A different kind of barbeque
Finally.
Here it is.
What so many of you have requested and been waiting for.
Mother’s bulgogi (Korean bbq beef) recipe.
Let me tell you something about my mother’s cooking. There is no binder of recipes, no handwritten notations, no secret stash of recipe cards like some of your mothers have so thoughtfully kept and which you hope to one day inherit. No, all of my mother’s recipes are stored in the sometimes useless gelatinous mess inside her skull (and of course, I say that in THE most loving way possible, despite her penchant for putting the cereal in the fridge and the milk in the pantry, and filling the half-empty SUGAR tub with SALT, ARGH!), the same way my grandmother’s were, both women taught by standing by their mother’s side and learning to hone their instincts, not through weights and measures, but through colour, sight, touch, smell and taste.
Despite my mother attempting to teach me in this manner, my love of purchasing cookbooks and baking have meant that as I’ve grown up, my cooking method has varied greatly from hers. While I have some of her instincts and can eyeball some of my ingredients fairly decently, I am still desperately in love with my measuring spoons, cups and kitchen scales and cannot bear giving them up.
What this means is that mother and I often butt heads when I’m trying to take down a recipe of hers, from her insisting that ‘halmoni’ (grandmother) would be rolling around in her grave at my determination to measure everything to my telling her that her sheer refusal to measure is the reason that dish X/Y/Z turned out utterly bizarrely. To be honest, to her credit, though she rarely measures anything, there is an astonishing accuracy to her cooking, and any different outcomes are 99% due to forgetting or not having an ingredient, and trying to substitute something else in it’s place.
The bulgogi recipe was something I mastered fairly early on in my cooking journey - it’s extremely easy and straight-forward, and you can marinate batches of this and leave them in the fridge or freezer to be defrosted and cooked for a quick meal later, but despite the ease of this recipe, it took awhile for me to get right (according to my mother) as she outright refused to give me measurements, instead getting me to slowly mix in one ingredient at a time, tasting along each stage and seeing how each addition built upon the flavour. As I got the hang of it, I understood why my mother insisted upon teaching me in this manner.
Nothing is ever the same.
Though the ingredients rarely vary, the produce itself does. For example, one time we may buy an extremely sweet Nashi/Asian pear, but the next time we make it, the pear we’ve bought may turn out to be more watery than sweet. The meat can vary in thickness, depending on which butcher we’ve purchased from, and though we usually use the same brand of soy sauce, there have been a few occasions where we’ve been caught out with a different brand that has a different level of pungency and saltiness to our regular variety.
It is for all these reasons that my mother cooks the way she does, and why she values her own kitchen intuition above any kitchen implement that they can create.
However, since the techno-whizzes have yet to create computers that engage any senses other than sight, I’ve taken the liberty of writing down the basics of our recipe for your ease of use. Just remember that, like most marinates, it’s best to taste the marinade along the way, tweaking it to suit your tastebuds so you end up with a final product that is perfect for you!
I can’t stress this enough, PLEASE don’t buy those atrocious ‘Korean bbq marinade’ bottles they sell, that sh*t is disgusting and to be honest, putting in the work to make it yourself will result in a FAR more pleasing product. Just be warned that when you are making it yourself, doing things like replacing the ingredients or using utterly foreign additions (for example, I’ve seen one bulgogi recipe that involved SHERRY. You have GOT to be kidding me, my grandmother would start spinning in her grave if she saw that - and I’d bloody well like to hear a native F-O-B Korean SAY sherry, let alone use it!) will result in a completely different end product.
