Stews & Soups
Tteok Guk (New Year's Rice Cake Soup)
Prep
20 min
Cook
30 min
Servings
4
Photo: soscs · CC0
Steps
- 1
Soak the sliced rice cakes in cold water for 20-30 minutes if they're refrigerated or dried, then drain.
- 2
Simmer the beef in the water for 30 minutes, skimming off foam as it rises to keep the broth clear.
- 3
Remove the beef, shred it, and season with a little soy sauce and sesame oil.
- 4
Strain the broth and return it to the pot with garlic and soy sauce.
- 5
Separately, fry thin sheets of beaten egg white and yolk, then slice into thin ribbons (jidan).
- 6
Bring the broth back to a boil and add the drained rice cakes.
- 7
Simmer until the rice cakes float and turn soft but still chewy, 4-6 minutes.
- 8
Ladle into bowls and top with shredded beef, egg ribbons, green onion, and crumbled seaweed.
Did you know — Korean culture
Eating a bowl of tteok guk traditionally marks turning a year older in Korea, tied to the older custom of counting age from the new year rather than from your birthday — and the rice cakes are sliced into thin coins partly for the symbolism, read as a wish for prosperity.
Soaking the rice cakes before they go into the broth matters more than it looks like it should. Refrigerated or dried garae-tteok is firm and dense, and dropping it straight into hot broth means the outside softens and starts shedding starch long before the center gives — which clouds the broth and leaves the middle of each slice unpleasantly hard.
Skimming the beef broth as it simmers is the other half of keeping this soup clear. Tteok guk is meant to look clean and pale, almost translucent, and the foam that rises during the first stretch of simmering is exactly what turns a clear stock murky if it's stirred back in instead of lifted off.
Tteok guk is the New Year's dish in Korea — traditionally, eating a bowl marks turning a year older, tied to the older custom of counting age from the new year rather than one's birthday. The rice cakes are sliced into coins on a diagonal partly for that symbolism, with the round white slices read as a wish for prosperity and a clean start to the year.
Troubleshooting
Broth cloudy instead of clear? Either the foam wasn't skimmed during the beef simmer, or the rice cakes went in unsoaked and shed starch into the pot.
Rice cakes hard in the middle? They needed a longer soak before cooking — dried or refrigerated tteok especially.
Rice cakes gone mushy and falling apart? They simmered too long — pull them as soon as they float and soften, usually within about five minutes.