Doenjang: Aged Soybean Paste Character

Doenjang is the Korean expression of fermented soybean paste — rougher, more pungent, and more complex than Japanese miso, aged for months to years in traditional production. While Japanese miso has been widely adopted internationally, doenjang remains less known outside Korea despite its arguably superior complexity. Maangchi's documentation presents it as the cornerstone of Korean soup and sauce cookery.

A fermented soybean paste made from meju (dried soybean blocks inoculated with wild moulds and bacteria) fermented in salted water. The resulting paste is aged and develops a deep, funky, complex flavour that differs from miso in its rougher texture, stronger aroma, and greater complexity from mixed wild culture fermentation rather than single-strain inoculation.

• Japanese hatcho miso (darker, more pungent miso — closest in character to doenjang among Japanese types), Chinese doubanjiang (fermented bean paste — similar funkiness, different chilli content), Indo