Galbitang (Beef Short Rib Soup)

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Large heavy pot, at least 7 quarts
• •Large mixing bowl for soaking ribs
• •Fine-mesh strainer
• •Skimmer or wide ladle
• •Small nonstick skillet for jidan egg garnish, optional

Instructions

1. 1

   Soak the ribs

   Put the short ribs in a large bowl and cover them with cold water by 2 inches. Soak 1 hour, changing the water after 30 minutes, and rub the cut bone ends with your fingers to loosen any bone dust. This first washing is not decoration. It pulls out the blood that clouds the broth later.

   If the meat has a strong old smell before cooking, choose another dish for tonight. Clear soup has nowhere to hide tired beef.
2. 2

   Blanch and wash

   Drain the soaked ribs, put them in a large pot, and cover with fresh cold water by 2 inches. Bring to a hard boil and boil 7 minutes. Drain, rinse each rib under warm running water, and scrub the pot clean before anything goes back in. My teacher made us wash the pot as carefully as the meat. She was right.

3. 3

   Start the broth

   Return the clean ribs to the clean pot with 12 cups water. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, skimming any foam that rises, then add the onion, daepa or scallions, garlic, ginger, and peppercorns. Lower the heat to a quiet simmer and partly cover the pot. Cook 1 hour 15 minutes. A rolling boil beats the broth cloudy; a steady simmer draws out the beef without roughing it up.

4. 4

   Add the radish

   Add the radish chunks and simmer 35 to 45 minutes more, until the ribs are tender enough to pull at with chopsticks and the radish is translucent at the edges. If the radish becomes tender before the meat, lift it out and hold it in a bowl. Radish gives sweetness, but if you cook it to collapse, the soup loses its clean shape.

5. 5

   Strain and measure

   Lift the ribs and radish into a bowl. Strain the broth through a fine sieve and discard the aromatics. Measure the broth: you want about 8 cups. If you have less, add water to reach 8 cups; if you have much more, boil it down a little. This number matters because the salt belongs to the broth you actually made, not the one the recipe imagined.

6. 6

   Skim the fat

   Skim the surface fat with a ladle until the broth looks clear and glossy, not greasy. For the cleanest bowl, chill the strained broth until the fat firms on top, then lift it off and reheat. Same-day soup is fine, but patient skimming is the difference between rich and heavy.

7. 7

   Season gently

   Return the broth, ribs, and radish to the pot. For 8 cups broth, add 1 tablespoon soup soy sauce and 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt, or 1 teaspoon fine sea salt. Simmer 10 minutes, then taste. It should be clean and gently seasoned, with room for each person to add salt and black pepper at the table. Too much soy sauce darkens the broth and makes it taste more of soy than beef.

   Galbitang is not a gochujang soup. Keep the red pepper for another pot and let the ribs, radish, and clear broth speak plainly.
8. 8

   Prepare the garnish

   If using dangmyeon, boil the soaked noodles in a separate pot of water for 4 to 5 minutes, until clear and springy, then drain and divide among serving bowls. Cooking the noodles separately keeps their starch out of the soup. If making jidan, beat the yolks and whites separately with a pinch of salt, cook each in a lightly oiled pan as a thin sheet, and slice into fine threads.

9. 9

   Serve the soup

   Place 2 or 3 rib pieces and several radish chunks in each bowl, with noodles underneath if using. Ladle the clear broth over them and finish with sliced scallion, jidan if you made it, and a little black pepper. Serve with rice, kkakdugi (radish kimchi), and a small dish of salt. 손맛 is real. I still measure it, so it can be handed on.

Chef Tips

• •Buy English-cut short ribs in thick pieces, not thin flanken-style LA galbi. The thin cut is for grilling; in soup it gives up quickly and leaves you with bones before the broth has learned anything.
• •The safe shortcut is time, not cleaning. You may simmer the blanched ribs in a pressure cooker with 10 cups water for 35 minutes at high pressure, then let the pressure release naturally and continue with the radish in an open pot. Do not skip the soak, blanch, and rinse.
• •Season after you measure the strained broth. A pot reduced to 7 cups needs less salt than a pot stretched to 9 cups, and this is where many home recipes fail the cook.
• •Make the broth a day ahead if the occasion matters. Chilling hardens the fat into a cap you can lift off in one piece, and the soup reheats cleaner than it tastes on the first hurried day.
• •Kkakdugi belongs beside this bowl. The soup is gentle, so the crisp radish kimchi gives the table the salt, sourness, and crunch the broth itself should not carry.

Advance Preparation

• •The ribs can be soaked, blanched, rinsed, and simmered a day ahead through the straining step. Chill the broth and ribs separately or together, then remove the hardened fat before reheating.
• •Jidan egg garnish can be made up to 1 day ahead, sliced, covered, and refrigerated. Add it only at serving so the threads stay neat.
• •Do not cook dangmyeon ahead for the finished bowls. It swells and drinks the broth. Soak it ahead if you like, but boil it just before serving.
• •Leftover galbitang keeps 3 days refrigerated. Cool it within 2 hours, reheat only what you will eat, and add fresh scallion at the table.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 520g)