Jang, the Fermented Pastes

Almost every Korean dish starts with jang. Soybeans are boiled, crushed and pressed into blocks called meju, hung to dry and ferment through the winter, then dropped into salt brine in a clay jar. The liquid becomes soy sauce, the solids become doenjang, and adding chilli powder and rice syrup makes gochujang. The jars stand outside on a raised terrace where they take sun and cold, opened on dry days and covered against rain. Sunchang in North Jeolla built its name on gochujang and has a village of producers with terraces of jars running up the hillside. UNESCO recognises the knowledge and practice as intangible heritage.

What you actually see

• Meju blocks - crushed soybeans dried and hung under the eaves in winter.
• The jangdokdae - the raised terrace of clay jars, lids off in the sun.
• Sunchang's hillside - rows of gochujang jars stepped above the village.
• Three from one - soy sauce, doenjang and gochujang from the same beginning.

When to go

Autumn is when the jar terraces look their best and Sunchang holds its gochujang festival, usually in late October or November. Meju blocks are made in early winter and the brine is set in late winter, so a visit in February or March catches that stage instead. Workshops need booking. The village works as a day trip from Jeonju.

Honest expectations

It is a working production village rather than a museum, so a lot of it is warehouses and shopfronts selling tubs of paste. Without a booked workshop you get an hour of walking and very little explanation in English. The smell of an open jar is strong. Buying paste to take home means dealing with weight, leakage and customs rules on food.

Nearby

Jeonju and its hanok quarter are an hour away, with the Seomjin river valley running south.