Tteok-galbi (Chopped Short Rib Patties, Charcoal-Grilled)

Variations

• Damyang style: all beef, grilled over bamboo charcoal. Held to be the oldest form; with less fat the grain reads more clearly but it dries out more easily, so the chop is left coarser still.
• Gwangju Songjeong style: pork mixed in. This is the version the recipe follows, commonly two parts beef to one of pork. Juicier, and more heavily seasoned.
• Pressed onto the bone: originally the chopped meat was pressed back onto a rib bone and grilled on it. Skipped at home, but if you have a bone from boning out ribs, grilling it attached adds what the bone gives off.
• Tteok-galbi against other chopped-meat dishes: menchi katsu fries its mince, and Swedish meatballs, köfte, ćevapi and mititei lean on breadcrumbs or spice. Meatloaf bakes one mass in the oven. Tteok-galbi is the one that sets out to keep the grain of a knife-chop.
• The rest of the galbi family: galbi-gui grills it on the bone, galbijjim braises it long in soy, bulgogi slices it thin. Tteok-galbi is the only one where a person rebuilds the piece of meat.
• Air fryer or oven: 200°C for 12 minutes, then two coats of glaze over 4 more. No smoke from the fire, but they hold their shape well and you can do a whole batch.
• Shape and freeze: frozen individually before cooking they keep a month. Thaw overnight in the fridge and cook as usual (freezing and thawing).
• To serve: lettuce, a sharp radish salad, and rice. The seasoning is strong, so something acidic has to be on the table (balancing flavour).

Tips

• Chop by knife. That is what tteok-galbi is. Bought mince or a food processor breaks the protein down completely and the grain is gone. Aim for pieces slightly bigger than a grain of rice, still visible as pieces. It is the only slow step, and the only one that cannot be shortened (knife skills).
• Mix beef with pork. Rib meat alone has too little fat and comes out dry. Two to one is the reference, and the pork fat melting through the cook is what keeps the inside moist.
• Stir in one direction to build tack. Salt and soy dissolve the muscle protein and the mixture turns sticky, which is what makes it shapeable. Sesame oil added early prevents that happening (salt and seasoning).
• Pear juice only, and do not marinate long. The protease in pear is strong; left overnight the meat turns to mush. Thirty minutes is enough (what marinades do).
• Never glaze from the start. A glaze with sugar and syrup in it browns fast above 100°C and then burns. Cook them bare until the inside is done and glaze only in the last three minutes (what sugar does, browning).
• Two thin coats, not one thick one. A thick coat runs off and burns on the pan; two thin ones layer up and take a shine. The same principle as the glaze on grilled galbi (grilling).
• Dip the centre. A meat mixture contracts at the edges first and domes in the middle. Pressing a dip in beforehand leaves them flat when cooked.
• Cook them cold. Left out at room temperature the fat softens, the shape loosens and they spread in the pan. Straight from the fridge is better.
• Start at medium heat. 1.5cm is not a thickness you can cook over high heat; the outside chars and the middle is underdone (heat control).
• Rest them 3 minutes. Chopped meat needs resting too. Cut immediately and the juices end up on the plate (cooking meat and resting).
• The pine nuts are not decoration. They are the traditional garnish, and they put a nutty fat and something to bite on top of a rich, sweet surface. Sesame alone works, but with pine nuts is clearly better.
• Leftovers go into fried rice, sliced thin. Already seasoned strongly enough that nothing more is needed (reviving leftovers).