Brewer for bulk work and a finishing pan
The kettle heats and reduces a large volume of thin liquid such as whey; before it nears the brewer's minimum fill the batch moves to a wide pan for the thick, stirred finish.
Modern method
Ssal-jocheong (rice syrup)
쌀조청 · jocheong · rice syrup
A Korean rice syrup: cooked rice is converted by barley malt in a long warm hold, strained, and the sweet liquid is boiled down until it pours like maple syrup.
A sweetener made from rice and malt
Ssal-jocheong is a Korean rice syrup, sold and made at home as a sweetener for drinks, desserts and seasoning. It is the thick, pale-amber counterpart of the thinner rice drink sikhye, made from the same two ingredients, cooked rice and barley malt powder. Where sikhye is served cold as a drink, the syrup is the concentrate: the sugars formed in the conversion are kept, and most of the water is boiled away.
The syrup is sweet because the malt's enzymes convert the rice starch into smaller sugars during the warm hold. The conversion is the stage that decides the flavour, and the boil that follows concentrates the result. Two separate stages therefore set the outcome, and each one has its own temperature and its own endpoint.
Sources for this section
The conversion hold
The cooked rice is spread into eight cups of water at about 140°F (60°C), and the barley malt powder is added before the lid goes on. After an hour the mixture has fallen to about 120-130°F (49-54°C), so it is reheated on medium heat for two to three minutes to 135-145°F (57-63°C) and then the heat is turned off. The reheating is repeated each hour. Over six hours in all the mixture spends its time between 110°F and 145°F (43-63°C), until the liquid is thin and sweet and the rice has broken down to the texture of wet paper.
The rice-cooker version follows the same logic on a warm setting, with the lid opened for the reduction. The temperature of that cooker's warm setting is not stated in the source, so the liquid itself has to be measured.
Sources for this section
Straining, boiling and the endpoint
The mixture is strained through hemp cloth or doubled cheesecloth, twisting and squeezing the solids. About three and a half quarts of liquid come through, and the solids are discarded. The liquid is then boiled for 80 to 90 minutes, until a little more than a quart remains, and then for a further 10 to 20 minutes, until small foamy bubbles grow to about half an inch across and a thermometer reads 200-220°F (93-104°C).
At the endpoint the syrup falls from the spoon in a thick, steady stream, like maple syrup. An over-cooked syrup goes hard, and the source's remedy is to thin it with a little water and boil it again. The source gives its endpoint in bubbles, temperature and pour rather than as a measured sugar concentration, so the finished syrup's sugar content is not recorded here.
Sources for this section
Storage and open questions
The finished syrup is poured into a glass or ceramic jar and refrigerated. The source gives a keeping time of up to three months in the refrigerator, which belongs to this method and this concentration. No yield for the rice-cooker version is given beyond about a cup and a half, and the scaling of the batch is not established.
A brewing kettle could carry the warm conversion, with the syrup finished in a wide pan; this is a proposed adaptation that has not been tested, and it is not part of the documented method above.
Sources for this section
History
No dated source for ssal-jocheong was read for this page, so no period of attestation is recorded.
Ingredients
Yield 3.5 cup · Scaling: source batch only
Short-grain white ricewashed until the water runs clear
1.18 L5 cup as recorded
2¼ pounds1.18 L5 cup as recorded
Water (for the malt stage)at about 140 °F
1.89 L8 cup as recorded
Barley malt powder
473 mL2 cup as recorded
Method
Risks and precautions · Standard risk
The three-month refrigerated keeping time belongs to this method and this concentration. It does not transfer to a thinner or differently made syrup.
The endpoint is set by bubbles, a thermometer and how the syrup pours, not by a measured sugar concentration. Over-cooked syrup sets hard and is thinned with a little water and boiled again.
- Cook the washed rice with 5 cups of water, covered, over medium-high heat for 12 minutes, then low for 10 minutes; fluff it.
- Add 8 cups of water at about 140 °F (60 °C), then the barley malt powder; close the lid.
- After an hour the mixture has fallen to about 120–130 °F (49–54 °C); heat on medium for 2–3 minutes to 135–145 °F (57–63 °C) and turn off. Repeat the reheating each hour; in all the mixture spends 6 hours between 110 °F and 145 °F (43–63 °C), until thin and sweet and the rice is like wet paper.
- Strain through hemp cloth or doubled cheesecloth, twisting and squeezing; discard the solids (about 3½ quarts of liquid).
- Boil the liquid about 80–90 minutes, until a little more than a quart remains, then 10–20 minutes more until small foamy bubbles become bubbles about ½ inch across and a thermometer reads 200–220 °F (93–104 °C).
