Ethnic fermented foods and beverages of Korea

Abstract

As Korea represents longer than 5000 years of history, various foods and beverages have been developed and settled as daily foods during this long period of history. Also, foods and beverages contribute to be settled down to the unique diet as traditional foods. Based on agricultural, livestock, and marine products produced in the Korean Peninsula, many types of traditional foods are introduced and transmitted from generation to generation. In addition, a specific culture of dishes that garnishes dishes with boiled rice, which is the staple food influenced by grain-based dietary habits, has settled. Vegetables and fishes have been used as major side dishes, and various fermentation techniques depending upon raw materials were applied to create new varieties of unique foods. By these fermentation skills, there were various fermented foods that appeared and led to establish the basis of unique tastes and flavors to all kinds of foods. The fermented traditional foods have very unique flavors and tastes that are not present in their original raw materials. They produce not only those flavors but also various components which have a wide range of bioactive functions, such as anticancer, anti-hypertension, anti-diabetes, and anti-obesity. In this chapter, fermented soybean products, lactic acid-fermented vegetable products, Kimchi, fermented fishes for condiments, and fermented alcoholic beverages, mainly Makgeolli that represent Korean ethnic fermented beverage, are presented with their functionalities.