Jeonbok-juk (Abalone Rice Porridge)

Jeonbok-juk is rice porridge cooked with fresh abalone (jeonbok). The Encyclopedia of Korean Culture describes two methods: simmering thin slices of abalone until the broth is full of flavor and then adding soaked rice, or seasoning the slices lightly with soy sauce and garlic, making a clear broth and cooking the rice in it. It suggests a ratio of about five medium abalone to a cup of rice and identifies the dish as a local specialty of Jeju, where abalone is plentiful, valued both as a restorative and as a treat.

Jeju's relationship with abalone is ancient. The Encyclopedia of Korean Folk Culture notes abalone shells and shell knives in a prehistoric midden at Gwakji, and an eighth-century wooden tag excavated at the Heijō palace in Nara, Japan, recording dried abalone from Tamna, as Jeju was then known. Under the Joseon dynasty, dried Jeju abalone was sent regularly as tribute to the court, where it appeared on ritual and royal tables. The same entry tells a harder story: in the colonial period Japanese diving boats and canneries overharvested Jeju's beds, the fine meat went elsewhere, and the viscera left over from processing were what local people put into their porridge.

That history explains Jeju's distinctive style. Island cooks insist on including the viscera (geout), which tint the porridge a pale green; women divers (haenyeo) call abalone bi, and say the softer female abalone, with green gonads, is best for porridge while the crunchier male is eaten raw. Jeonbok-juk was the classic food after childbirth, behind the island saying that a diver goes back into the sea three days after giving birth, and it is still what families carry to a parent in hospital. See postpartum food traditions, abalone and making juk.

• Easy to eat and digest: long-simmered rice porridge is soft and warm, which is why the Korean Food Promotion Institute describes jeonbok-juk as a traditional food for patients and the elderly.
• Lean protein and selenium: abalone is low in fat and a good source of protein and selenium.
• A restorative tradition: on Jeju it is the customary food after childbirth and during illness. See postpartum food traditions.

• Jeju style: viscera always included, giving a pale green color and a deeper sea flavor; the softer female abalone is preferred.
• Mainland style: often made with the meat alone, so the porridge is white to beige and milder.
• Wando (Jeolla): Wando County now produces more than 70 percent of Korea's abalone, farmed in sea cages and fed on kelp and sea mustard.
• Clear-broth method: the encyclopedia's second version, abalone simmered with a little soy sauce and garlic into a light broth before the rice is added.