Doenjang

Watery squash gives the stew its body and takes all of the salt.

Same bean, two textures. One holds shape, the other holds flavour.

Wrapped raw with rice and pork: cold leaf, hot fat, salty paste.

Fat blunts the barnyard funk into something you can eat a plate of.

Dried fish stock under bean paste — two ferments stacking glutamate.

Raw and crushed in at the end so the sulfur survives the boil.

Starch mutes the salt and the stew stops being a seasoning exercise.

Deep fermented soybean funk with a green leaf ceiling stopping it going heavy.

Bitter tannin echoes the paste; pounded together they make a dipping sauce.

Fermented bean stands in for the hock. Same salt, same funk, no pig.

Fermented soy depth under a raw leaf that cuts straight through it.

Korean pear juice sweetens and tenderises where the paste only salts.

Shared pyrazines from long fermentation and roast. Both taste of soil.