Tteok


Tteok is a general term for Korean rice cakes. They are made with steamed flour of various grains, especially glutinous and non-glutinous rice. Steamed flour can also be pounded, shaped, or pan-fried to make tteok. In some cases, tteok is pounded from cooked grains.
Tteok is eaten not only as a dessert or seasonal delicacy, but also as a meal. It can range from elaborate versions made of various colors, fragrances, and shapes using nuts, fruits, flowers, and namul, to plain white rice tteok used in home cooking. Some common ingredients for many kinds of tteok are red bean, soybean, mung bean, mugwort, pumpkin, chestnut, pine nut, jujube, dried fruits, sesame seeds and oil, and honey.
Tteok is usually shared. Tteok offered to spirits is called boktteok and shared with neighbours and relatives. It is also one of the celebratory foods used in banquets, rites, and various festive events. Tteokguk is shared to celebrate Korean New Year and songpyeon is shared on Chuseok, a harvest festival.

History

The history of Korean rice cakes goes back to Korean primitive agricultural society. It is presumed to have been consumed from around the 7th to 8th centuries B.C., as there are records of sowing seeds, plowing, and farming along with ancient artifacts found throughout the country. Found in the ruins were artifacts such as the galdol and the dolhwag used throughout that period.
The origin of rice cakes began in prehistoric times when the coarse flour obtained from the primitive threshing process of mixed grains was baked or pan-fried without the use of cooking utensils.

Utensils for making ''tteok''

Below are cooking utensils used to make tteok in the traditional Korean way.
  • Ki, winnowing basket
  • Inambak, rice-washing bowl
  • Bagaji, gourd-like dipper
  • Ongbaegi and jabaegi, large, round pottery bowls
  • Che and chetdari, sieve and sieve-frame legs
  • Maetdol, grinding stone
  • Jeolgu and jeolgutgongi, mortar and pestle
  • Anban and tteokme, wooden pounding board and mallet
  • Siru and sirumit, earthenware steamer and mat placed in the bottom of it
  • Sot and geonggeure, cauldron and steaming rack
  • Beoncheol, thick frying pan
  • Chaeban, wicker tray
  • Tteoksal, wooden tteok pattern stamp

    Types

Tteok is largely divided into four categories: steamed tteok, pounded tteok, boiled tteok and pan-fried tteok. The steamed tteok is made by steaming rice or glutinous rice flour in a siru, a large earthenware steamer, so it is often called sirutteok. It is regarded as the basic and oldest form of tteok. Pounded tteok is made by using a pounding board or mortar after steaming it first. In making pan-fried tteok, the rice dough is flattened like a pancake and pan-fried with vegetable oil. Shaped tteok are made by kneading dough with hot water, then shaping it into balls.

Steamed tteok

The main ingredients for steamed tteok or sirutteok are rice or glutinous rice, and sometimes they are mixed together. In some cases, other grains, beans, sesame seeds, wheat flour, or starch are mixed with the rice. Various fruits and nuts are used as subsidiary ingredients, such as persimmons, peaches or apricots, chestnuts, walnuts, and pine nuts. In addition, marinated vegetables or herbs can be used to flavor the tteok. Danggwi leaves, seogi mushroom, radish, artemisia, pepper, and cheongju are the most common flavorings, and honey and sugar are used as sweeteners.
In order to make steamed tteok or sirutteok, rice or glutinous rice is soaked in water for a while, then ground. The prepared rice flour is put in a siru and steamed. According to steaming method, sirutteok is subdivided into two groups: seolgitteok, which is shaped into a single large lump, and kyeotteok, which consists of multiple layers with adzuki bean powder or other bean powder. Seolgitteok is also called muritteok, which is regarded as the most basic form of sirutteok because it is made only of rice. When making kyeotteok, rice and glutinous rice are mixed. The name kyeotteok derives from the adverb kyeokeyo in Korean because this tteok is made in layers.
  • Baekseolgi - a variety of sirutteok. It literally means white snow tteok and is made of white rice.
  • Kongtteok - tteok made with various kinds of beans
  • Jeungpyeon or sultteok - tteok made with makgeolli
  • Mujigae tteok - literally "rainbow tteok"; this variety of tteok has colorful stripes. The tteok is used especially for janchi, a Korean banquet, party, or feast such as dol, Hwangap, or ''gyeolhon janchi''

    Pounded tteok

In traditional preparations, pounded tteok is made by pounding rice or glutinous rice with utensils called jeolgu and jeolgutgongi or tteokme and anban. Injeolmi, garaetteok, jeolpyeon and danja " are the most commonly eaten pounded tteok.
Rice and glutinous rice are hulled to make grain particles or powder and then steamed in a siru and pounded with utensils. The pounded tteok is divided by rice type into glutinous pounded tteok and non-glutinous pounded tteok. Injeolmi, a representative of glutinous pounded tteok, varies in accordance with gomul types or subsidiary ingredients mixed into the steamed rice while pounding on the anban. Patinjeolmi, and kkaeinjeolmi are examples for the former, coated with red bean powder and sesame, respectively. In ssuk injeolmi and surichwi injeolmi, ssuk and surichwi are added.
  • Garae-tteok – tteok formed into a long white cylinder. The thinly sliced garae tteok is used for making tteok guk.
  • Omegi tteok – traditional tteok of Jeju Island, the biggest island in Korea

    Shaped ''tteok''

  • Ggul tteok - literally means "tteok with honey" but the tteok is stuffed with Korean syrup. Ggul tteok is similar to songpyeon in shape, but smaller in size
  • Songpyeon - eaten during Chuseok holiday, Korean thanksgiving day
  • Gochitteok
  • Ssamtteok - tteok used for ssam
  • Dalgal tteok - named after dalgal
  • Gyeongdan - Inside these rice balls are usually red bean or sesame paste. The balls are usually dipped and covered in black sesame or other powders.
  • Bupyeon, consisting of dough made of glutinous rice flour with a sweet filling and coated in gomul.

    Pan-fried ''tteok''

  • Hwajeon - small, sweet pancakes made of flour of glutinous rice and decorated with flower petals of the Korean azalea, chrysanthemum, or rose.
  • Bukkumi, pan-fried sweet tteok with various fillings in a crescent shape
  • Juak, made of glutinous rice flour and stuffed with fillings such as mushrooms, jujubes, and chestnuts, and pan-fried. Juak are colored with natural coloring and covered with sugar or coated in honey.

    Other varieties

  • Ssuk tteok
  • Gaksaek pyeon

    Dishes made with ''tteok''

  • Tteok guk
  • Tteokbokki
  • ''Tteok-kkochi''