The trio of soybean paste, soy sauce, and red pepper paste are related by kinship.

Are you saying that only gochujang has been registered as a unique Korean food?

The trio of soybean paste, soy sauce, and red pepper paste are related by kinship, you know.

If we simplify our traditional family lineage, soybean paste can be explained as the grandfather, soy sauce as the son, and red pepper paste as the grandson. In that case, fermented seafood might be like a small grandfather, and fermented soybean paste (cheonggukjang) could be roughly like a younger sibling.

There was originally a fermented soybean paste. The grandfather of fermented soybean paste met saltwater, and soy sauce was born. In the past, people who only ate saltwater learned that the salted water used to make meju was even better. When chili peppers were introduced in the late Joseon Dynasty, the situation became a bit complicated. People began to make gochujang, just like making soybean paste. When making meju, they would wrap boiled soybeans in straw and place them on the heated floor, then make cheonggukjang to eat. Therefore, cheonggukjang can only be considered a younger sibling. Fermented sauces like salted fish are unrelated to soybean paste, but since they are clearly the origin of fermentation culture, they are like a great-uncle. All of these are related by kinship, and a relationship akin to that of father and son is established, where without soybean paste, they could not have been born at all.

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Purchased a set to make soybean paste and red pepper paste on home shopping.

I'm making it simple.

My mother-in-law made it for me, but since I got older, I started buying and eating it from stores or online, which made me feel a bit impatient, and I also felt uneasy because the ingredients didn't seem to be domestic. So, two years ago, I learned how to make it myself through home shopping and now I make and eat it.