Making broth is not as simple as simmering a bunch of ingredients for as long as possible. Especially in Korean cuisine, certain ingredients need to be simmered for a specific time period otherwise they can make your broth taste bitter or weird.
Simmering Timeline:
- Beef bones should be simmered for 4-6 hours. They can also be used for more than one batch of broth. They can be re-simmered. Some recipes may have bones simmered in shorter time frames in multiple batches.
- Fish bones or clams should be simmered for 30-45 minutes. They need less time than beef bones. If simmered too long, it can make the broth taste bad.
- Dried seafood (specifically pollock, dried large-eyed herring, and dried shrimp) should be simmered for 1-2 hours. This way you can get a lot of the flavor from the ingredient.
- Dried anchovy is a little different it should be simmered for 10-15 minutes maximum 30 minutes, or the flavor can be less clean and have a stronger fish smell.
- Dried seaweed should not be simmered any longer than 15 minutes. If simmered longer, it releases vitamins that make the broth bitter.
- Vegetable broths (radish, onion, etc.) only need to be simmered for 30-45 minutes otherwise, they will begin to dissolve and make your broth cloudy.
