Open the Dongguksesigi, Hong Seok-mo’s almanac of seasonal customs, to its winter foods and naengmyeon is on the list. The Encyclopedia of Korean Culture says as much, then adds that the cold noodles are now eaten mostly in summer.
A bowl that began as a winter treat and is now eaten mostly in summer is worth understanding before it is cooked, because the cold is the point and everything else on the table is arranged to protect it. The history below explains how the season flipped, and the schedule at the end shows how a shortcut broth can still arrive cold.
A winter noodle that moved into summer
The Folk Encyclopedia entry says the Dongguksesigi calls buckwheat noodles dressed with radish or cabbage pickle brine and pork naengmyeon, and a mixed bowl of noodles with vegetables, pear, chestnut, sliced beef or pork and seasoned oil goldongmyeon. In the late Joseon period the dish was popular in Pyeongan and Hwanghae provinces, where it was eaten in winter. The same entry adds that in parts of Gyeonggi, Hwanghae and North Gyeongsang people also cooled noodles in stream water on the fifteenth day of the sixth lunar month and called them naengdo, so cold noodles in summer are not entirely new.
The summer bowl proper arrives in the 1910s. The same entry says restaurants in Seoul and Pyongyang began putting river ice, cut in winter and kept in cold storage, into the broth. Buckwheat was scarce in summer, so noodle makers mixed in more sweet potato or potato starch, and with no winter radish for dongchimi they flavoured the meat stock with MSG instead. By the 1920s Seoul, Pyongyang, Hamhung and Haeju styles were all sold as summer treats.
The map changed again after the Korean War. Northerners who settled in southern cities opened restaurants with myeonok in their names, and from the 1980s, in the entry’s words, naengmyeon became the south’s representative summer seasonal dish. The Encyclopedia of Korean Culture dates its nationwide spread to the same refugees, and the Folk Encyclopedia adds that Hamgyeong families who reached Busan made a wheat-noodle version of the cold soup, milmyeon, which is why a bowl of that name belongs to the same family tree.
Three bowls from one family of noodles
Menus sort naengmyeon three ways: mul (water), bibim (mixed) and hoe (raw fish), and the institute publishes a recipe for each. Mul-naengmyeon is the one in cold broth. Bibim-naengmyeon drops the broth for a sauce of gochujang, chili flakes, honey and vinegar blended with onion and apple, over the same brisket, radish, cucumber, pear and egg, with mustard and vinegar on the side. Hoe-naengmyeon puts seasoned raw fish on chili-dressed noodles, a bowl tied to Hamhung that is described further below. Regional names cut across those three, and the encyclopedia gives Pyongyang, Hamhung and Jinju as the famous places. Jinju is the odd one out: its noodles are pure buckwheat, the meat is beef with no pork, and it too is described as a winter bowl.
Pyongyang naengmyeon rests on buckwheat and a quiet broth
The encyclopedia entry describes Pyongyang naengmyeon as noodles of buckwheat flour with a little starch, in a broth of pheasant and dongchimi, topped with pork belly, radish kimchi, pear and egg. It also says the dish developed in the northern regions where buckwheat was grown. The separate entry on Pyongyang naengmyeon adds that cooks now use beef and bone stock because pheasant is hard to find.
Hamhung naengmyeon swaps buckwheat for starch, chili and fish
The entry on Hamhung naengmyeon describes the other pole: a very tough noodle made mainly from potato starch, topped with fish sliced raw and dressed with chili paste, then mixed. It was originally flounder, and it also goes by the name hoe-naengmyeon. After the war the noodle starch changed to sweet potato starch from Jeju and the fish to skate, which was easier to find. The entry points out that this chili-red bowl is unusual for the north, which does not usually eat hot food.
A full bowl of mul-naengmyeon, from brisket to boiled egg
The Korea Food Promotion Institute’s recipe for four servings uses 450 g of buckwheat noodles, 200 g of beef brisket, 200 g of radish, half a cucumber, a quarter of a pear, a red chili and two boiled eggs, with a mustard sauce, vinegar and sugar passed at the table. It is a long recipe by weeknight standards, and each long step has a job.
Beef stock and dongchimi in equal parts
The brisket soaks in cold water for 20 minutes, then simmers in 10 cups of water with scallion, garlic and peppercorns. The stock is strained, cooled and skimmed of fat, and mixed 1:1 with dongchimi liquid, five cups of each, plus 2 tablespoons each of sugar and vinegar. Dongchimi is the water kimchi of radish, and the encyclopedia’s Pyongyang entry says it is what decides the taste of that bowl.
