Muk (food)

Muk (Korean: 묵) is a general term referring to all foods made by setting a liquid extract (mucilage, mucilage, starch, collagen, glue, etc.) extracted from animal or plant sources. However, it is generally used to mean food made by setting starch.

'Muk' can be broadly divided into plant-based muk and animal-based muk, and according to the principle of the gelling process, animal-based muk includes collagen or gelatin gels, while plant-based muk can be classified into starch gels such as amylose and amylopectin, polysaccharide physical gels such as agar and umu (seaweed), and fibrous alkali gels such as konjac.

There are several types of muk:^[1]

• Dotori-muk (도토리묵), made from acorn starch
• Memil-muk (메밀묵), made from buckwheat starch
• Nokdu-muk (녹두묵) (also called cheongpo-muk; 청포묵), made from mung bean starch
• Hwangpo-muk (황포묵) (also called norang-muk; 노랑묵), made from mung bean starch, and colored yellow with gardenia seed pods^[2]
• Kkae-muk (깨묵), made from starch mixed with sesame seeds
• Olbanggae-muk (올방개묵), made from water chestnuts

• Muk-muchim (묵무침), muk dish seasoned with ganjang (Korean soy sauce), sesame or perilla oil, finely chopped green onions, sesame seeds, and red chili pepper powder. It can be mixed with sliced or shredded cucumber, and leaf vegetables, such as chopped lettuce, cabbage or napa cabbage. The dish can also be served with only crumbled gim (Korean nori) added as a garnish.^[3]
• Tangpyeong-chae (탕평채), made with thinly sliced nokdumuk, beef, vegetables, and seaweed.^[4]
• Muk-bokkeum (묵볶음), a stir-fried muk dish.^[5]
• Muk-jangajji (묵장아찌), marinated muk in soy sauce^[6]
• Muk-jeonyueo (묵전유어) or mukjeon (묵전), made by pan-frying sliced muk that has been coated with mung bean starch.^[7]
• Muk-sabal (묵사발) or also called mukbap (묵밥), cold soup made with muk and sliced vegetables.^[8]

• Burmese tofu
• Jelly
• Jidou liangfen
• Konjac
• Laping
• Liangfen
• Liang pi
• Tangpyeong-chae

• Muk recipe at Korea Times