Jeotgal and fish sauce in Korean food
Jeotgal and fish sauce (젓갈 · 액젓)
Jeotgal is seafood flesh, roe or innards salted and fermented. It can come as a side dish of its own, or melt into the seasoning.
Where it hides in Korean food
Jeotgal is not made from just one thing. Fish such as anchovy and yellow croaker, pollock roe and guts, shrimp and crab, clams and oysters, even squid and small octopus are all made into jeotgal. So which allergy a jeotgal touches, among fish, shrimp, crab, shellfish, squid and octopus, depends on what it was made from, and once it is mixed into a seasoning it is hard to tell.
Jeotgal is also served as it is, as a side dish. Common ones are myeongnan jeot from pollock roe, changnan jeot from pollock guts, thinly sliced squid jeot and eorigul jeot from oysters. Most are seasoned red with chili powder, so they can look like other spicy side dishes.
Myeongnan jeot also goes into dishes beyond the side plate. It is sometimes added to steamed egg or fried rice, and altang, a roe stew, is often cooked with myeongnan jeot.
Jeju black pork barbecue is often dipped in meljeot, a salted anchovy sauce, and some places warm the meljeot on the grill. In some regions the liquid from jeotgal is used in place of soy sauce, and anchovy jeotgal is also mixed into seasoned seaweed.
Dishes that contain it
Sometimes in it
- Budae-jjigae (army base stew)Kimchi is a core ingredient here, and kimchi seasoning is usually built on salted anchovy or shrimp, which ends up in the broth.
- GimbapKimchi is one of the listed fillings, and kimchi seasoning is usually built on salted anchovy or shrimp — ask whether the roll has kimchi in it.
- Naengmyeon (cold noodles)The young radish kimchi on yeolmu naengmyeon is often seasoned with anchovy sauce.
- SamgyeopsalSome places serve salted seafood such as meljeot or hairtail innards as a dipping sauce, and the kimchi side dish is seasoned with salted seafood too. Both come separately, but the kimchi is sometimes grilled on the same grill.
- Sundubu-jjigae (soft tofu stew)Some pots add kimchi, whose seasoning is usually made with salted anchovy or shrimp — kimchi sundubu is a common menu item.
Based on the 14 dishes this site has researched. Dishes not listed here can contain it too.