A porridge at dawn
At the Joseon court, which ruled Korea from 1392 to 1897, the king and queen ate five meals a day. The first was a porridge, served early in the morning before a breakfast at ten. The porridge came as plain white rice, or as rice cooked with abalone, pine nuts, mushrooms, or sesame, and on some mornings as mieum, a thin, strained gruel. Other mornings the first meal was a medicinal herb preparation. The porridge was thought to give the king and queen vitality for the day.
Juk as medicine
Korean physicians wrote in Chinese characters, and the word juk (粥) is the same character as the Chinese zhou in the congee post. The two traditions are cousins. Korea’s court records show in detail how porridge was used. King Injo, who reigned from 1623 to 1649, suffered from severe diarrhea and abdominal swelling, and his daily records show doctors prescribing about 15 medicinal porridges as part of his treatment. They were made with lotus seed, milk, Chinese yam, mung beans, perilla seed, adzuki beans, soybeans, and Korean leek, among others. A 2013 study in the Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture cataloged them.
Juk is still what Koreans serve to children, the elderly, and people recovering from illness or surgery. Pumpkin porridge is the traditional bowl for recovering patients and elders, and chicken porridge, dakjuk, is a common one for patients and children.
Thin and thick
Korean cooking separates the thin from the thick. Mieum is the thin end: rice, glutinous rice, or foxtail millet cooked and strained, leaving a liquid. Juk keeps the grain. A soup cleanse sits closer to the liquid end, and it leaves everything in the pot where mieum strains it out. Juk is thicker than anything that passes the straw test, which is why the congee post places it on the days after a cleanse.
How a bowl of juk is made
Juk starts with soaking. Rinse short-grain rice and soak it for about an hour, then drain it. Many cooks stir-fry the drained rice in sesame oil for a few minutes before any liquid goes in. The step gives the porridge a nutty flavor and coats the grains, which improves the texture. Then comes the water or broth, about 6 cups to 1 cup of rice. Bring it to a boil, lower the heat, and simmer for 30 to 45 minutes, stirring now and then, until the rice bursts and releases its starch into a thick, creamy porridge.
Sweet glutinous rice makes a creamier porridge with a sweeter taste than regular short-grain. Abalone porridge calls for a longer soak, three to four hours. Season at the end with salt or Korean soy sauce, and finish with a drizzle of sesame oil. That ratio of 1 to 6 puts juk between Japanese okayu and Chinese congee.
What goes in the pot
The plain version, rice and water, is called ssaljuk or huinjuk, white porridge. Everything else is built from there, and the rice can give way to other grains, beans, sesame, nuts, or pumpkin. Jeonbokjuk adds abalone, stir-fried in sesame oil before the rice goes in. Jatjuk uses pine nuts. Heukimja-juk is black sesame ground fine with rice. Hobakjuk is pumpkin porridge thickened with glutinous rice flour, and patjuk is red bean.
Dakjuk is chicken porridge, made with chicken stock and shredded meat, mild and unspiced, with some chopped vegetables. Yachaejuk is the vegetable version: carrot, Korean radish, onion, zucchini, and mushrooms cooked with glutinous rice in sesame oil. Side dishes carry the flavor. Patjuk goes with dongchimi, radish water kimchi, and dakjuk with green onion kimchi or spicy bean sprouts.
A bowl for the shortest day
On the winter solstice, dongji, Koreans eat patjuk, a red bean porridge with small rice cakes. The red color was believed to drive off evil spirits and the epidemic diseases they carried, and households shared bowls with their neighbors. Winter was also when rice ran short, so a porridge built on red beans and a smaller amount of rice made the grain go further.
It is a bowl tied to a date on the calendar and eaten by healthy people. That matches the pattern traced on the history page: periodic soup, eaten on a rhythm by healthy people as well as the sick.
Making it thin for day four
The same pot adjusts to the days after a cleanse. Use 8 to 10 cups of liquid to the cup of rice, skip the stir-fry, and season lightly, and the porridge comes out thin enough to sit between broth and solid food. Pumpkin porridge, smooth and naturally sweet, is the traditional bowl for recovering patients and the elderly, and it is the Korean answer to the same question the guide asks about day four. A cup of raw rice holds about 675 calories. At 1 part rice to 6 of liquid, the finished juk runs near 100 calories a cup, and at 1 to 9 near 70, before sesame oil, which adds about 120 calories a tablespoon, and before soy sauce and add-ins.
Where the comparison stops
Court records and folk belief show what people trusted, and they can’t show how well it worked. Juk was prescribed for centuries, and no trial has tested it against the conditions it was prescribed for.
What the tradition does show is a consistent habit. When digestion was weak, the food was warm, soft, and cooked until it asked little of the body. A soup cleanse borrows that habit. For the days after one, the congee post suggests a very thin version as a bridge food, and the 3-day guide covers the return to ordinary meals.
Common questions
- What is juk?
- A Korean porridge made by simmering rice, other grains, or beans in a large amount of water until soft. It is eaten warm, often in the morning, and is a traditional food for children, the elderly, and people recovering from illness.
- Is juk the same as congee?
- They are close cousins. Juk is written with the same character as the Chinese zhou, and both are grain cooked in extra water. Korean juk often features ingredients such as abalone, pine nuts, pumpkin, or red beans.
- How do you make Korean juk?
- Soak 1 cup of short-grain rice for an hour and drain it. Stir-fry it briefly in sesame oil, add 6 cups of water or broth, and simmer for 30 to 45 minutes until the rice bursts. Season with salt or soy sauce.
- Can you eat juk during a soup cleanse?
- Not during the three days. Juk is thicker than anything that passes the straw test. A thin version suits the days after.