(Bulgogi - Korean BBQ beef)
Ingredients (to marinate 1kg beef)
1kg thinly sliced beef sirloin (sliced to about 2-3mm thick) *
5 cloves garlic, crushed
1 medium-sized brown onion, peeled
1 nashi/Asian pear, peeled
1 sweet apple, such as fuji, grated
2/3 cup Korean soy sauce (’kanjang’), but you can substitute it with Japanese tamari soy or Chinese light soy sauce in a pinch
2 tbsp toasted sesame seed oil
2-4 tbsp caster sugar (this will depend on the sweetness of your pear)
2 spring onions, washed and finely sliced
Freshly cracked black pepper, to taste
* - Most Asian butchers will be able to slice the beef for you if you let them know. If not, then the way to do it yourself is to half freeze it so that the piece of beef is almost solid through, then use a sharp kitchen knife to slice pieces, about 2-3mm thick, against the grain. If the beef thaws and becomes soft and hard to slice during this process, just pop it back in the freezer to firm up for an hour or two before continuing.
1. Use your hands to squeeze the juice from the apple over the sliced beef and set aside. Using an extremely fine grater, turn the onion and pear into pulp (alternatively, you can just blend till liquid but this makes the marinade a bit watery), then mix together with the soy sauce and crushed garlic, then taste for sweetness. If it’s not quite sweet enough for your tastes, add all the sugar, but if it’s close, just add 1-2 tbsp of sugar, mix and taste again.
2. Add the sliced meat to the bowl, then pour the marinade over the top, then add the sesame seed oil, sliced spring onion and cracked pepper and massage all the marinade into the meat for about 1-2 minutes, making sure none of the slices of beef are stuck together and that the marinade has been distributed evenly throughout.
3. Pour into an airtight container and store in the fridge for at least a few hours, ideally overnight, and cook over a griddle or in an unoiled non-stick frying pan - the reason for that is that the pan juices are extremely tasty, and can be very nice poured over your bowl of rice!
Though the common translation of this is ‘Korean bbq beef’, a direct translation of the name is actually ‘fire meat’. It really should not be cooked over a traditional Western bbq as the meat is sliced so thin that you’ll lose a lot of it through the grill! Instead, if your bbq has a flat plate then use that or a flat griddle pan, or just use your frying pan in a pinch!
Serving Information
While this is quite tasty, it’s not exactly a dish that you eat on it’s own - it should be served (at the very least) with a bowl of rice and an assortment of kimchi and other banchan.
Bulgogi is extremely tasty to serve cooked together with other ingredients - some of our favourite veggies to add to the pan when cooking bulgogi are enoki mushrooms (about 1-2 bunches with the roots trimmed, washed and patted dry), (mung) bean shoots, grated carrot or baby bok choy, briefly blanched and drained.
Another great addition is some ‘dang myun‘, or cellophane noodles made with sweet potato flour (very different in taste and texture to regular Chinese cellophane noodles), which can be boiled, rinsed under cold water, drained and added to the pan when cooking the bulgogi, they will absorb the pan juices and become delicious!
The final way that bulgogi can be enjoyed is in the Korean ’ssam’ style - as a lettuce leaf wrap. Take a few crisp lettuce leaves, washed and spun dry, then place a spoonful of rice in the middle, a piece of bulgogi, ‘ssam jang‘ (a fermented soybean/chilli paste specially made for this style of eating) and a few banchan, then wrap up and enjoy! If you can be bothered, grilled garlic cloves taste GREAT in this combination, so if you’ve got a grill pan, peel a few cloves, pop them on and leave to cook through before adding them to the spread!
Technorati Tags: bulgogi, beef, Asian, Korean, recipes, food, savoury, barbeque, bbq
People who have tried this recipe:
- Kevin from Closet Cooking
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Comments
Jen Yu My mom and grandma cook the same way - no measurements, all in their heads. I do that with a few recipes, but I too grew up with baking cookbooks and like to write down recipes 
This one looks terrific! Thanks for the recipe and I cannot wait to try it.
Mrs.W What a great recipe! When I lived in SKorea I learned to make bulgogi using corn syrup, and that was a bit too cloyingly sweet. I’ll certainly try this recipe–I’m sure I’ll like it much better.
There’s nothing like bulgogi grilled over that table grill at a restaurant. Mmm, my tastebuds are tingling just thinking about it.
I’ve also seen other recipes that use ginger, and I didn’t think that was an authentic, traditional ingredient… what do you say?
