White Bone Broth (사골육수)

This creamy savory white broth can be used as the base for various dishes. It took me a lot of trial and error when making pure white bone broth but if you follow my recipe it should work out the first time for you.

Important Tips:

• You can only use beef leg bone to get white broth. Oxtail will not work, only using marrow bones will not work, and other bones in the cow will not work. I tested all of them and only beef leg bones work.
• After simmering the first batch you can resimmer the bones again to extract more broth. You can do this 2-3 times. As the batches are simmered they will be less concentrated. It is optional to mix all the batches together then store the broth.

Where to use White Bone Broth (사골육수):

• White Bone Broth Beef Soup (설렁탕)
  • You need to add beef to this soup, but do not simmer raw beef in the white broth, or the broth will turn gray.
  • There are two ways you can add beef to make White Bone Broth Beef Soup “설렁탕”.
  • If you saved some beef from the bones when cleaning, remove the fat from the beef pieces and boil the beef separately from the white bone broth until tender. Then, add it to the white bone broth when serving.
  • If you did not have or did not save any beef, you can follow what I did in the “Beef Bean Sprout Rice Soup (소고기콩나물국밥) Recipe”. I recommend using lean beef.
  • Soak the beef in water, blanch it in water for 10 minutes, then add it to fresh water with chunks of radish, salt, garlic, onion, and cooking wine and simmer until tender.
  • Once the beef is tender, take it out of the liquid and let it rest before slicing or tearing it.
  • Now that all the components are ready:
  • Place the cooked tender beef in a bowl and pour the hot white bone broth on top.
  • Serve at the table with green onion, coarse sea salt, and radish kimchi.
  • Each person will have their own bowl that they can season with salt, top with green onion, and eat with radish kimchi.
  • You can also add a small amount of cooked sōmen (소면) or use the cold rice method from the “Beef Bean Sprout Rice Soup (소고기콩나물국밥) Recipe” and add some rice to the soup before serving.
• Tteokguk/Rice Cake Soup (떡국)
  • First, prep all the garnishes for Tteokguk/Rice Cake Soup (떡국).
  • Make an egg yolk garnish by cooking whisked egg yolk in a pan and slicing it into thin strips.
  • Cut or crush dry toasted seaweed into strips or pieces.
  • Slice fresh green onion.
  • Boil lean beef in a separate pot until tender, following the “Beef Bean Sprout Rice Soup (소고기콩나물국밥) Recipe”, then tear or cut it into strips.
  • Now, bring the white bone broth to a simmer, add the sliced rice cake, and season with salt (if you use soy sauce, the broth will turn gray).
  • Serve with the garnish on top of the soup!
• Blood Sausage Soup (순대국)
  • In America, the most accessible blood sausage is found in the frozen section. So the first step is to steam the sausage based on the package. Once it cools a bit, carefully slice it into chunks and place it in your serving bowl. If you can get fresh steamed then add that.
  • Then heat your white broth and prepare the seasonings.
  • You can add chives (부추) cut into 1 inch pieces, fresh sliced peppers, sliced green onion (파/대파) perilla seed powder (들깨가루), a spicy seasoned paste (다대기), or salted shrimp (새우젓).
  • You can also offer these seasonings on the side so that each person can customize their soup as they prefer.