- Remove from heat; the syrup should fall in a thick, steady stream like maple syrup. If over-cooked and hard, thin with a little water and boil again.
- Transfer to a glass or ceramic jar and refrigerate.
Conditions
Yield3.5 cup
Fermentation6 h
Temperature43–104°C
Temperature controlMulti-stage
Places
Korea
Traditional preparation · Country evidenceAssociation through a Korean cooking writer; not a claim of origin.
Related
Equipment
Rice cooker
A modern electric pot that cooks rice and may provide a model-specific keep-warm stage. Documented Japanese and Korean recipes use it for koji amazake, sikhye and ssal-jocheong; measure warm settings rather than assume.
Rice cooker used in stages
One rice cooker run as two stages: cook the rice, then add koji or malt water and hold it warm with the lid managed, before boiling, straining or chilling elsewhere.
Read more
Rice, koji and malt in a warm hold
Amazake, sikhye and rice syrup turn cooked rice sweet with enzymes from koji or barley malt, held at the right warmth. Jiu niang and idli batter look similar but depend on living microbes, at very different temperatures.
More from Korea
Chogochujang-style sour chilli dip
Chogochujang is a Korean sweet-sour sauce made by seasoning gochujang with vinegar and sugar. This development batch adds water and toasted sesame seeds, with optional garlic for the portion being served.
Korean-style sweet-sour mustard dressing
A fresh sweet-sour mustard dressing for cold cucumber and pear or a freshly prepared salad. Its gram-based proportions are original and are not copied from Maangchi’s gyeoja-naengchae recipe.
Ssamjang-style wrapping sauce
Doenjang and gochujang stirred together with sesame oil and seeds, a little honey, water, raw garlic and spring onion: a thick, savoury sauce for lettuce wraps with rice.
Andong soju
Andong soju is a rice spirit from North Gyeongsang, distilled from steamed rice and wheat nuruk. This method makes the starter before fermenting the rice mash in a jar.
Asparagus with cho-gochujang
A Korean banchan of blanched asparagus dressed with a sweet-sour cho-gochujang sauce; Hyosun's version cools the spears in ice water before tossing.
Baechu kimchi
Napa cabbage salted, seasoned with a paste of gochugaru, garlic, ginger and salted seafood, and left to sour through lactic fermentation; Korea's everyday winter preserve.
Baek-kimchi (white napa-cabbage kimchi)
Napa cabbage is brined and filled with pear, radish, alliums, chives and fruit; this Korean kimchi omits red pepper flakes.
Bokbunja-ju
Korean black raspberry wine: crushed bokbunja berries with their seeds, sweetened to 20 °Brix, fermented 15 days at 25 °C with wine yeast, filtered and matured three months.
Related in the family
Balachaung
A Myanmar relish of dried shrimp, fried eschalot and garlic, chilli, turmeric, tamarind and ngapi. Naomi Duguid’s published recipe makes about 1 cup; it contains crustacean shellfish.
Dinanche
Dinanche, or donne' dinanche, is a Chamorro hot pepper paste of crushed chillies that Guam cooks use on its own or stir into fina'denne'. Its versions range from pepper alone to ones with eggplant, miso or coconut milk.
Fresh yuzu-chilli-salt paste
A fresh, uncooked yuzu and green chilli paste inspired by Kyushu’s yuzu kosho, made here as an untested small-batch seasoning rather than a preservation formula.
Hot sauce (fermented pepper)
Fresh hot peppers ferment beneath a measured salt brine, then become a bright, tangy sauce blended from the peppers and their liquor.
Jeow bong
Jeow bong is a Lao paste of dried chilli, shallot, garlic and galangal cooked with buffalo or cow skin, a Luang Prabang specialty eaten with sticky rice and grilled meat.
Kimchi ketchup
A modern tomato condiment sharpened with the spicy, savoury tang associated with kimchi; this measured version whisk-mixes prepared ketchup and commercial kimchi seasoning.
Louisiana fermented pepper sauce
Documentary account of Louisiana pepper sauces, using TABASCO's published barrel-aged commercial process as one specific example; the source does not provide a validated home recipe.
Maari (Burkinabè fermented baobab seeds)
Maari is a Burkinabè baobab-seed condiment documented in producer studies. This is a non-instructional account, not a home recipe: sources vary, omit key process details and establish no validated safety control.
Community
No community contributions have been published for this entry yet.
Share what you made
Sign in to contribute. Published comments and photos are free to read.
Sources
MaangchiMethod · Storage
Homemade rice syrup (Ssal-jocheong) recipe by MaangchiStovetop and rice-cooker quantities, temperatures, times, endpoints, storage up to 3 months
Cited in: A sweetener made from rice and malt; The conversion hold; Straining, boiling and the endpoint; Storage and open questions