Gwamegi Wraps (Semi-Dried Pacific Saury Ssam)
Quick answer
- Total time
- 25 min
- Level
- Easy
- Servings
- 3 servings
- Ingredients
- 12
About this dish
Gwamegi is Pacific saury, or traditionally herring, half-dried by freezing and thawing repeatedly in cold sea wind on Korea's southeast coast.
Read more
It is eaten without cooking, so buying and storage matter more than technique. Choose a refrigerated product, put it in the fridge as soon as you get home, and prepare only what you will eat that day; seal and freeze the rest. Most gwamegi is now sold half-trimmed, already split into two fillets with the skin on. Lift the skin at the end where the head was and pull toward the tail, and it comes off in one piece. The fish is rich and oily, so it is wrapped in plain napa cabbage or laver with raw garlic, scallion and green chili, and dipped in vinegary chogochujang to cut the fat.
Ingredients
Instructions
- 1
Take the gwamegi straight from the refrigerator to prepare it.
At the end where the head was, separate a little skin from the flesh with a fingernail, then grip the skin and pull it toward the tail.
- 2
Pick off any small bones and fin remnants along the center and press off surface oil with a paper towel.
Cut into 6 to 7 cm lengths.
- 3
Wash the cabbage leaves and shake them dry, and quarter the laver sheets.
Cut the scallions into 5 cm lengths and slice the garlic 2 to 3 mm thick. Slice the chilies on the diagonal 3 mm wide and shake out the seeds.
- 4
Mix 3 tablespoons gochujang, 1.5 tablespoons vinegar, 1 tablespoon sugar and 1 tablespoon minced garlic, then stir in 1 teaspoon sesame seeds and 0.5 teaspoon sesame oil for the chogochujang.
- 5
Arrange the gwamegi and vegetables separately with the sauce.
Place a piece of gwamegi on a cabbage leaf or laver square, add scallion, garlic and chili, dip in the sauce and wrap.
- 6
Do not leave leftover gwamegi at room temperature; seal and freeze it.
Freeze any unprepared gwamegi you will not eat that day as well.
References checked
These references were consulted when this page was prepared or corrected. A source check does not mean the recipe was independently kitchen-tested.
- 과메기 (전통향토음식)
농촌진흥청 농식품올바로 · Checked: 2026-10-02
- 겨울 별미 과메기 맛있게 먹는 법 (2017-12-26)
대한민국 정책브리핑 · Checked: 2026-10-02
- 겨울 제철 수산물 굴, 복어, 과메기 먹기 전 주의사항 (식약처 안내 보도, 2020-12-13)
이투데이 · Checked: 2026-10-02
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