Korean recipe vocabulary
Recipe instruction patterns
○○을/를 ○○에 넣고Put ○○ into ○○ and...
약불에서 ○○분간 끓이세요Boil on low heat for ○○ minutes
기호에 맞게 간을 맞추세요Season to taste
한소끔 끓여주세요Let it come to a boil once (a uniquely Korean instruction)
센 불에서 빠르게 볶아주세요Stir-fry quickly on high heat
한소끔 is the most Korean recipe word ever — it means 'let it come to a rolling boil once.' Not twice, not a gentle simmer — ONE good boil. Every Korean grandmother knows the exact moment of 한소끔 by instinct.
Textbook조리 시간은 30분입니다jo-ri si-gan-eun 30bun-ip-ni-daCooking time is 30 minutes
Real대충 30분? 눈대중으로 하세요dae-chung 30bun? nun-dae-jung-eu-ro ha-se-yoAbout 30 minutes? Just eyeball it🏷️ Any casual setting
Korean home cooking is famously imprecise. 눈대중 = eyeballing it. 손맛 = the taste of your hands (= personal cooking touch). 대충 (roughly) appears in every Korean recipe. Exact measurements are for baking, not kimchi.
Korean recipe secret: 백종원 (Baek Jong-won) YouTube channel is the Korean cooking bible. His recipes are simple, foolproof, and use ingredients you can find at any Korean mart. Search '백종원 ○○ 만들기' for any dish. Also: 손맛 (your hand's taste) is the Korean belief that cooking taste comes from the cook's energy. Your 엄마's 된장찌개 is never replicable.
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