When people first become interested in Korean food, they often start with familiar dishes such as kimchi, bibimbap, bulgogi, or tteokbokki. Behind many everyday Korean dishes, however, are seasonings that may be less familiar at first: ganjang, doenjang, and gochujang.
Learning how they taste, how they are used, and what their labels mean makes both Korean recipes and Korean supermarket shelves much easier to understand.
What Is Jang?
Jang has been part of Korean food culture for generations. Traditionally, many households made their own jang from fermented soybean blocks called meju, then aged it in large earthenware jars. The exact methods and flavors could differ by household and region, so jang was closely connected to family cooking as well as everyday meals.
Making jang also involved caring for the jars over time and passing down knowledge about fermentation from one generation to the next. In 2024, UNESCO inscribed the knowledge, beliefs, and practices related to jang-making in the Republic of Korea on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
Today, most Koreans buy jang at supermarkets rather than making every batch at home. Even so, the traditional process still explains why ganjang, doenjang, and gochujang remain such familiar ingredients in Korean kitchens.
Ganjang, Doenjang, and Gochujang: What Is the Difference?
The three are often introduced together, but they are not interchangeable. Each has its own flavor, texture, and common uses in Korean cooking.
Ganjang: Korean Soy Sauce
Ganjang (간장) is Korean soy sauce, but there is more than one kind. Hansik ganjang (한식간장), which is closely associated with the soup soy sauce commonly called guk ganjang, is relatively light in color but quite salty. It is especially useful in soups, broths, and vegetable dishes where seasoning is needed without making the food very dark.
Korean supermarkets also sell brewed soy sauce and bottles with names such as jin ganjang. These are commonly used for braised dishes, stir-fries, marinades, dipping sauces, and general home cooking. In my own kitchen, I often reach for jin ganjang and simply adjust the amount depending on what I am making.
If you are new to Korean cooking, the main thing to remember is that Korean soy sauces do not all taste or behave the same way in a dish.
Doenjang: Fermented Soybean Paste
Doenjang (된장) is a fermented soybean paste with a deep, savory, earthy flavor. Its aroma can be strong, but in Korea it is one of the most familiar flavors of home cooking.
Doenjang jjigae is probably the best-known dish made with it. The stew is often cooked with ingredients such as tofu, zucchini, onion, mushrooms, and sometimes meat or seafood.
Doenjang is also used in soups, vegetable dishes, dipping sauces, and seasonings. It adds a fermented depth that is quite different from simply adding salt. Ganjang and doenjang also appear frequently in vegetable dishes, and you can see more examples in my guide to Korean vegetable side dishes and namul.
Gochujang: More Than Just Heat
Gochujang (고추장) is probably the most recognizable Korean jang outside Korea. Its red color and thick texture make it easy to notice in dishes such as bibimbap and tteokbokki, but its flavor is not simply spicy.
It also brings sweetness, saltiness, body, and a fermented taste. Traditional gochujang is made with ingredients that include red pepper powder, grain, fermented soybean ingredients, and salt, then fermented and aged.
It is also worth knowing that not every red Korean dish contains gochujang. Kimchi, for example, gets much of its red color and heat from gochugaru, or Korean red pepper flakes, rather than from gochujang.
If you are interested in another important Korean fermentation tradition, my article on Korean kimjang culture explains how large-scale kimchi-making became both a household practice and a communal tradition.
How Traditional Ganjang and Doenjang Are Made
Traditional ganjang and doenjang begin with the same basic process. The starting point is meju (메주), made from cooked soybeans that are crushed, shaped into blocks, dried, and fermented.
The meju is later placed in salt water and left to ferment further. After fermentation, the liquid and solid portions are separated. The liquid develops into ganjang, while the soybean solids are aged further to become doenjang.
Traditional jang was commonly aged in large earthenware jars called onggi. At older Korean homes, rows of these jars might be kept together in an outdoor area called a jangdokdae (장독대). The jars were exposed to seasonal changes in sunlight, air, and temperature while the household continued to look after them.
Most people living in modern Korean apartments do not keep a large jangdokdae. We usually buy jang and store it in the kitchen or refrigerator, but rows of brown onggi jars are still a familiar image associated with traditional Korean fermentation.
