Soups & Stews · 9 of Ladles · Nine of Ladles

Gamjatang

Gamjatang (Pork Backbone Stew) · 감자탕

Difficulty: Medium
Time to plan: At least 3 hr 30 min soaking and simmering, plus preparation
Serves: 3 servings
Recipe: 5 steps
Listed places: 2

Food notes and context

This gamjatang cooks pork spine bones with potato, greens and perilla-seed powder. Plan bone simmering separately from the cooking time needed by the potatoes and leaves.

An individual bone-soup bowl and a shared gamjatang pot may differ substantially in size. Arrange a bowl for discarded bones and serving utensils, then check whether finishing rice or noodles are separate orders.

Cook this version

Images are AI-generated illustrations, not records of a kitchen test. Follow the written ingredients and steps. Ingredients and substitutions guide

Prep: Bone preparation, blanching and vegetables
Cook: Bones at least 1 hr + potatoes/greens 30 min + finishing
Wait: Refrigerated soaking 2 hr
Ready in: At least 3 hr 30 min soaking and simmering, plus preparation

Planning notes separate the waits and cooking stated in the steps below. These are not kitchen-tested total times; preparation, heating, cooling and overlapping tasks change the schedule.

Ingredients (3 servings)

Ingredient	Amount	Substitute abroad
Pork neck/back bones	1.2 kg	Korean butchers; rib bones work
Potatoes	3	Anywhere
Napa cabbage outer leaves (blanched)	2 handfuls	Kale or blanched cabbage
Perilla seed powder	3 tbsp	Korean grocers online; this aroma is the identity
Perilla leaves	10	Omittable, but missed
Gochujang, gochugaru, doenjang	For the seasoning	Korean grocers online
Garlic, ginger, rice wine	For the gaminess	Anywhere
Scallion and onion	As needed	Anywhere

Step by step

1.Soak and blanch the bones
Soak the spine bones in cold water in the refrigerator for 2 hours, then blanch for 10 minutes in boiling water with ginger and rice wine before cleaning.
2.Simmer the bones
Simmer the bones with water, a spoonful of doenjang, and the onion, gently, for an hour or more.
3.Make the seasoning
Mix the gochujang, chili flakes, garlic, and soup soy sauce into a thick paste.
4.Add potatoes and cabbage
Stir the seasoning into the cooked bones, add the potatoes and blanched cabbage, and boil thirty minutes more.
5.Perilla powder and leaves to finish
Stir in a generous measure of perilla powder, lay on the perilla leaves and scallion, boil once more, and serve bones and all.

Measurement, doneness and storage references

Make your cooking notes

Record products, quantities, actual times and results to compare your next attempt. You can note photo filenames. Notes are not sent to a server and are lost when you leave this page, so save the file first.

Your notes

Places to check when planning a meal

Candidates to investigate for this food. Maps use sourced location records; confirm the current menu, opening and booking directly. This list is not a tasting review or an award certification.

Taejo Gamjaguk

Seongbuk-gu, Seoul (Sungshin Women's University)

서울특별시 성북구 보문로34길 43 (동선동1가)Checked 2026.08.09

Public-record location check, not a live opening-hours guarantee. Confirm with the restaurant before visiting.

Location source 1

Directions Naver Map

Cheongjinok

Jongno, Seoul

서울특별시 종로구 종로3길 32, 1~4층 (청진동)Checked 2026.08.09

Public-record location check, not a live opening-hours guarantee. Confirm with the restaurant before visiting.

Location source 1

Directions Naver Map

The fictional face of this dish

Earth element · a round, full face

You draw rich broth from what was nearly thrown away. The grit to boil all night and the generosity to share it bone and all: the guardian of the working alley.

Upright: The care that picks the last shred of meat off the bone pays off today. You draw rich broth where others walked away, and thrift is today's weapon.

Reversed: You are drooping like over-boiled cabbage. Even bone-deep hard times turn nutty with one spoon of perilla powder, so add some fragrance to your broth today.

The K-Roast take: Grandma's roast

Fictional food metaphors inspired by traditional face-reading, not measurements of your face or personality.

That chin is thick as an iron pot: late-life fortune. Gamjatang is that kind of dish: pork spine bones nobody valued, simmered overnight into a whole cauldron of working-class sustenance. Your life is that backbone. The hardships nobody pays you for now are steeping all night, becoming the rich broth of your later years.

Those brows are dark: a face of loyalty. Do you know why gamjatang houses stay open to dawn? To keep the last table for the people who finish their day late. Your loyalty runs those hours. Even after everyone else closes, your light stays on for your people. That single lamp is why your side never runs short of company.

That mouth is big and easy: a face of nerve. Gamjatang is no solo meal; everyone circles the pot, each gripping a bone. When you open the board, the whole table drops its manners and picks up the bones by hand. Disarming formality is your gift. Just ask about stomach capacity before ordering the fried rice; your nerve has burst other people's waistbands.

The thing once dismissed as scrap bones became the byword for rich broth: that is gamjatang's history. Your bone-deep hard times all become broth once simmered. Lay on the cabbage, add the perilla powder, and keep your pot boiling to the end.
Grandma's blessing

Table compatibility

Fried rice with seaweed in the last of your broth is a match written into the constitution of the gamjatang table. With cool kongguksu the temperature gap spans a whole season, so live apart: summer for them, winter for you.