Marinade for kalbi

Go to a Chinese/Asian Supermarket

I've actually never seen Maangchi's recipe before. Just checked out her kalbi recipe and it's very simple. Has anyone tried this recipe? Is there much taste to it?

I just realise she has 2 kalbi recipe. One has the soy sauce while the other is just sugar, salt, and black pepper. I responded to this post after watching her recipe with salt, sugar, and black pepper. Did anyone try this version?

gr8dlr wrote: ↑I'm sure you've seen Maangchi's recipe. It's good.

She has pics of decent soy sauce on her website.

If you want good premade marinade, you can go to Owl of Minerva butcher shop on Yonge St South of Finch. They make their own marinade and it's good. Iirc it was $5 for a 750ml yogurt sized container.

gta1216 wrote: ↑ I've actually never seen Maangchi's recipe before. Just checked out her kalbi recipe and it's very simple. Has anyone tried this recipe? Is there much taste to it?

Maanchi's recipe is fine... but far from the best.

I don't cook well, but kalbi is really the only thing I do can really well. So here's a few mods and notes you can do to Maangchi's recipe.

1) Pick short ribs with nice marbling, Avoid any with fatty pockets.
2) Do NOT skip the step where you wash the meat. The more blood that gets out means more marinade that gets in.
3) What I do is then give it a 30min -1 hour soak in water with either beer, wine or Coke. This step tenderizes the meat and also infuses some sweetness to the meat. Maangchi adds wine and pear to the marinade, but there's only so much that'll soak into the meat. So you get more pear or wine than the marinade. This can be overpowering if too much of that is used.
4) Rinse meat and squeeze any excess water after the bath.
5) I find honey to be the best sweetener.
6) After adding the meat to the marinade, you shouldn't just refrigerate. You should take the meat and layer it neatly into a container. Put some marinade between layers as you stack up. The reason to do this is the so the marinade goes through the meat evenly and also when cooking, it becomes easy to take from container to grill.
7) Don't cook it in a pan. Don't use an electric grill. Cook it on a grill with an open flame.

I won't comment on what goes in the marinade, as everyone has different tastes... other than I hate when pear is used as it adds a grainy texture. Also mine is a slight variation of the recipe past down from generations in my family, so not sharing.

Many Asian grocery stores have pre-made ones. But you can easily make your own. The recipe is not that hard. Soy Sauce, sugar, pear puree, garlic off the top of my head.

The above post captures it pretty well. Aside from the marinade, the type of meat, how long you marinade it, and how you cook it also matters.

I tried making my own but I've been too lazy to get a pear and crush it so I usually just go for those pre-made bottles. Not expensive and can use for a couple meals.

just want to add, if you make this ahead of time, be careful how much pear or apple puree you use or how long it marinates for. the fruit acts like a tenderizer and will break down the meat.

Pear/ apples isn't really required. i make my marinade and let it sit in it for a few days

I found a recipe online and tried it, which turned out very good. It was Korean soy sauce, water, sesame oil, sugar, garlic, green onion, and pear purée.

I don't like the bottled kalbi sauce. It's too thick. Since it's in Korean, I have no clue if I was supposed to add water, but I assume I'm not supposed to.

I've used the bottled marinade. It wasn't bad but for my taste... I like a lot of garlic. Personally, I would use O.J. or Pineapple Juice to water it down. Just my own preference.

Soy sauce, coke, garlic, sugar, sesame seeds

Marinate for few days

Bbq it

I have some leftover uncooked short ribs still sitting in the marinade since Sunday. How many days can I keep it for before it goes bad?

gta1216 wrote: ↑ I have some leftover uncooked short ribs still sitting in the marinade since Sunday. How many days can I keep it for before it goes bad?

Sunday? By now the texture is going to be mushy.

For the future, you can freeze kalbi to prolong shelf life.

The Asian market has the marinate sauce....not thick at all. I usually marinate over night...

I use the pre made bottle marinate add more garlic and whatever fruit I have on hand, usually strawberries. Blend them together and marinate the meet for 24-72 hours.

gr8dlr wrote: ↑ You probably should have froze it as JoeyJoejoe said. No point that now IMO.
Either cook it or make something that resembles GalbiJim with it (if you don't want to buy a small Korean radish, just use carrot and potatoes).

I was going to cook it on Monday but got home late every night. I'll see if it's still good or not. Might just make another batch another time.