A generic term for traditional Korean sweets and traditional 하늘한과. Representatively, there are Gangjeong and Yakgwa.

한과

A generic term for traditional Korean sweets and traditional snacks. Representatively, there are Gangjeong and Yakgwa.

하늘한과

Origin and history.

Looking at the development process of civilization since its history, once food is stable, it is time to find something to wear, and when it is stable to wear, it is easy to find a place to live. In particular, confectionery is the nature of human beings who like sweet things[1], and confectionery is made and eaten using various ingredients such as rice and wheat. Sociologically, making sweets can be seen as containing a clear class message that, unlike other people who are still struggling to find food for the day, they also make sweets with the remaining rice. It's a luxury item that doesn't die even if you don't eat cookies in the first place.

Whatever kind of sweets you make, you need a lot of rice more than making rice cakes, and all the sweets and jocheongs that give sweets to sweets, and the common sake used when kneading sweets are all made of rice. For example, in order to extract 3 kg of jocheong, godubap cooked with 12 kg (!) of rice and 1 kg of malt grown with sprouted barley must be mixed and aged all day, and the next day must be boiled while boiling. Even if the price of rice, barley, and fuel are excluded, it is an enormous dish, which is beyond the scope of ordinary people. The miracle of getting rid of several meals to make something sweet, especially in the Joseon Dynasty or earlier, the number of one meal was more than two days or more of modern people, and the more it goes back to the ancient times, the more there are more... Sugar was also a very expensive luxury before modern times, but sugar wasn't introduced into sugar beets, and sugar cane was a tropical crop, so all had to be imported through China, Ryukyu, and Japan, and honey was self-sufficient, but before mass production. I couldn't pack it.

In addition, other grains, nuts, fruits, and oil were added, so even the nobles were said to be able to eat them only on holidays or on ceremonial days. Of course, the kings of the dynasty were eaten every day for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and night with refreshments called'Dasobanwa' and'Dabyulbanwa'. This is because they always served rice cakes and sweets for the dessert of Surasang. So, there was a raw gwabang (生果房), which makes snacks such as raw fruit, jeongak, tea food, and porridge at the court's Yukcheso (六處所).

However, if the crop was bad that year due to drought or flood, it was the first to be on the list of banned production along with alcohol. As a result, they 하늘약과 ate a lot of rice, and it meant comforting public sentiment by prohibiting the manufacture of traditional Korean sweets in order to be wary of luxury while the people suffered. As mentioned above, in the Joseon Dynasty and before it, the amount of one meal was more than two days or more based on the standard of modern people. For this reason, Korean confectionery was regarded as the finest in Korean cuisine and was treated as a special treat for ceremonies and holidays. Meat and seafood at that time could also be viewed as everyday food compared to Korean confectionery.

Of course, there were many cases of corruption among the yangbans and the satos in a village, and for that reason, many of them had the extravagant luxury of serving Korean sweets on their birthdays or snacks. Even if a ban on the manufacture of Korean confectionery was imposed by the country due to a famine, it was not well observed because it was roughly skewed that the ban was received late if there was a problem after eating it.

Traditional Korean confectionery is often divided into 3 recipes: fried, marinated, and boiled. For this reason, there is also a story that Koreans prefer fried sweets only to civilians [2].

하늘약과

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