Seolleongtang
Published June 15, 2022
- Total Time
- 3½ hours
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- 3 to 4pounds beef leg bones (see Tip)
- 1pound brisket or chuck roast
- 8scallions, thinly sliced
- 8garlic cloves, finely grated
- 4teaspoons flaky sea salt, plus more as desired
- Steamed white rice, for serving
- Very ripe radish kimchi, for serving
Nutritional analysis per serving (4 servings)
735 calories; 25 grams fat; 10 grams saturated fat; 1 gram trans fat; 13 grams monounsaturated fat; 2 grams polyunsaturated fat; 16 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram dietary fiber; 1 gram sugars; 112 grams protein; 1373 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
- Step 1
Place the beef bones and brisket in a very large stockpot (the biggest you have), and add enough cold tap water to fully cover by 1 inch. Bring to a boil over high heat and cook until the bones and meat are no longer pink and a gray foam collects at the surface, about 10 minutes. Drain in a colander and rinse the bones under cold tap water. Rinse out the pot, as well, if it is especially dirty, and add back the bones and meat.
- Step 2
Add 5 quarts cold tap water to the pot and bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat to gently boil. Partly cover and cook until the soup is rich with marrow flavor and milky-white in color, about 3 hours. (For the milkiest soup, you want to maintain this gentle boil, which should be more vigorous than a simmer but less volatile than a hard boil.) During these 3 hours, you don’t need to stir, but you should check the water level once or twice to make sure the bones stay covered with liquid; add more cold tap water to the pot if this level gets too low, which can happen if your stove is especially strong.
- Step 3
Carefully drain the contents of the pot into a colander set in a large bowl. Take out the brisket, slice it thinly against the grain and set aside. Rinse, cool and freeze the bones to use them again another time. At this point, you can refrigerate the soup overnight to remove the fat, which will harden on top once chilled and be easy to remove (don’t forget to refrigerate the brisket, too), or you can pour it back into a clean pot and, just before serving, bring to a simmer over medium heat, skimming the fat off the top with a ladle. Season generously with salt.
- Step 4
While the soup is reheating for serving, prepare the scallion garnish: In a small bowl, stir together the scallions, garlic and flaky sea salt.
- Step 5
Divide the brisket among large bowls and ladle over the hot soup. Sprinkle some of the scallion garnish over each bowl, leaving the rest on the table so everyone can add more as they eat. The soup should be well seasoned with salt and aromatic from the savory scallions and garlic. Serve with white rice and radish kimchi.
- You can find bags of frozen beef bones for bone soups like this seolleongtang at Korean supermarkets, where they are often labeled, austerely, “beef bones” or “beef leg bones.” At other grocery stores and butcher shops, they might be labeled “beef marrow bones.” All that matters is that you use a marrow-rich beef bone for this recipe, as marrow is the main flavoring in seolleongtang.
Private Notes
Comments
I love seollungtang! It’s one of my favorite foods and this recipe is great just as is! One of the most unbelievable things about this is that after you make it the first time, you can put away your broth, dump more water on the same bones, and boil a SECOND batch. It‘ll be just as flavorful as the first, and some people swear the second batch is even better :o
I pour the first batch into a bowl, then boil a second batch, combine them into one soup. I'll even do a third batch if I have the time. It tastes so much better than just one batch.
I've seen in some other recipes that you scrub the bones after the first boil. I didn't do that here, but if Im re-making for a second batch, what do you do with the marrow and meat and tendons that are leftover? Freeze for the next round or clean away?
I have been making bone broth for many years using cooked and/or raw bones. Now I know why the broth made with raw bones is a little funky, the raw bones need that first boil and cleaning to remove the funk. My first attempt did not quite achieve milkiness but was absolutely delicious! And the marrow and collagen in this broth are so very healthy for my elderly mom who just wants my soup! Yes I will keep working on this technique. (Maangchi has a few videos on this worth watching too)
Now I know what to do with my giant stock pot. 2nd and 3rd boils makes all the effort worthwhile. And seems like it would be a good base for beef broth.
I've tried this twice and my soup is not at all milky or creamy! very bland and clear. The recipe is so darned simple; any ideas what I am doing wrong?!
Its the technique. You must make sure to remove the blood/impurities with that first boil, clean out the pot, and then you have to keep the temperature consistent with the gentle rolling boil to obtain the milky color and taste. A lot of korean recipes also require soaking the bones and meat in cold water for a few hours even before the first throwaway boil to leach out the blood.
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