Yaksik

Yaksik, also called yakbap, is a sweet Korean dish made from glutinous rice steamed and mixed with chestnuts, jujubes and pine nuts. It belongs to the tteok family of Korean rice cakes and is traditionally eaten around the start of the lunar year.

History

The earliest records of yaksik appear in the Samguk yusa, a 13th-century chronicle. The recipe, with chestnuts, jujubes, pine nuts, honey and oil, took shape during the Goryeo period, when these ingredients were added to a glutinous rice base that was already known.

The name refers to honey, which was once called yak, or 'medicine'. That is why the dish was also known as yakbap, 'medicinal rice'. The early nineteenth-century etymological work A-eon Gakbi records this explanation, along with related terms such as yakju for honey buckwheat wine and yakgwa for fried honey confection.

During the Joseon dynasty yaksik appears in several texts, including Dongguksesigi and Yeolyang Seisigi. According to the latter, envoys to China shared it with people there, who enjoyed it. The 1809 Gyuhap Chongseo also mentions it, and Hŏ Kyun's Tomundaejak notes that the Chinese valued yakban, known to them as goryeoban.

Culture

Yaksik is eaten mainly on Jeongwol Daeboreum, the holiday on the fifteenth day of the first month of the Korean lunisolar calendar. Traditionally it was linked to good fortune and health in the coming year. It was also served at weddings and at hwangap celebrations marking a sixtieth birthday.

The usual version combines glutinous rice with honey or brown sugar, sesame oil, ganjang (soy sauce) for colour and sometimes cinnamon. It is cut into squares or flat shapes and eaten at room temperature. Today many families make it in an electric pressure rice cooker, which simplifies the process.

Trivia