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Manduguk (Dumpling Soup)Photo: sirronwong (a flickr user), CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Guk & Tang · Soups 국·탕

Manduguk (Dumpling Soup)

만둣국

Romanization: manduguk

Stuffed dumplings simmered in a clear, savory broth, usually beef-based and topped with egg strands and green onion. A winter and New Year dish with northern roots.

Serves
4
Prep
15 min
Cook
60 min

RegionNorthern Provinces (Hwanghae, Pyeongan, Hamgyeong)

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Recipe

Ingredients · Serves 4

  • 200 gBeef brisketfor the broth
  • 1.6 lWater
  • 10 gGarlic2 cloves, minced
  • 40 gGreen onion1 stalk whole for the broth plus a sliced handful to finish
  • 1 tbspSoup soy sauceabout 17 g, plus to taste
  • ½ tspSaltto taste
  • 24 Dumplings (mandu)homemade or frozen; for homemade see the mandu entry
  • 1 largeEggsbeaten and fried thin for the garnish
  • to serveRoasted seaweed (gim) stripsoptional

Method

Technique: Making Mandu, Making Yuksu: Anchovy-Kelp Stock

  1. Step 1: Soak the brisket in cold water for 30 minutes. Bring it to a boil in 1.6 liters of fresh water with the whole green onion, skim, then simmer gently for 45–50 minutes, until tender.

  2. Step 2: Lift out the brisket, strain the broth and tear or slice the meat. Season the broth with soup soy sauce, garlic and salt; it should taste clean and lightly seasoned.

  3. Step 3: Beat the egg with a pinch of salt and fry it in a thin sheet in a lightly oiled pan. Cool, then roll and cut into thin strips.

  4. Step 4: Bring the broth to a boil. Add the dumplings (straight from the freezer if frozen) and cook, uncovered, until they float and the filling is cooked through, about 5–7 minutes.

  5. Step 5: Ladle dumplings and broth into bowls, add the beef, egg strips and sliced green onion, and serve with vinegar-soy dipping sauce and kimchi.

Origin & History

Manduguk is mandu cooked in broth. The Encyclopedia of Korean Folk Culture treats it like tteokguk or noodle soup: a simple staple that is also a small occasion. Dumplings steamed are jjin-mandu; the same dumplings boiled in clear soup (jangguk) and eaten with the broth are manduguk. The wrapper is wheat, buckwheat, or either one mixed with rice or starch flour, and fillings run from beef, pork and pheasant to vegetables, kimchi and fish; dumplings are named by what is inside them.

The history is documented but tangled. The folk encyclopedia says dumplings came to Korea from China, and that a late-Goryeo poem by Yi Saek shows they were already widespread, although the dumpling in the poem seems to be an unfilled steamed bun. For the soup form it points to Joseon court banquet food, where half-moon dumplings with unpleated edges cooked in broth were called byeongsi. The seventeenth-century cookbook Eumsik dimibang has a dish called seongnyu-tang, small unfilled glutinous-rice dumplings in the shape of a pomegranate floating in clear broth. The Encyclopedia of Korean Culture reads it as the manduguk of its day, but the folk encyclopedia disagrees, calling it a kind of sudan (rice-dumpling) dish rather than the same soup. The Encyclopedia of Korean Culture adds that when the name manduguk became widespread is not certain.

Geography and season explain the dish's character. The Encyclopedia of Korean Culture connects it especially with the northern provinces, centered on Pyeongan, where wheat grows and dumplings were adopted early. It is a food that many households make for Seollal (Lunar New Year), and a winter dish more generally: once the kimjang kimchi has ripened, it says, cooks fill dumplings with it, freeze them, and boil them in broth through the winter. See mandu history for the dumpling itself.

Key Ingredients

Nutrition

Estimated, per serving (¼ of recipe: about 6 dumplings plus broth, brisket and garnish, about 450 g)
Calories~492 kcal
Protein~33.2 g
Fat~20.9 g
Carbohydrates~43.9 g
Fiber~3.3 g
Sodium~1268 mg

Notable forProtein · Thiamin (vitamin B1) · Selenium

Built in two parts. Broth and toppings (USDA FoodData Central SR Legacy: raw beef brisket FDC 169570, soy sauce FDC 174277, whole egg FDC 171287, scallions, garlic, table salt) come to about 106 kcal, 12.6 g protein, 5.5 g fat and 490 mg sodium per serving, counting all the brisket as eaten. The dumplings use the per-dumpling average of the mandu entry on this site (450 kcal, 24 g protein, 18 g fat, 49 g carbohydrate, 910 mg sodium for about 7 dumplings), scaled to six. Store-bought dumplings differ, so treat the totals as approximate. Sodium is high because the dumpling filling contains kimchi and the wrappers and broth are salted. Actual values vary with ingredients, portion size and preparation.

Health Benefits

  • A complete one-bowl meal: dumplings, meat and broth together give protein and carbohydrate, and the filling adds some vegetables.
  • Gentle cooking: simmering in broth adds no frying oil, so a bowl is lighter than pan-fried mandu.
  • Easy to adjust: a vegetable- or tofu-filled dumpling in a kelp or anchovy broth makes a lighter bowl; see plant-based Korean eating.

Regional Variations

  • Northern provinces: the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture singles out the north, especially Pyeongan, for its dumpling soups, made with wheat dough rolled out to about 6–7 cm wrappers and a broth of boiled brisket.
  • By filling: meat (gogi), kimchi, napa cabbage and vegetable fillings are all named in the folk encyclopedia, which also lists wheat, buckwheat and fish-wrapped (eomandu) forms.
  • By shape: round, square (pyeonsu), triangular, sea-cucumber-shaped (gyuasang) and pomegranate-shaped dumplings appear in the entry; the half-moon byeongsi was the court shape.
  • Garnish: the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture describes strips of fried egg crepe (jidan) on top and a vinegar-soy sauce on the side.

Sources

  1. 01만둣국 (Manduguk) — Encyclopedia of Korean Culture (한국민족문화대백과사전)
  2. 02만둣국 (Manduguk) — Encyclopedia of Korean Folk Culture (한국민속대백과사전)
  3. 03만둣국 (Manduguk), origins of mandu and manduguk — Encyclopedia of Korean Folk Culture (한국민속대백과사전)
  4. 04Beef, brisket, flat half, boneless, separable lean and fat — USDA FoodData Central

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