Noodles that are not all buckwheat
The noodle is cooked 3 to 4 minutes after one cup of cold water goes in when the pot returns to a boil, then rinsed in cold water several times and portioned into nests. Modern noodles are rarely pure buckwheat. The institute’s bibim recipe notes that old noodles of buckwheat flour alone broke into pieces, whereas wheat flour and sweet potato starch now make them quite chewy. The noodles served in naengmyeon are a different product from the wheat noodles under black bean sauce, so one does not stand in for the other.
The card’s shortcut, line by line
The recipe card serves two and is built for a cook with no time to simmer brisket. It takes 200 g of dried naengmyeon noodles and a litre of cold beef broth, which can be homemade or reconstituted from a store-bought broth pack, and mixes in 250 ml of dongchimi juice with 2 tablespoons of rice vinegar, a teaspoon of sugar and half a teaspoon of salt. Toppings are half an Asian pear, half a cucumber, a halved egg and a couple of tablespoons of radish kimchi.
Set beside the institute’s version, the card keeps the idea and loosens the proportions. The institute splits stock and dongchimi evenly. The card runs four parts beef broth to one part dongchimi, which leans toward beef and lowers the sourness, and it lets a pack of broth stand in for the long simmer, a trade of time against body that the institute’s brisket stock does not make. Raising the dongchimi would sharpen the bowl. The card’s instruction that the broth should taste slightly too salty and sour on its own comes with its own reason: the noodles are bland and pull the seasoning back out.
Toppings, scissors and the table
The topping set is old and stable: sliced meat, radish, cucumber, pear and egg. The institute salts its cucumber for 30 minutes, steeps radish slices in a sweet-sour bath for the same time and boils the eggs 12 minutes while stirring to keep the yolks centred. The card swaps most of that for a few thin slices and a spoon of radish kimchi, such as kkakdugi, which supplies the acid.
Mustard, vinegar and sugar are not mixed in the kitchen. The institute serves a mustard sauce, vinegar and sugar separately so each person adjusts the bowl. The Folk Encyclopedia explains the scissors: with buckwheat in short supply, makers mixed in sweet potato or potato starch and kneaded the dough in hot alkaline water to keep the noodles springy, so restaurants keep scissors at the table. The same cold bowl is one of the ways to close a barbecue dinner, as in a restaurant barbecue dinner from order to closing bowl.
Keeping the bowl cold
The card puts the cold first. Noodles go straight from the pot into ice water and are rubbed gently under it for about 30 seconds, a step the card says gives the noodles their snap. Each portion is twisted into a coil in a well-chilled bowl, the icy broth is poured around it to about three-quarters full, and ice cubes or crushed ice go on top. The institute pours its broth in from the side so the arranged toppings stay put.
The cold steps are not hard, but they have to happen in the last few minutes and in the right order, which is why the schedule below matters more than any single ingredient.
Naengmyeon Recipe
Ingredients
Method
- Make the broth at least 2 hours ahead, ideally the night before: stir together the beef broth, dongchimi juice, rice vinegar, sugar, and salt, then chill until properly cold, not just cool from the fridge.
- About 45 minutes before serving, taste the broth and adjust the seasoning. It should taste slightly too salty and sour on its own — the noodles are bland and will pull that seasoning back out.
- Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil and cook the naengmyeon noodles according to the package, usually 3 to 4 minutes.
- Drain the noodles straight into a bowl of ice water and rub them gently between your hands under the cold water for about 30 seconds. This is what gives the noodles their snap.
- Divide the noodles between two well-chilled bowls, twisting each portion into a tight coil in the center.
- Pour the icy broth around the noodles, filling each bowl about three-quarters full.
- Top with the cucumber, pear, radish kimchi, and half an egg per bowl, then drop in a handful of ice cubes or crushed ice.
- Serve immediately with kitchen scissors for cutting the noodles at the table, plus mustard and extra vinegar on the side.
Recipe card photo: Korean cuisine-Naengmyeon-01.jpg by Alan Chan, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Broth first, noodles last: a schedule for the cold bowl
The card keeps the components apart until the end, so the work runs in two stretches. The broth gets made at least 2 hours ahead, ideally the night before: beef broth, dongchimi juice, vinegar, sugar and salt stirred together and chilled until it is properly cold, not just cool from the fridge. About 45 minutes before serving the broth is tasted and corrected.
The second stretch is short. The noodles boil 3 to 4 minutes, go into ice water for the 30-second rub, and are assembled at once, because the card says to serve immediately. If the institute’s toppings are used, the cucumber and radish need their own 30 minutes in salt and in the sweet-sour bath, so start them while the broth is being tasted.