Korean Ox Bone Soup (Milky Slow-Simmered Beef Bone Broth)
Quick answer
Seolleongtang is one of Korea's oldest and most enduring soups, produced by simmering ox leg bones and beef brisket together for six to eight hours until the broth turns...
What makes this special
- Seolleongtang turns ox bone broth opaque and milky through six hours of slow simmering.
- 6-8 hours of simmering turns clear water milky white as collagen releases
- Brisket pulled at 2 hours while bones continue for concentrated broth
Key ingredients
Core cooking flow
- 1 Soak 1.5kg ox bones in plenty of cold water for at least 2 hours, changing the water once or twice.
- 2 Put the bones in a large pot, cover with water, and bring to a full boil over high heat.
- 3 Wash the pot, then add 4L fresh water, the bones, 300g beef brisket, and 6 garlic cloves.
Seolleongtang is one of Korea's oldest and most enduring soups, produced by simmering ox leg bones and beef brisket together for six to eight hours until the broth turns a deep, opaque milky white. The bones are soaked in cold water for a minimum of two hours to purge as much blood as possible, then blanched in a separate pot and rinsed before the true simmering begins in fresh water. Over the course of a half-day at a steady, rolling boil, marrow and collagen break down and emulsify into the water, creating a broth with a heavy, almost creamy viscosity and a deep bovine savoriness that accumulates slowly and cannot be replicated with shortcuts. The brisket is removed after two hours, when it has turned tender and fully cooked, then sliced thin across the grain and returned to the bowl as a topping. The defining tradition of seolleongtang is that the broth arrives at the table completely unseasoned, and each person adds their own salt, white pepper, and sliced green onion to taste. This custom underscores the expectation that the broth itself should carry the bowl with its own richness. Steamed rice or thin wheat noodles are added directly to the soup and left to soak, absorbing the milky liquid until each grain or strand carries the flavor of the bone broth. In Korea, seolleongtang is eaten as a restorative meal after illness, as a morning hangover cure, and as a deeply satisfying cold-weather comfort food.
Instructions
Read the steps as a cooking flow: prep, heat, seasoning, doneness control, and finish.
- 1Step
Soak 1.5kg ox bones in plenty of cold water for at least 2 hours, changing the water once or twice.
When the water looks much paler, rinse the bones well and drain them.
- 2Control
Put the bones in a large pot, cover with water, and bring to a full boil over high heat.
Blanch for 10 minutes, then discard the water and rinse the bones to remove gray foam and residue.
- 3Control
Wash the pot, then add 4L fresh water, the bones, 300g beef brisket, and 6 garlic cloves.
Bring to a boil over high heat, skimming foam as it rises so the broth stays clean.
- 4Control
Once boiling, lower to medium-low and simmer steadily for 6-8 hours.
If the liquid drops too much, add hot water so the bones stay covered and the broth can turn milky without scorching.
- 5Control
After about 2 hours, remove the brisket when a chopstick or skewer slides in easily.
Let it cool slightly, slice it thinly across the grain, and keep simmering the bones until the broth looks opaque and milky.
- 6Finish
Strain the broth through cheesecloth, skim off excess fat, and reheat it until very hot.
Pour it over rice or thin noodles, then serve with sliced brisket, green onion, salt, and black pepper for seasoning at the table.
After the steps
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Gomtang (Slow-Simmered Ox Bone Beef Soup)
Gomtang is a Korean bone soup made by simmering beef leg bones and brisket in water for five to six hours or longer until the broth turns opaque and milky white. The prolonged cooking extracts collagen, marrow, and fat from the bones, giving the liquid a creamy texture and a deep beefy flavor that needs only salt and black pepper to taste complete. Before the long simmer begins, the bones should be soaked in cold water for at least an hour to draw out the blood, then parboiled briefly in a fresh pot of water and rinsed clean so that the final broth comes out clear and free of off flavors. The brisket is removed partway through cooking, sliced thin against the grain, and arranged on top of the steaming soup for serving. Sliced green onion and a generous shake of black pepper cut cleanly through the richness of the milky broth. The most common way to eat gomtang is with a bowl of steamed rice submerged directly into the soup, letting the grains soak up all the flavor. This is slow food in the truest sense - the hours of effort yield a pot that can sustain a family across two meals - and it remains one of the dishes Koreans reach for instinctively when the cold sets in.
Korean Ox Bone Broth (Milky Collagen-Rich Marrow Soup)
Sagol-guk is a Korean bone broth soup made by simmering beef marrow bones for six hours or longer until the dissolved collagen and marrow turn the liquid a dense, opaque white that looks closer to milk than water. The seasoning is intentionally minimal, limited to green onion, garlic, and salt, because the entire point of the dish is the bone itself and what slow heat extracts from it over time. Before the long simmer begins, the bones are soaked in cold water to draw out the blood and then briefly blanched to remove any remaining impurities that would cloud or bitter the broth. The same bones can be reboiled three or four times, with each successive batch yielding a progressively lighter and cleaner-tasting liquid. The soup is served piping hot alongside rice, with salt and white pepper passed at the table so each person can season according to preference. Alongside seolleongtang and gomtang, sagol-guk forms one of the three pillars of Korea's long bone broth tradition, and its restorative reputation makes it a natural choice on cold days or when the body needs warmth and something uncomplicated.
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