Name: Galbitang (Clear Beef Short Rib Soup)
Prep time: 40 min
Cook time: 2 h 20 min
Total time: 3 h
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Korean
Ingredients: 1.2 kg beef short ribs; 3 L cold water; 3.5 L water; 1 stalk leek; 8 cloves garlic; 15 g ginger; 1 pc onion; 1 tsp black peppercorns; 3 pcs jujubes; 300 g Korean radish; 2 tbsp soup soy sauce; 1 tsp salt; 80 g glass noodles; 1 pc egg; 2 stalks spring onions; 0.5 tsp black pepper

Ingredients

4servings

Ribs
beef short ribs · cut into 5-6cm lengths; ask the butcher for soup cut1.2 kg
cold water · for soaking, changed two or three times3 L
Broth
water3.5 L
leek · white part, in large pieces1 stalk
garlic · whole8 cloves
ginger · thinly sliced15 g
onion · halved, skin on; it is the sweetness1 pc
black peppercorns1 tsp
jujubes · any more and the broth turns medicinal3 pcs
Radish and seasoning
Korean radish · in thick 3cm pieces, added in the last 30 minutes300 g
soup soy sauce · guk-ganjang; dark soy sauce muddies the colour2 tbsp
salt · to taste1 tsp
To finish
glass noodles · soaked and boiled separately — cooked in the broth they shed starch and cloud it80 g
egg · made into a thin omelette and shredded1 pc
spring onions · finely sliced2 stalks
black pepper · at the table0.5 tsp

Steps

Trim the ribs first. With scissors, cut away the yellow lumps of fat and the tough membrane on the outside and between the bones. This is the most important step in the dish: fat left on comes straight out into the broth and makes it greasy and cloudy. Rinse off the bone dust left by the saw as well.
⏲ 20 min
Soak the trimmed ribs in cold water for 2 hours to draw out the blood, changing the water as it reddens. Pale pink on the last change is enough.
⏲ 120 min
Parboil the ribs from cold water. When grey foam rises, boil 5 minutes more and throw all the water away. Rinse each rib under running water to remove the coagulated protein, and rinse the pot too.
⏲ 15 min
Return the ribs with 3.5L of fresh water, the leek, garlic, ginger, onion, peppercorns and jujubes. Bring it up once, then drop straight to low heat.
⏲ 15 min
Hold it at a bare tremble for 90 minutes, skimming fat and foam every 15 minutes. A rolling boil here emulsifies the fat and turns the broth milk-white — which is seolleongtang, the same beef bones taken to the opposite result. The fork in the road is this one setting on the hob.
⏲ 90 min
Lift out the aromatics and jujubes. Left in longer, the onion collapses and clouds the broth while the jujube starts to dominate.
⏲ 3 min
Add the radish in thick 3cm pieces now, and give it 30 minutes. In from the start it disintegrates, clouding the broth and leaving only sweetness. You want a chopstick to go through while the pieces still hold their shape.
⏲ 30 min
Season with 2 tbsp soup soy sauce, then salt to taste. Soup soy sauce adds savouriness with almost no colour, where dark soy sauce turns the broth brown and murky. Salt alone keeps it clear but tastes flat.
⏲ 5 min
If you can, cool it here and refrigerate overnight, then lift off all of the set fat. Unlike seolleongtang, this soup keeps none of it — clarity is the point.
Soak the glass noodles 30 minutes in cold water, then boil them separately for 5 minutes and rinse. Fry the egg into a thin sheet and shred it.
⏲ 30 min
Reheat the broth, put the ribs and radish in bowls and ladle it over. Top with the noodles, egg and spring onion, add pepper, and serve with rice and kimchi.
⏲ 5 min

Tips & Variations

Variations

Wang-galbitang leaves the ribs long — 10cm or more — and serves one per bowl. Add about 30 minutes to the simmer; the larger bones give a deeper broth.
New Year galbitang adds rice cake. Use the same tteok as tteokguk, but because tteok clouds a broth, blanch it separately and add it to the bowl, the way the noodles are handled.
A pressure cooker does it in 30-35 minutes but comes out a little cloudier, since the liquid inside is boiling the whole time and some fat emulsifies. If clarity matters to you, use an open pot.
Same cut, opposite direction: galbijjim braises these ribs in a soy marinade until there is no liquid left. Buy enough ribs for both and you only trim once.
As a clear meat broth it belongs with samgyetang, and the heat control that keeps it clear is the same as the qing dun branch of beef noodle soup.

Tips

Trimming is half the recipe. Twenty minutes spent cutting the yellow fat and tough membrane off the ribs halves the skimming later and visibly clears the broth. Skipping it and skimming harder afterwards does not produce the same result.
Rinse off the bone dust. Sawn ribs carry powdered bone on the cut faces. Boiled in, it becomes a fine sediment that no amount of straining removes.
The heat setting is what separates this from seolleongtang. The same beef bones go milk-white at a rolling boil, because the fat emulsifies, and clear at a bare simmer. Neither is a failure; they are two dishes (stocks and broth).
Radish in the last 30 minutes. Its pectin breaks down over a long boil, and once broken down it clouds the broth while contributing nothing but sweetness. Large pieces, added late, is how you keep both the shape and the clarity.
Soup soy sauce, not dark soy. Guk-ganjang is saltier and paler, made for soups. Dark soy carries sugar and colour and turns the broth brown. Salt alone stays clear but tastes hollow, so the standard is a base of soup soy sauce adjusted with salt (salt and seasoning).
Noodles and rice cake cook separately. Anything starchy sheds starch into the broth. In a soup whose point is clarity, all of it is cooked apart and added to the bowl.
Three jujubes at most. They are there for a little sweetness and perfume; more turns the broth medicinal, and so does leaving them in too long — lift them out partway.
Overnight makes the fat easy to lift, and improves the flavour besides. It keeps 4 days refrigerated and 3 months frozen; freeze the ribs sitting in the broth and the meat will not dry out (freezing and thawing).

The basics behind this dish

Cooking basics →

More of the same kind

Soup →

More from this country

Korean →