Soups & Stews · Knight of Ladles · Knight of Ladles

Yukgaejang

Yukgaejang (Spicy Beef Soup) · 육개장

Difficulty: Medium
Time to plan: 100 min
Serves: 3 servings
Recipe: 5 steps
Listed places: 2

Food notes and context

This yukgaejang combines shredded cooked beef with prepared fernbrake, taro stems, scallions and sprouts. The listed fernbrake and taro stems are already processed and boiled ingredients, not raw foraged plants.

Do not substitute untreated dried greens directly; follow the product’s preparation instructions first. Compared with a clear beef soup, the chili seasoning and mixed stems change both the broth and each spoonful’s texture.

Cook this version

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

Ingredients (3 servings)

Ingredient	Amount	Substitute abroad
Beef brisket	400 g	Shank
Boiled fernbrake	1 handful	Korean grocers online
Boiled taro stems	1 handful	Torn oyster mushrooms
Scallions	4 stalks (a heap)	Leeks; the heart of Daegu style
Mung bean sprouts	1 handful	Soybean sprouts
Gochugaru and oil	3 tbsp each, for the chili oil	Korean grocers online
Soup soy sauce and garlic	To season	Anywhere
Pepper and sesame oil	A little	Anywhere

Step by step

1.Boil and shred the beef
Boil the brisket an hour, lift it out, and shred it thick along the grain. Keep the broth.
2.Make the chili oil
Fry the chili flakes in oil over low heat into a red chili oil.
3.Dress the fillings
Massage the shredded beef, fernbrake, and taro stems with the chili oil, soup soy sauce, garlic, and pepper.
4.Boil
Add the dressed fillings to the broth and boil thirty minutes, then add a heap of bias-cut scallions and boil ten more.
5.Sprouts and serve
Add the sprouts, bring to one more boil, and serve in wide bowls with rice.

Measurement, doneness and storage references

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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.

Yetjip Sikdang

Jung-gu, Daegu (near Seomun Market)

Exact current location is not verified here. Confirm the venue through its official information before planning a visit.

Buminok

Da-dong, Jung-gu, Seoul

서울특별시 중구 다동길 24-12 (다동,(지상1층))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

Fire element · a sharp, vivid face

Decisions like a blade, insides at a rolling boil. The face of high spirit that steps to the front and heats the board at every great occasion.

Upright: Pour chili oil today on the matter you have been circling lukewarm. Only bold decision brings the broth alive, and your high spirit heats the whole board.

Reversed: Heat without depth is just spicy water. Before parading the fierceness, check whether your own broth has actually steeped.

The K-Roast take: Grandma's roast

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

Those eye corners rise: a competitor's face. Yukgaejang is that kind of broth: never lukewarm, chili oil from the first move, pushing hot and bold to the end. Your work runs at that temperature. No half-measures, which is why you hear 'refreshing' and 'terrifying' in the same week. Firepower is a talent; only the flame control needs study.

That nose bridge is straight: a face of pride. I finally understood why Daegu renamed this soup 'Daegu tangban': you put your name on what you do well. Your pride is the same. Whatever passes through your hands carries your name, and that signature spirit is what sets your broth apart from everyone else's.

That chin is squared: a face of responsibility. There is a reason yukgaejang is the soup of great occasions: the gatherings where many must be fed and strengthened, it arrives in wide bowls, steady and sure. You are that bowl. First to roll up sleeves at the hard occasions. That responsibility is what made you an adult.

Fernbrake, taro stems, scallions, beef: things with nothing in common become one broth under the chili oil. Your fierceness is the power that binds scattered things, so do not be ashamed of the fire. Keep it boiling long.
Grandma's blessing

Table compatibility

White rice folded into your fierce broth is the official match of every great occasion's table. With cool, mild kongguksu your rhetoric runs exactly opposite, and one table flusters you both.