Korean Recipe Diary My experience with lettuce … butter lettuce is great. I’ve tried several different varieties but none of them taste quite right. And it’s perfect with soybean namul!
Emily My mom never writes down any of her recipes either. Over my Winter Break, I forced her to dictate to me some of my favorite recipes for future reference (her handwriting sucks, even she will admit that), and it was kind of funny. She hardly ever measures out her spices, so when I asked her about how much of a certain spice, she would mimic shaking the container into a pot until she felt it was the right amount. So half my recipes have written down "5 shakes" or "one light shake." 
ilingc I’ve been trying to get my mum to write down her char siu recipe too. All she ever says is "soy sauce, oyster sauce, sugar.." etc etc and whenever I ask for the measurements it’s always "whatever you think is enough" i’m like hello!!!
But I have to agree with you, there’s just something about real home cooking that you just can’t replicate even if you "think" you’ve the right mix of ingredients.
I probably shouldn’t admit to this, but I too am guilty of buying the pre-bottled stuff hehe.
Happy Lunar New Year Ellie
Joy Thanks for sharing the recipe! I have yet to find a Korean place here, and coming from Vancouver, where we have all kinds of food from everywhere very easy to find, I’ve been missing Korean bbq beef.
Kat Ooh, I like that you use both the apple and pear! I think I’ll try this when I get home.
brilynn I’ve often ordered bulgogi, but never made it at home. I never knew it had pear and apple in it!
sylvia You are so lucky that you mom would let you learn with her. I tried to have my grandmother show me how to make ravioli and it started like: make a mountain of flour, poke a hole in the center like a volcano, add one egg and beat it all up. Being one who needs written direction or hands on, I’ve never made it. Oh well. But now Bulgogi is a different thing, I had it in a resturaunt, found a recipe and have tried to make it for 20 years. Sometimes great, sometimes so so, depending on the meat cut. Your recipe is so different I have to try it. Mine had no fruit at all. But how do I translate castor sugar in American? My mom (who’s English and retreating into the dark mind) asked me for it recently and I couldn’t find it anywhere. Is it sweeter?? Finer?? than regular sugar? ..
Ellie Tuan - I hope you enjoy it.
Jen Yu - Perhaps it’s Asian thing? All my mother’s friends are the same! I hope you do give this a try and enjoy it
Ann - Enjoy!
Mrs. W - While recipes with corn syrup are quite common, we like to avoid using them if possible, relying on natural sweetners such as onion, pear and apple to instead give the necessary sweetness boost As for ginger in bulgogi, other families might use it but it has never been an ingredient of ours for this dish as it’s far too powerful and would overwhelm the other flavours!
KRD - I must admit that we prefer red or green coral as that’s what my grandmother used to grow and what we used to eat our ’ssam’ when living in Korea.
Emily - LOL! My mother was the same, it wasn’t till I started plonking myself next to her and physically manipulating her measurements that I began to get ones that could be deciphered later
Melanie - Enjoy!
I-Ling - LOL! Sounds exactly like my ma! And yeah, you can’t get authentic home cooking from a bottle is what I say!
Joy - My pleasure It’s easy to make so I hope you give it a try!
Kat - They give a much brighter/fresher sweetness than other sweetners, so I hope you enjoy
Brilynn - The apple and pear are according to our family recipe, there are many variations that use corn syrup or honey but I’ve tried those and personally much prefer the ‘fresher’ (and healthier!) sweetness of our own recipe to them
Sylvia - The reason that we use fruit in our recipe is that it lends a ‘fresher’ sweetness to the recipe. Also, the pear (apparently) has a very mild acid to it which helps to tenderize the thin pieces of beef and keep them soft
Caster sugar is just a grade of sugar between regular table sugar and confectioner’s sugar, very often used in baking as it’s finer grain allows it to dissolve more readily than table sugar. Just replace it with regular white sugar for this particular recipe and you’ll be fine
Cindy I’ll definitely give this recipe a try,
I’m a huge fan of bulgogi,
It’s so good, I feel like I can eat 1kg all by myself!
cakebrain How lucky for you to have a mother and a grandmother that can cook! I grew up thinking Shake’n Bake and t.v. dinners were treats! To give her credit, mom tried; there just wasn’t any aptitude. Let’s just say she put her efforts into her career instead. My maternal grandmother was a wonderful intuitive cook. Unfortunately, she passed away before I could learn all of her fabulous recipes. I wholly suggest you glean all you can from your loved ones! I am definitely going to make your bulgogi. It looks delicious. Having no Korean friends, I have no idea what homemade Bulgogi should taste like!
