Dotori Muk Muchim

Acorns are among the oldest foods on the Korean peninsula. The Encyclopedia of Korean Culture notes that wild acorns have been found at Neolithic sites such as Amsa-dong in Seoul, and that acorns were a lifeline in hard years: the Goryeosa records King Chungseon cutting back his side dishes and tasting acorns during a famine, and Joseon works such as Sallim gyeongje and Mongmin simseo list them among famine foods. The nineteenth-century Onghui japji describes mountain villagers in lean years grinding acorns into a jelly that was purplish and bland but staved off hunger.

Muk is a jelly made by cooking starch with water until it thickens and then letting it set. To make acorn starch, dried acorns are cracked and hulled, ground and soaked for several days in frequently changed water to leach out the bitter tannins, and the settled starch is collected. Acorn jelly could be made in any season, unlike buckwheat jelly, which was mostly a winter food.

Dressed muk has a long history — but for most of it, muk-muchim meant tangpyeongchae, the mung bean jelly dish. The National Folk Museum's encyclopedia notes that acorn and buckwheat jelly salads do not appear in modern cookbooks until regional food surveys of the 1970s, which mostly describe muk dressed simply with chopped kimchi and sesame oil. Since then the dish has grown into a colorful salad of vegetables and a soy-chili dressing, and it is now one of the most familiar ways to eat acorn jelly.

• Low in calories: the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture describes acorn jelly as low in calories, since it is mostly water held in a light starch gel.
• Vegetables carry the nutrients: the folk museum's encyclopedia notes that dressing muk with vegetables supplies vitamins and minerals the jelly lacks.
• Tannins and flavor: acorns' faint bitterness comes from tannins; how thoroughly they are leached determines how astringent the jelly tastes.

• Chungcheong: a South Chungcheong version adds blanched oysters. A local legend tells of a young woman who packed acorn jelly for a scholar traveling to sit the civil-service exam — a sign that the jelly traveled well.
• Gyeongsang: in North Gyeongsang, acorn jelly is called kkulbam-muk. It is also dried and pickled in soy sauce, pan-fried, or cut into strips and deep-fried.
• Gangwon: dried acorn jelly is rehydrated and braised in soy sauce with garlic and syrup as dotori-muk-namul.
• With kimchi: a simple old-fashioned version tosses the jelly with chopped napa cabbage kimchi and sesame oil — the same treatment the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture suggests for buckwheat jelly.