What’s inside an onggi pot? Korean earthenware

I like the unassuming onggi pot. It’s the work horse of the ceramic world! Outdoors in all weather, it’s had the important job of storing the essential basic ingredients for Korean cuisine! Like gochujang chilli paste…

Actually, Korea has a long tradition in ceramics. There’s the famous bluish-green celadon from the Goryeo dynasty. Then there’s Buncheong ware which was developed from celadon in the Joseon period.

In the historical drama Jung Yi Goddess of Fire (MBC 2013) the heroine is based on Joseon’s first female ceramicist who was captured during the Imjin Wars (1592-1597) and taken to Japan to develop Japanese ceramic art.

But it’s the onggi ceramic pot which is now one of the 100 cultural symbols of Korea. Onggi pots were once a part of every family’s kitchen, but these days plastic and metal containers are easier to use than ceramics and most people have kimchi fridges to store all their fermented goodies. But onggi pots are still in use.

THE TRADITION OF THE JANGDOKDAE soy-jar terrace

Most traditional Korean homes had a back garden located as far as possible from the daemun front gate. And a collection of onggi pots known as the jangdokdae – soy-jar terrace – were kept in a sunny, ventilated place.

These earthenware jars were filled with fermented foods such as soybean paste, chilli paste, soy sauce, fish sauce, and also salt.

Not surprisingly, the soy-jar terrace was really important and families believed that the terrace should be cleaned every day and the jars polished for the well-being of the family. Finding the right location for the pots and looking after the soy-jar terrace was thought to make the family prosperous.

onggi pots are good for storing foods that ferment because they are made of clay which has a high sand content that has better air permeability. So the contents of the pot can breathe without water particles escaping from the jar.

DIFFERENT KINDS OF ONGGI POTS

The pots come in different sizes. The largest ones (독 dok) store the main ingredients for Korean cooking such as fermented bean paste and chilli paste.

Medium pots (hangari 항아리) and small pots (dan chi 단지) might have soy sauce, fish sauce and other seasonings.  They were also used for making alcoholic drinks like soju and makgeolli. 

My mother-in-law still makes her own soybean paste, chilli paste, fish sauce, and soy sauce for the family. And on my last visit, I had a peek inside the pots!!

DOENJANG PASTE

Looks great, right? (That’s a sprinkling of salt on the top.) The lid of the soybean paste pot is actually made of glass so that the sunlight can get through.

And over time, that top layer of paste starts to darken. So when anyone wants to get some paste from the pot, they peel away that darker top layer to get to the lighter, juicier paste underneath. Then the top layer of darker paste is pushed back down like a lid to seal it all again.

SOY SAUCE

Soy sauce and soybean paste are made at the same time. If you make soy bean paste you can make soy sauce. I haven’t made either of these yet, but to get an idea of how to do it there’s a video on how to make bean paste from Maangchi.

SALT

My mother-in-law buys a huge amount of salt at a time! It comes from sea salt farms in Jeungdo island in Jeolla-do in the far south of Korea.

And then it has to sit for a long time so that the sea water can completely drain out of it before it’s put into the onggi pot. Apparently, if the salt is put straight into the onggi pot without letting the water drain properly, the salt tastes bitter.

When we make kimchi, we use the salt from the onggi pot. There’s so much to say about salt, but I’ll save that for another post!

KIMCHI POTS

onggi pots are often called ‘kimchi pots‘ (I’m guilt of this too!) But kimchi isn’t actually stored in them anymore!

Kimchi is stored inside in the fabulous kimchi fridge which appeared on the market in the 1990s. The kimchi fridge keeps the kimchi at a consistent and appropriate temperature and uses different technology than regular fridges to do this (this article goes into more details about that).

I noticed the difference when I left some spring onion kimchi in the regular fridge and forgot about it. When I took it out, it had aged much faster than I expected and the colour had changed. I think it was bubbling as well! 👀

But before fridges, kimchi was kept in the large onggi pots. And it must have been quite a palaver as it had to be stored differently depending on the season:

In SUMMER the pots were kept in a well or stream so that the water could keep a consistent temperature and delay the maturing process. And in WINTER the pots were buried in the ground to stop the kimchi from freezing!

WHY ARE THE POTS DIFFERENT SHAPES?

So I have noticed that pots can come in different shapes as well as sizes.

But I thought the pots were made in different shapes just for aesthetic purposes. 🤔 But no! There’s a much more practical reason…

The shapes vary from region to region because of the different weather conditions. So the shape of the pot depends on the environment and the temperature and sunlight.

So the NORTH (Gangwon and Seoul) is colder and has less sunlight than the south, so the diameter of the mouth of the pottery is wider to catch more sun. The pots have a large mouth, a sharp bulge, and are very tall.

In the MIDDLE REGION (Chungcheong province) the mouth and bottom of the pots are the same size and then there’s a slight bulge in the middle.

In the SOUTH the mouth of the onggi pot is small since there’s lots of sun down there and too much sun will dry out the contents. But on the other hand, the pots have a more rounded bulge.

MASTER POTTERS

The onggi pots used today are made with the techniques from Joseon times. 

The techniques vary depending on the size of the pots but basically they are made using the coiling technique. So the clay is rolled out into a very long sausage and then wound round and round into the desired shape.

Potters in Korea haven’t had a high status in society even though the work is highly skilled. And these days there are very few master potters left as it’s become too tough to make a living.

It’s unfortunate that these traditions might be dying out. Read more about master potters in Korea and how to make onggi pottery.

see more from dramasrok about life in Korea on Facebook Pinterest and Instagram 

related posts:

How to Make Kimchi

What happens at the Seoul Kimchi Festival?

Why Are Floors in Traditional Korean Hanok Houses Yellow?

Where can we stay in a Joseon hanok village: Andong Hahoe Hanok Village