Ttukbaegi

specialty

Pot

A small, thick-walled Korean earthenware pot, 12-18 cm across, that goes from gas burner to table. Its high thermal mass keeps soybean stews (doenjang jjigae), silken-tofu stews (sundubu jjigae), and steamed eggs (gyeran jjim) furiously bubbling for 10+ minutes after leaving the heat. The pot is meant to deliver food still actively cooking — a quirk of Korean meal pacing the Japanese donabe shares.

Origin

Korean stone-ware pots are documented from the Goryeo period (10th-14th c.). The modern small-format ttukbaegi is a Joseon-era home form designed for individual portions — a single ttukbaegi feeds one person, while the larger family-size pot (dolsot, gamasot) does the cooking. Yeoju in Gyeonggi province is the traditional pottery source.

Ttukbaegi

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