Gochujang

Gochujang is a savory, sweet and spicy fermented Korean condiment made from red chili powder, glutinous rice, fermented soybean powder, barley malt powder and salt, its sweetness coming from starch in the cooked rice that breaks down into sugar during fermentation; traditionally it was left to mature for years in earthenware jars set on raised stone platforms in household yards. A pepper paste appears in Korean records that predate the arrival of chili peppers themselves, including a mid-ninth century Chinese text, the Shiyi xinjian, which recorded a Korean pepper paste, and Korean medical texts from 1433 and 1445 also mention it; chili peppers, native to the Americas, reached East Asia through Portuguese traders in the early sixteenth century, with Korean references to the pepper itself appearing in a 1614 encyclopedia and cultivation methods recorded around 1700. Gochujang from the town of Sunchang gained particular prestige during the founding of the Joseon dynasty in 1392, when King Taejo is said to have enjoyed it enough to bring it into royal palace cuisine.