It is so thrilling to know that more and more people are interested in cooking Korean food at home. However, it is sometimes difficult to identify all the Korean ingredients and how to use it properly. So I made this Korean Pantry page for those who are not familiar with Korean ingredients that I use often in my recipes. You will find the explanation of each ingredient with its use, and the actual recipe examples I used in my blog.
I also have posted H-Mart grocery store visit to help you guide how to locate all the Korean condiments. Most of the ingredients on this pages are easily found in major Korean grocery stores. But if you don’t have access to those major store, you can also find in online stores such as Amazon and H-mart online shopping site. Hope this page will help you to create tasty Korean dishes and share with your loved ones.
Disclaimer: I am affiliated with some of the product and if you purchase them through online, I do get a fraction of commission from the sales. That might be able to buy me a block of tofu to create something new to share with you.
Soy Sauce (간장, ganjang)
Soy sauce is an essential to Korean cuisine. It is from the naturally brewed soybeans. I use low sodium (저염, jeoyum) in most of my recipes. Any Korean brand is fine and you can go either low sodium or regular. Look for the words “양조간장 (naturally brewed soy sauce)
” if not for low sodium soy sauce. If you can’t find Korean brand, Kikoman is great alternative as well.
The ingredient ratio of the sauce is about 30% fermented soybeans, 10% wheat, 10% salt, and 50% water.
Dishes Using Soy Sauce:
Korean Soy Sauce for Soup (국간장, gook-ganjang, or 조선간장, chosun-ganjang)
Korean Soy Sauce for Soup 
is traditional Korean soy sauce made with 100% soybeans. No wheat is added unlike regular soy sauce. The ratio of the sauce is usually 20% fermented soybeans, 20% salt, and 60% water. It has more translucency than regular soy sauce and saltier. It will season the dish with punch without altering the natural flavor of the dish itself.
Koreans mostly use this sauce to season soups, stews, and various vegetable side dishes.
Dishes Using Korean Soy Sauce for Soup:
Korean Soybean Paste (된장, doenjang)
Korean Soybean Paste 
is made of fermented soybeans. It is known for its healthy benefit with a rich source of good bacteria, Bacillus subtilis. Since it is fermented, it is quite strong in flavor and smell.
Korean doenjang can be eaten raw or to be simmered in a stew. It is widely used in most soups and stews, occasionally some meat dishes and vegetable side dishes.
Although the traditional authentic doenjang is made with rice, soybeans, and salt only, many commercially made doenjang contains some wheat, which makes it difficult to be a gluten-free.
Dishes Using Korean Soybean Paste:
Korean Chili Paste (고추장, gochujang)
You can’t have enough Korean Chili Paste
if you love Korean food. This is one of the most beloved Korean condiments of all. It is spicy but so addictive. It is widely used in many meat dishes, side dishes, stews and lots of sauces. Try to fuse with Western recipes. Amazingly good!
Gochujang is made of very fine chili powder with rice or barley, fermented soybean powder, salt and a little bit of malt. It yields slightly sweet in taste due the addition of the rice and malt.
Dishes Using Korean Chili Paste:
Korean Seasoned Soybean Paste (쌈장, ssamjang)
Seasoned Soybean Paste
is a type of dipping sauce. This sauce is used to top up on grilled meats, variety type of Korean style vegetable wraps, or just to dip in fresh vegetable sticks. It is a mixture of doenjang and gochujang with onion, garlic, and etc.
It is easy to make ssamjang at home but for the convenience, commercially made ssamjang is widely used in most Korean homes.
Korean Chili Flakes (고추가루, gochugaru)
Korean Chili Flakes , also known as Korean chili powder or red pepper powder, has two different types of coarse and fine powder. Fine chili powder is to make gochujnag (Korean chili paste). I use the coarse chili flakes (powder) mostly in my recipes.
Korean chili flakes cannot be substituted with South American style “chili powder”. It is different. Also people often mistakenly think Korean chili flakes are same as the crushed chili flakes which are widely used in other cuisines. Korean chili flakes comes from Asian type of red finger long chilies, and they are not overly hot compared to the crushed chili flakes which came from cayenne pepper.
I would recommend you to get Korean origin gochugaru if possible. Most gochugaru marked as Korean chili flakes are coming from the chilies grown in either Mexico or China. Korean origin chili flakes will be twice expensive but well worth for the outcome.
Dishes Using Korean Chili Flakes:
Korean Black Bean Sauce (짜장소스, Jjajang Sauce)
Jjajang Sauce is a type of black bean sauce. This sauce is mainly for making the Jjajangmyun or Jjajangbap. It has a bitter in taste so it is recommended to fry in oil with a little bit of sugar before adding to the recipe. However, there is pre-roasted version of this sauce that doesn’t require that step.
Dishes Using Jjajang Sauce:
Anchovy Sauce (멸치액젓, myulchi ack-jeot)
Anchovy Sauce 
is basically an extract from the fermented anchovies. It is widely used in making various types of kimchi. It also adds a pungent flavor in Korean soups and stews, and even vegetable side dishes. There is a similar product called Kkanari ack-jeot, which is another kind of fermented fish extract.
