Yaksanchun (Yaksan Spring Wine)

History

Yaksanchun (藥山春) belongs to the chun (春) class of prized Korean rice wines; the same 春 ('spring') suffix was likewise used in Tang-dynasty China in the names of premium wines, and other Korean members of the class include Baekhwachun (백화춘) and Hansanchun (한산춘). By the dominant account its name comes from Yakhyeon (藥峴, today's Jungnim-dong, Seoul), the home of Seo Seong (徐渻), whose household was celebrated for brewing it; it is remembered as a specialty enjoyed by the capital's yangban literati. Distinctively, it was made with a water-nuruk (수국) rather than ordinary nuruk and fermented long and cool, giving a clean taste with little of nuruk's musty aroma — matching this recipe, begun on the first hae day of the first lunar month and drunk by early summer. Jang Gye-hyang's book records it within one of the largest early Korean fermentation corpora; later works such as Sallim gyeongje and Imwon gyeongjeji carry it too.

Ingredients

• white rice
• doe good nuruk
• byeong (bottle) water
• east-reaching peach branch

Instructions

1. On the first Pig-day of the first lunar month, wash and soak 5 mal of white rice; pound good nuruk coarse and soak 5 doe in 5 bottles.
2. Next day, grind the soaked rice into cakes; strain the soaked nuruk and discard dregs.
3. Combine old and fresh water to make 20 bottles, mix in the cakes, put in a jar, stir 3-4 times with an east-reaching peach branch, wrap with oiled paper, cover with hemp cloth, and keep cool.
4. Skim off foam daily as it appears. Around the end of the second month, add 5 mal of freshly steamed white rice.
5. Drink in early fourth month, avoiding raw moisture. This is a 10-mal batch; scale down proportionally. Adjust temperature of cakes/rice to the weather; store out of sunlight to keep through summer.