Dividing soybean paste(doenjang) and soysauce.

In March,11th, I posted how to make soysauce and bean paste.
http://mykoreanfoodrecipes.blogspot.kr/2016/03/how-to-make-soy-sauce-and-soybean.html
In this post, I wrote "After 45~60days, I will divide soybean block and brine."
After 50 days from then, I divided soybean block and brine as below.

This is photo of 50 days, just started dividing. I pulled out oak charcoal and dried redpepper.

In large bowl, I knead and mix bean block as above, and put it back to pottery as below.

I covered them with dry kelp and  put pottery in sunny pot with special lid. Traditionally, people use white cotton cloth for covering, but nowadays we can by special lid(glass) in online mall.

In case of brine we need to filter it with cloth as below.

After filtering with cloth, boil it for 20 minutes. Cooling down soysauce(from now I can call this soysauce) and put it in pottery and preserve.

How to make soy sauce and soybean paste(doenjang)

Soybean paste(Doenjang) is one of the basic sauces for Korean food, no, no itisn't enough, it is essence and soul of Korean.
Miso(Japanese doenjang) is different with Korean soybean paste, because miso is made from flour.
Korean soybean paste(doenjang) is made from soybean. The origin of soybean is also Korea. William J. Morse and T.H. Dorset were visit to Korea for gathering seed of soybean in early 20C. They gathered more than 3,000 species in Korea.

Anyway, I and my wife tried to make soybean paste and soy sauce by ourselves as below.
Before I start to explain how to make them, I want to say about Meju.
Meju, fermented soybean block, is made of soybean, shaped as brick.
Korean makes it in Autumn and dry it during winter season. During the winter season, meju is fermented by Bacillus fungus.
In Korea we can buy meju easily during the January(lunar calendar), because the lunar Jan. is best season for making soybean paste and soysauce.
Refer to how to make meju, I will write in Autumn when I try to make it.

1. Wash the meju and dry little bit.

2. Fumigate pottery with straw.

3. Put meju into pottery.

4. Make a brine(salt water). Salt concentration is good between 18% ~ 20%. If you don't have salinometer, you can use egg. If egg floats on the brine in coin size, it means 19%. Check this in the picture.

 5. Pour brine into potter through cotton cloth.

6. Add oak charcoal, dried redpepper and dried jujube.

The next most important step is just waiting. Nature as like sun, air, wind, temperature makes soybean paste.

7. Just put this pottery in sunny place for 45~60days.

After 45~60days, I will divide soybean block and brine. The divided soybean will be soybean paste. The devided brine will be soysauce after  boiling. I will write again when I do this in 2 months later.