Dishes Using Anchovy Sauce:
Dried Shrimps (마른새우, marun saewoo)
Dried Shrimps
are used often in making stock for soups and stews. You can also toast them and grind them to make shrimp powder to use as a natural flavor enhancer in Korean style side dishes. It brings out the best flavor without overpowering.
Dishes Using Dried Shrimps:
Sesame Oils (참기름 & 들기름, cham girum & deul girum)
Sesame Oil
is an essential condiment in Korean cooking. Its strong nutty fragrance will entice the dish that can be marked as “Asian or Korean”.
There are two types. One is the most common sesame oil (참기름, cham-girum) and the other is the wild sesame oil (들기름, deul-girum). They are from two different types of sesame seeds. Wild sesame oil has milder flavor and fragrance than sesame oil.
Dishes Using Wild Sesame Oil:
Korean Rice
There are varieties of rice Koreans use in their meal. For more detailed explanation, go to my “All About Korean Rice” post.
Sweet Potato Noodles (당면, dangmyeon)
Sweet Potato Noodles
is clear dried noodles made out of sweet potato starch and it is gluten-free. You can soak in the water prior to the recipe or boil to make the famous Korean noodle dish “Japchae”. Most dangmyeon in the package comes in as a bundle and it is hard to separate. Use a pair of scissor to cut both ends of the bundle. You can also look for pre-cut bundles of dangmyeon.
Dishes Using Sweet Potato Noodles:
Anchovy sauce and fish sauce are they same ???
Anchovy sauce is often called as fish sauce but there is a different kind of Korean fish sauce that is not made with anchovies. Korean fish sauce and the South Eastern fish sauce (such as Thia) are slightly different. Thai fish sauce has a lot more sodium than Korean fish sauce.
I can’t say that anchovy sauce and the fish sauce are the same but you can replace the anchovy sauce with fish sauce in most recipes. Just adjust the amount accordingly.
Thanks alot….. I from Jakarta , Indonesia and I have been trying to cook Korean food cause I love it so much ! And I really love your web ….
Hi Holly.
I’ve got a few questions, please. Are Korean products labled as glutenfree, too? What is the Korean word for it? Maybe you’re able to add a few more translated words like wheat, barley malt, rye, or spelt.
My son recently got diagnosed with celiac disease and I now have to figure out a way how we can keep our beloved Korean dishes on our menu.
I’d be so grateful!
Thanks. Bee
Hi Bee
As far as I know, not many Korean food product is labeled as glueten-free. However, more and more Koreans are getting aware of Celiac disease, on which they avoid gluten, so the food industry is slowly coming up with gluten-free food items. Some rice noodles are marked as Gluten-free (글루텐 free, or (無)글루텐). I haven’t come across with any Korean pastes (chili pastes or soybean pastes) to be marked as gluten-free yet. I know it is hard to find completely gluten-free Korean items. Rice cakes should be gluten free if they are made with 100% rice. Most of chili pastes and soybean pastes will have some gluten. There are a few soybean pastes are claiming to be a gluten-free but They are only available in Korea.
We just have to hope that major Korean food manufacturers will come up with gluten-free products soon.
Dear Holly,
The fresh seaweed that is salted is very salty. Do you rinse with hot water and how many times. I soaked the seaweed and now it is puffy but not salty. Is this safe to eat when it is puffy?
The fresh seaweed covered in salt need to be rinsed in cold running water first, then soak them in cold water for about 15 minutes before you use in recipes. It will retain a little saltiness so that you don’t have to add much salt to season. However if you don’t want any saltiness at all, soak longer time but no more than 1 hour.
Hi Holly,
I just bought a bottle of Capsaicin powder at Korean market. Is it the same pepper powder? And how we can use it for cooking?
Is your powder like super fine rather than flakes? If so, it is not ideal to use in kimchi making but you can use to make salad and other side dishes. Since it is super fine, I would use slightly less the amount the recipes ask for.
Hi Holly. Do you have any suggestions for sweet potato noodles other than making various forms of japchae? I once had a soup at a restaurant using those noodles but haven’t been able to find any recipes. Do you have any suggestions? Thanks!
Can you describe what kind of soup it was?
Hi I have a question I hope hoping to find the sauce here but it isn’t. What is that sweet dipping sauce popular at Korean bbq? It looks like soy sauce but it isn’t.
I am not sure what sweet dipping sauce that is. Usually there is no sweet dipping sauce accompanying the Korean BBQ. It is either the spicy paste or soy sauce + sesame oil mixture.
Hi Holly,
Do you have any recommendation on Korean Rice brands that I could purchase? I read your post about the different types of rice used in Korean, and I was actually hoping to find a brand for the short grain white rice.
Thanks!
“sam su gap san (삼수갑산)” is a decent one which is harvested in CA. However if you go to major Korean grocery store, they often have a special sale for Korean rice that are imported from Korea. Those brand can vary. They usually put them in the front of the store.