1. Ingredients for Gomtang
- Primary ingredients: Different parts of beef (lean meat, oxtail, intestines, etc.)
- Secondary ingredients: Seasoning (salt) and spices (spring onion)
2. Taste evaluation
-Spicy: ☆☆☆☆☆
-Salty: ★☆☆☆☆
-Sweet: ☆☆☆☆☆
-Sour: ☆☆☆☆☆
-Toasted flavor: ★★★★☆
3. Introduction to Gom-tang (thick beef bone soup)
Among popular Korean traditional foods among foreign tourists, there’s one called Galbi-tang. You’ll find that there are various soups in Korea using different parts of beef.
Along with Galbi-tang, there are Gom-tang, Seolleong-tang, Ujok-tang and Dogani-tang. If you’re satisfied with Galbi-tang, I will introduce you other yet similar beef bone soup called Gom-tang.
If Galbi-tang is a soup made of beef ribs, Gom-tang is a soup simmered with lean meat and intestines. Since it uses different parts of beef, the flavor and scent is quite strong.
There are records of Gom-tang as a ‘deeper soup than regular soups which requires a lot of work and effort to cook it’ during the reign of King Jungjong in 1527. Even then, it was appraised as a valuable and nutritious dish and set on the royal table for the King.
It’s been documented that there is one food called Goeum, a broth simmered with different parts of beef, abalone and sea cucumber, and it was changed to today’s Gom-tang.
Canon EOS 550D | f/2.8 | iso 1600 | 2011:07:11 16:11:43 | Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode | 31mm
Gom-tang is a soup made by simmering oxtail, brisket, beef round, intestines (beef tripe) and radish for a long time.
When the soup tastes deep, you need to get the meat chopped, and when you’re ready to eat it, you should put the meat back in the soup with ground spring onions and use salt in case you need it. Put a bowl of rice in the soup and eat it with Kimchi.
It has a strong flavor and taste of meat and the meat would be melting in your mouth.
It does not use any special seasoning except for salt so that even foreigners find it delicious unlike spicy foods.
There’s one cuisine with similar recipe and ingredients to those of Gom-tang,
which is called Seolleong-tang.
Both are made of different parts of beef and simmered for a long time so
they have a deep flavor of beef.
Gom-tang soup looks clear and un because it uses lean meat and intestines and the taste and flavor is strong. But Seolleongtang is simmered with lean meat and bones together that it looks thick but tastes light.
Meat was very expensive and valuable in Korea since long ago so meat was only for special occasions. Especially soups were enjoyed as healthy food to recover health.
You can rarely find restaurants older than 100 years in Korea due to the Korean War but there’s one 105-year-old Gom-tang restaurant in Naju. It has such a long history in Korea.
I want you to try one bowl of Gom-tang and recover your health just for today instead of taking nutritional supplement.
4. Ingredients for Gom-tang
Since the same parts of beef are used in Gom-tang (lean meat, shank bones and knucklebones), there are not many kinds developed.
But one might taste a bit from the other different depending on the parts of beef used, the amount of beef used, and cooking (simmering) time.
There are Ggori-gomtang (oxtail used), Sagol-gomtang (shank bones used) and so on.
Rice in Korea looks yummy and very chewy. One of foods that go well with chewy rice is Gom-tang.
It’s better to put a bowl of rice into soup than eat them separately. White rice in the delicious soup is very chewy and sweet that tastes so good.
Next thing that tastes better with Gom-tang is Kimchi.
While you eat heavy soup like Gom-tang, you might find it greasy at some point. And spicy and sour taste of Kimchi removes the greasy taste of the soup so that you can finish the last drop of the soup.
In short, I suggest that you put a bowl of white rice in Gom-tang, mix it, get a spoonful of soup and rice, put a piece of Kimchi on it and eat it altogether.
