-muk in winter.

It’s complicated to make Muk and it requires a lot of work.

After you dry the grains or fruits, you need to peel them and grind them until they become powder. Mix the powder with water, boil the sediment under the water, cool it down again and there you go.

You need to peel small acorns and stir the liquid for a long time for good taste, which is a lot of work so people hardly cook it at home.

Sediment contains starch, which looks and tastes just like jelly.

And no seasoning is used in the process so you will feel the strong flavor of the original ingredient.

Once you’re done making Muk, all you need is simple seasoning using soy sauce, sesame oil, vegetables and chopped seaweed. The texture is soft, neat and light rather than pungent or colorful.

The ingredients for Muk are healthy ones with pharmacological effects such as acorn, mung bean and buckwheat that are good for a diet because they have low calories and make you full even with a small amount.

Korean traditional foods such as Kimchi, Bulgogi and Galbi are famous for their recipes while the ingredients including meat and vegetables are enjoyed in many countries. So the people might be familiar with the taste. But the ingredients or recipes for Muk are quite unique that are hardly available in any other countries.

Of course there is jelly in the western countries and devil’s tongue jelly in Japan but Muk has softer texture and tasty flavor because it is made of grains not gelatin.

Even if you don’t get used to this unfamiliar taste, it’s a health food so you have nothing to lose for trying.

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4. Kinds of Muk

Since Muk has a long history, there are many kinds you can enjoy in each season.

The most popular ones are as follows.


- Dotori-muk(acorn jelly salad): Using acorn, fruit of oak tree, asmain ingredient, it looks dark brown and has toasted flavor.

- Dokdu-muk(Cheongpo-muk; mung-bean jelly salad): Using mung bean as main ingredient, it looks white and has toasted and neat flavor.

- Memil-muk(buckwheat jelly salad): Using buckwheat as main ingredient, it looks thick and has a bit of bitter flavor.

5. How to enjoy Muk even more

Muk has no specific taste when you eat it alone so you need additional seasoning or cooking.

You can simply put soy sauce, sesame oil and chopped seaweed for neat and plain taste or you could add chopped Kimchi for stronger flavor.

Or you can pour warm anchovy stock to enjoy it as soup.

Especially Koreans enjoy eating Dotori Mukmuchim with traditional drink called Makgeolli after they climb mountain. They get relaxed while they drink one bowl of Makgeolli served with Dotori-muk dish.

If you are touring famous mountain or temple, why don’t you have a bowl of Makgeolli with Dotori-muk nearby?