Our Bossam
I love everything about bossam - korean pork wraps. Fermented bean umami bomb, fresh and boldly flavored sides, the DIY nature of wraps, what’s not to love?
We regularly eat bossam at home, once every few months. It’s always a little different and never traditional. Over the years, we evolved into a few standbys that I usually prefer to have, and some I can do without most of the time. Here is my collection. Mix and match.
2017 Bossam
Picture from a long time ago, showing way more ssamjang than you need for this much pork, and a bunch of healthy lettuce. Scallion sauce bottom left.
Loin was probably cooked lower, maybe to 135F. There is a lean muscle and a “cap” of fattier muscle that turns deeper pink/is more delicious.
BOSSAM
THE PORK: Traditionally, you’d boil pork belly until it’s tender but not falling apart in a braising liquid lightly seasoned with doenjang, a ton of garlic, and various aromatics. I used several recipes in the past and also occasionally combined aspects I liked and just winged it. It’s more or less the same idea. David Chang’s roast pork version is also popular. I made that like six years ago (before it was cool duh) and didn’t really enjoy the roasty richness or the pulled pork texture. I like a clean, tender pork with all the strongly flavored toppings and prefer boiling the pork.
Since pork belly is not that healthy, and I want to gorge on bossam guilt free, we have most recently exclusively cooked tenderloin sous vide with all the seasons that normally go into the braising liquid.
Here’s roughly how it goes:
Make a paste of:
1/2 cup korean soy bean paste
8 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 onion, thinly sliced
nub ginger
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp sugar
a little water to loosen
Rub paste generously over outside of 3lb pork tenderloin/pork loin/pork chops. (Optional: marinate in fridge for 30min-overnight).
Cook at 145F for 1-4hrs.
Cool completely and transfer to fridge to chill - leave in bag!
The next day, scrape off as much of the paste as possible and dry with kitchen towel. (Save the liquid!)
Sear in oil on high heat for 1-2 minutes, for a small amount of char. Careful, marinated surface burns easily.
Slice and serve! No resting needed because at this point, a thick slab of meat straight from the fridge should still be barely cold in the middle.
THE SIDES: As you may read on every front page site on Google, bossam typically comes with a pairing of fresh kimchi, lettuce/perilla, rice, ssamjang, oyster radish salad, and fermented shrimp sauce. Maangchi’s call for lightly pickled napa as the wrapper.
We’ve done all of these in some combination, never all at the same time. Most of it I can do without, especially since they all offer competing strong flavors.
We like rice, fresh kimchi, a nice crunchy lettuce (little gem!), apple ssamjang, and scallion ginger sauce. I do not like fermented shrimp sauce. Everything else takes too much forethought to shop for and prep, but I almost always have kimchi in my fridge and apple ssamjang whips up in a flash. Maangchi specifically says she likes regular ssamjang for bossam, but apple and pork are a classic pair, and I really like the freshness it adds.
Maangchi’s Apple Ssamjang:
Mix together:
1/2 cup korean soy bean paste
3 Tbsp korean hot pepper paste
4-6 garlic cloves
4 green onion
2 Tbsp sesame oil
(sesame seeds, which I always omit)
About 20 minutes before serve, add:
1.5 cups Honeycrisp or similar apple, diced medium
Mix and stand for 20 minutes to allow apple liquid to be drawn out. Mix again just before serving.
Doesn’t really last until the next day. It’s edible but the apple is lost. You can make the paste and mix apple right before serving.
David Chang’s scallion ginger sauce, the only thing I took from his recipe:
Mix together:
1/2 cup scallions, thinly sliced
2 Tbsp ginger, grated
1 Tbsp neutral oil
dash soy sauce
1 tsp sherry vinegar
1/4 tsp salt
Taste for seasoning. I always bump vinegar and salt by a ton, which is reflected in this post. If not salty enough, add salt and not soy sauce to preserve the color.
BONUS NOODLES: The braising liquid inside the bag is a porky concentrate and should not go to waste. My favorite way to repurpose them is to boil potato noodles in them the next day. Top with a few pieces of leftover pork, bring out your leftover sides, and you have an amazingly flavorful noodle soup lunch the next day. Noah first discovered this when he lazily boiled noodles for japchae in leftover (traditional) bossam broth while making his proposal dinner. Most flavorful japchae I’ve ever had to this day.
If using sous vide liquid, you must soak the noodles in hot water for 20-30 minutes to partially rehydrate them. Then, add them to the pot with leftover pork liquid and just enough extra water to cover, and cook until translucent and slippery.
If using traditional braising liquid, just boil the noodles the whole time. People always say to presoak your potato noodles, but I have never found it to make a difference, especially if you boil it in a lot of liquid. I don’t like the hassle unless it’s necessary. Rice noodles are a different story though.
Noodles, 2019
That time, I made a dry noodle bowl (boil most of the way, finish by cooking in liquid with no additional water until dry). There’s normally not much broth anyway. Topped with leftover pork, saeujot, ginger sauce. Maangchi’s pickled napa chopped up on the side.
I love pork belly bossam, but I can eat a lot more of it like this. Even though it’s not traditional, it really hits the spot when I crave bossam.