Ssamjang is a thick, spicy paste used with food wrapped in a leaf in Korean cuisine. The sauce is made of doenjang

Doenjang

Doenjang is a traditional Korean fermented soybean paste. Its name literally means "thick paste" in Korean.-Production:...

, gochujang

Gochujang

Gochujang is a savory and pungent fermented Korean condiment. Traditionally, it has been naturally fermented over years in large earthen pots outdoors, more often on an elevated stone platform, called jangdokdae in the backyard...

, sesame oil

Sesame oil

Sesame oil is an edible vegetable oil derived from sesame seeds. Besides being used as a cooking oil in South India, it is often used as a flavor enhancer in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and to a lesser extent Southeast Asian cuisine.The oil from the nutrient rich seed is popular in alternative...

, onion

Onion

The onion , also known as the bulb onion, common onion and garden onion, is the most widely cultivated species of the genus Allium. The genus Allium also contains a number of other species variously referred to as onions and cultivated for food, such as the Japanese bunching onion The onion...

, garlic

Garlic

Allium sativum, commonly known as garlic, is a species in the onion genus, Allium. Its close relatives include the onion, shallot, leek, chive, and rakkyo. Dating back over 6,000 years, garlic is native to central Asia, and has long been a staple in the Mediterranean region, as well as a frequent...

, green onion

Green onion

Green onion may refer to:*Scallion, various members of the genus Allium that lack a fully developed bulb*"Green Onions", a hit 1962 soul instrumental by Booker T...

s, and optionally brown sugar

Brown sugar

Brown sugar is a sucrose sugar product with a distinctive brown color due to the presence of molasses. It is either an unrefined or partially refined soft sugar consisting of sugar crystals with some residual molasses content, or it is produced by the addition of molasses to refined white...

.

Use

Ssamjang is usually eaten with a ssam

Ssam

Ssam, literally meaning "wrapped," refers to a dish in Korean cuisine in which usually leaf vegetables are used to wrap a piece of meat such as pork...

of grilled meat. One typically puts a leaf of sangchu

Lettuce

Lettuce is a temperate annual or biennial plant of the daisy family Asteraceae. It is most often grown as a leaf vegetable. It is eaten either raw, notably in salads, sandwiches, hamburgers, tacos, and many other dishes, or cooked, as in Chinese cuisine in which the stem becomes just as important...

or perilla

Perilla

Perilla is the common name of the herbs of the genus Perilla of the mint family, Lamiaceae. In mild climates, the plant reseeds itself. There are both green-leafed and purple-leafed varieties, which are generally recognized as separate species by botanists. The leaves resemble stinging nettle...

 on an open hand, places the main components of the meal (grilled meat such as galbi

Galbi

Galbi or kalbi generally refers to a variety of gui or grilled dishes in Korean cuisine that is made with marinated beef short ribs in a ganjang-based sauce . In the Korean language, galbi literally means "rib" and can often indicate uncooked ribs...

or samgyeopsal

Samgyeopsal

Samgyeopsal is a popular Korean dish. Commonly served as an evening meal, it consists of thick, fatty slices of pork belly meat . The meat, usually neither marinated nor seasoned, is cooked on a grill at the diners' table...

, kimchi

Kimchi

Kimchi , also spelled gimchi, kimchee, or kim chee, is a traditional fermented Korean dish made of vegetables with varied seasonings. There are hundreds of varieties of kimchi made with a main vegetable ingredient such as napa cabbage, radish, green onions or cucumber. It is the most common...

 and other banchan

Banchan

Banchan refers to small dishes of food served along with cooked rice in Korean cuisine. This word is used both in the singular and plural....

, rice if desired) in bite-sizes in the center, tops it off with ssamjang, wraps the leaf around the entire contents, and then eats the wrapped ssam.

Etymology

Ssam

Ssam

Ssam, literally meaning "wrapped," refers to a dish in Korean cuisine in which usually leaf vegetables are used to wrap a piece of meat such as pork...

means "wrapped" and jang means "paste" or "thick sauce." Together as ssamjang they mean "wrapping sauce."

Variations

Besides the standard way of making ssamjang, other ingredients can be added to make special versions. There are also commercially prepacked ssamjang available on the market.

• Nut ssamjang (견과류 쌈장): ground walnuts, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, and other nuts are added
• Jjukumi
  Octopus
  The octopus is a cephalopod mollusc of the order Octopoda. Octopuses have two eyes and four pairs of arms, and like other cephalopods they are bilaterally symmetric. An octopus has a hard beak, with its mouth at the center point of the arms...
  
  ssamjang (쭈꾸미 쌈장): diced short-arm octopus is stir-fried with diced red peppers and onions, and mixed together with ssamjang
• Tofu
  Tofu
  is a food made by coagulating soy milk and then pressing the resulting curds into soft white blocks. It is part of East Asian and Southeast Asian cuisine such as Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indonesian, Vietnamese, and others. There are many different varieties of tofu, including fresh tofu and tofu...
  
   ssamjang (두부 쌈장): crushed tofu is added
• Flying fish roe ssamjang (날치알 쌈장) : flying fish roe is added
• Namul
  Namul
  Namul is a general term for a Korean seasoned vegetable dish. The name of the dish may vary slightly depending on what vegetables are used and how they are prepared, but they will nonetheless still be a type of namul....
  
  ssamjang (나물 쌈장): various beans are diced and added