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Sangayorok (산가요록, 山家要錄, c. 1459) ferment corpus산가요록

This entry is a historical source, not a single ferment. The Sangayorok is an early Joseon farming and food manual by the court physician Jeon Sun-ui, with 229 recipes. Its food part records 51 liquors, 13 jang, 7 vinegars, 22 kimchi and 7 kinds of sikhae, the lactic rice ferments of fish, meat and vegetables.

A short entry: the sources we found record only what is said here about Sangayorok itself. Its own sources do not record how it is made, so the steps and scenes below are those of Sikhae, the closest documented fish and seafood ferment, shown as a guide to the method, not as a record of Sangayorok.

Short entryOther

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedWhat goes in. No source gives amounts for this ferment.
Starterother

Total time across the steps of Sikhae: 20 days – 24 days

Start
Drag the bar or press Play
Close-up: salt moving into a piece

What changes: Light salt draws water out of the cleaned fish

Step 1 of 7 · steps of Sikhae
Clean and lightly salt the fish
Time
2 days
Reported
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria
L. sakei
L. mesenteroides

The flatfish is scaled, gutted and the head and tail cut off, then salted lightly. The cook adds less salt later if the fish is already salty. Output: lightly salted fish.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

This entry is a historical source, not a single ferment. The Sangayorok is an early Joseon farming and food manual by the court physician Jeon Sun-ui, with 229 recipes. Its food part records 51 liquors, 13 jang, 7 vinegars, 22 kimchi and 7 kinds of sikhae, the lactic rice ferments of fish, meat and vegetables.

What makes this one different

It shows food of the 1400s, and its food recipes sit inside a farming manual. Its sikhae are not only of fish but also of lamb, pork skin, pheasant and vegetables.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Seven sikhaeLactic rice ferments of fish, lamb, pork skin, bellflower root (도라지), bamboo shoot, pheasant and wonmi (coarse rice porridge).

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

The book is a manuscript in semi-cursive Classical Chinese, 18 × 26 cm, with 12 lines a page of about 40 characters. Its first half is lost; the 77 surviving pages hold farming (28), food (47) and dyeing (2). Its farming part follows the Goryeo-era Nongsang jibyo but drops crops and animals found only in China, and it describes growing vegetables in winter. Korean Wikipedia says it was found in 2001 in a pile of used books in Seoul. A Korean translation was published by the Rural Development Administration in 2004.

  1. [encykorea-sanga] Encyclopedia of Korean Culture (한국민족문화대백과사전), Academy of Korean Studies, 산가요록 (山家要錄), article by Han Bok-jin (2010, revised 2023), read 2026-10book
  2. [s1] Korean Wikipedia, 산가요록 (read 2026-10-16), citing 한복려 et al. 2016 음식고전wiki