Kkaennip (Perilla Leaves)

Kkaennip is the broad, serrated, strongly aromatic leaf used for wrapping grilled meat, pickling into jangajji, and layering into stews. It is one of the most distinctive flavours in Korean cooking and one of the most commonly mislabelled ingredients in Western shops.

The flavour is hard to describe and impossible to mistake once you know it — something between mint, anise and basil, with a slight bitterness that cuts fat. That is why it appears alongside pork rather than beside delicate dishes.

Kkaennip is not shiso

This is the single most common confusion. Korean perilla and Japanese shiso are related — both are Perilla frutescens varieties — but they are not interchangeable.

Korean perilla leaves are larger, flatter, rounder, and green on both sides, with a mellower, more aniseed-leaning flavour. Shiso is smaller, more sharply serrated, often purple-backed, and much more assertive. Substituting shiso in a ssam wrap gives a noticeably sharper, more medicinal result.

If a shop sells them as "sesame leaves", that is a mistranslation — kkaennip has no relationship to sesame at all, despite the name sharing a root.

How it is used

Ssam — raw, as a wrap for samgyeopsal or bossam, usually layered under a lettuce leaf rather than instead of one.

Jangajji — pickled in soy sauce, stacked in a jar, and eaten a leaf at a time with rice. This is how a large bunch gets used before it wilts.

In stews and jeon — added late, since heat kills the aroma quickly.

Buying and storing

Look for leaves that are unblemished and not yellowing at the edges, sold in stacked bunches. They wilt fast.

Store them stem-down in a little water like cut flowers, loosely covered, and they will hold for several days. Sealed in a bag with condensation they turn slimy within two days.

If you cannot find them

There is no clean substitute — this is one of the cases where the ingredient is the dish. Shiso is the nearest relative but changes the flavour direction; a mix of mint and basil approximates the aromatic profile for a stew but would be strange in a wrap.

Perilla is easy to grow from seed and grows enthusiastically, which is why so many Korean households simply keep a pot of it.