This marinade is all you need for Korean barbecue this summer! It takes less than an hour to put this large batch together. You don’t need to assemble a marinade or run to a store to buy a jar of pre-made marinade every time. All the flavor enhancing ingredients are boiled together, so the marinade is very flavorful and the shelf life is naturally long.

To make this all-purpose marinade, the ingredients are boiled with umami-boosting vegetables such as dried shiitake mushrooms and dashima. Korean radish is good too. For fruity sweetness, I used an apple. You can also use an Asian/Korean pear. The fresh lemon is added at the end, which keeps the marinade fresh for a longer period.

Use it for any Korean barbecue dishes such as galbi, bulgogi, chicken bulgogi, salmon bulgogi, etc., or add Korean flavors to your steaks and ribs. You can zip up the flavors by adding fresh garlic, ginger, onion, or scallion if you like, but it’s not absolutely necessary. You will generally need one cup of this marinade for 1 kilogram of meat. 

By Ro Hyo-sun


Yields about 10 cups

6 cups of water

4 cups soy sauce

1-1/2 cups sugar

1 corn syrup

1 onion, roughly cut into small pieces

1 apple

2 scallions

12 plump garlic cloves

5 centimeter-long ginger, thinly sliced

3 or 4 dried shiitake mushrooms

1 teaspoon peppercorns

5 inch square dashima

1 cup rice wine (or mirin or dry white wine)

1 lemon, sliced

Add all the ingredients (except the dashima, rice wine, and lemon) to a large pot with 6 cups of water. Bring it to a boil over high heat, uncovered, and then reduce the heat to achieve a medium boil (between medium high and medium on my stove). Boil for 30 minutes.

Add the dashima and rice wine and continue to boil for 10 more minutes.

Remove all the solids with a strainer.

Add the lemon slices, and let it cool. Store in a jar(s) in the fridge.

For 1 kilograms of meat (such as beef short ribs), use 1 cup of the marinade and add 1 tablespoon of sesame oil. You can also add 1 tablespoon of minced garlic, grated 1/4 Korean pear (or a couple of tablespoons of Korean plum extract, maesilcheong) and a handful of scallion and onion slices if you like.

For more recipes, visit www.koreanbapsang.com.