Kevin The Bulgogi sounds really tasty! I had always thought that Bulgogi was supposed to be hot/spicy.
Justin Hope you got my donation! It’s my sign of gratitude for all the great recipes you have posted so far and that i feel for you when you desperately need some money to fix something. Glad to say my bulgogi is currently marinating in the fridge and will be there all through the night. Keep up the great site and keep the korean recipes coming.
Best of luck in 2008
Suzanne Wow, I made this last night and it was exactly what I was looking for! It’s been 20 years since I was in Korea and this really tastes how I remember!! I had Bulgogi at a local Korean restaurant recently and it just didn’t quite hit the spot. THANK YOU!!!
Lore Everytime I come to your site I find out something fun and amazing. This time it’s no different. Thank you, your mom, your grandmother for a great recipe !
jasmine I think your mum and my mum are sisters…
You have NO idea how grateful I am to have access to this recipe
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Ldylvbgr How funny! I just blogged about making Bulgogi last night. This was my first time making it, and it was pretty good.
Ellie Cindy - Sounds very much like my brother, he eats this stuff like crazy too
Cakebrain - I count myself as being very fortunate to come from a line of women who took/take pride in being able to cook (and cook well) for their family 
I plan on learning as much as possible from my ma (both nannas have already passed on) in the short time that’s left!
Kevin - Nope, bulgogi has two dominant flavours, sweet and soy. Only bbq sliced pork belly (dwaeji bulgogi) is spicy, the beef should not be spicy at all if it is to be traditional/authentic.
Justin - I did, thank you SO much! I’m so glad that you’re enjoying the website, and hopefully you’ll continue to enjoy the content that I have planned for the site in the future
Suzanne - Hurrah! Glad to hear that you liked the recipe 
Lore - Thank you for your kind words
Jasmine - Hehehe, your ma does the crazy no measuring thing too? Hope you enjoy the recipe!
Deborah - My pleasure
Cakespy - No wukkers, it’s a pleasure
Ldy - It’s a wonderful dish, and definitely one of the easier Korean recipes. I had a look at the recipe you used, all sounds good but I’d leave out the white wine and stick to pear juice to be honest, if you’re aiming for something that is more authentic.
Thanh Hooray! *massive round of applause*
I was one of the many that requested this recipe and I even remember sending you an email about this.
I must admit, ashamedly, that I have been using store bought Bulgogi marinate because I didn’t know a recipe. But I can now rectify that and make my own Bulgogi mixture. I will try this as soon as possible. Thanks for sharing the recipe Ellie.
Deborah Dowd I have made bulgogi before and it was delicious, but I’d love to try your more authentic recipe.
Melanie Unfortunately, I don’t have an omma to cook me bulgogi so I’ve had to make do with infrequent trips to Korean restaurants I cooked this recipe last night and it was so good!Thank you so much for sharing
Ran I tried this last night and it was great. I was too lazy to make too many bancahn so i made the shitake mushrooms and some stirfried greens and we ate them with bbq garlic, lettuce and rice yummmm
i wish i could be bothered making kimchi but it seems too involved for me!
thanks!
Ellie Thanh - I hope you try this instead of the bottled crap, there really is no comparison
Deborah - I hope you enjoy it!
Melanie - I’m so glad to hear that you enjoyed making this!
Ran - Glad you enjoyed it Kimchi can be very tiring to make (especially if you do it in 30kg+ batches like we do) but it can be very worthwhile!
How kind of you to share with us this family recipe. I think I will make it and bring it to the next family bbq.