The video shows the traditional process from meju and fermentation to the separation of ganjang and doenjang.
How Koreans Use Jang in Everyday Cooking
Most of the time, jang is not something Koreans stop to think about as a special traditional ingredient. It is simply part of everyday cooking.
Ganjang may season a soup, marinade, braised dish, or vegetable side dish. Doenjang can become the base of a stew or add savory flavor to vegetables. Gochujang may be used in bibimbap, tteokbokki, dipping sauces, or spicy marinades.
Different types of jang are also often combined. Ssamjang (쌈장), the thick dipping paste commonly served with grilled meat and lettuce wraps, usually combines doenjang and gochujang with ingredients such as garlic, sesame oil, and sesame seeds.
In my own kitchen, I do not think of each jar as having only one fixed use. I taste the food as I cook and adjust the amount depending on the dish. The same bottle of ganjang or tub of doenjang can appear in many different meals, so understanding the basic flavor of each jang is more useful than memorizing a long list of rules.
What I Actually Check When Buying Jang
Jang shelves in a Korean supermarket can look complicated. One company may sell several versions of the same type of sauce or paste, and the large product name on the front does not always tell you everything about what is inside.
I usually turn the package around and check the food type and ingredient list before choosing one.
What I Look for in Gochujang
For gochujang, I first look at the red pepper content and the ingredient list. Commercial products can vary quite a lot in how much red pepper powder they contain and in the other ingredients used to create sweetness, heat, and texture.
When I want a stronger gochujang flavor, I tend to choose a product with clearly stated red pepper content and a relatively straightforward ingredient list. I also check where the red pepper was grown.
For me, the information on the back of the container is much more useful than the traditional-looking design on the front.
What I Look for in Ganjang
Ganjang is probably the category that can be most confusing for beginners.
In Korea, you may see terms such as hansik ganjang, yangjo ganjang, jin ganjang, and mat ganjang on different bottles. The official food-type classification on the back of the bottle may use categories such as Korean-style soy sauce, brewed soy sauce, acid-hydrolyzed soy sauce, or mixed soy sauce.
That is why I check the food type rather than relying only on the large product name printed on the front. A bottle prominently marketed as “jin ganjang,” for example, may belong to a different food-type category than a shopper expects from the front label alone.
Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety provides information about the country’s food-labeling system, which can be useful if you want to understand how packaged foods are classified and labeled.
For a basic soy sauce at home, I usually choose a fermented type because I prefer that flavor profile. I also sometimes look at T.N., or Total Nitrogen, when it is shown on the bottle. I sometimes use T.N. as a reference when comparing similar soy sauces, but I do not choose a product by that number alone.
Mat ganjang is another product you may see. It is a seasoned soy sauce that can include ingredients such as vegetables, seaweed, anchovy, or fruit. I think of it as a convenient seasoned sauce rather than the same thing as a basic all-purpose soy sauce.
What I Look for in Doenjang
For doenjang, I usually check whether the food type is hansik doenjang (한식된장), especially when I want the deeper flavor I associate with traditional-style doenjang.
I also prefer a relatively simple ingredient list centered on soybeans or meju and salt. This matters most to me when I make doenjang jjigae because the flavor of the paste is so noticeable in the finished stew.
Checking the label helps me choose the kind of doenjang I actually want instead of assuming that every brown tub on the shelf will taste the same.
Once you know the basic differences between ganjang, doenjang, and gochujang, Korean recipes become easier to follow and the jang aisle at a Korean supermarket becomes much less confusing. I usually start with the flavor I want, then check the food type and ingredients on the back of the package before choosing what to buy.
About the Author 🇰🇷
I live in South Korea and write about the small details of Korean life and culture that I experience and observe firsthand.
English is my second language, so I sometimes use tools such as Gemini and Google Translate to help with translation and editing. The experiences, observations, opinions, and cultural perspectives in my articles are my own, and I personally review and edit every article before publishing it.
My goal with Korea Core Info is simple: to share everyday Korea from a local perspective and help international readers discover things they might not always find in a typical travel guide.
I hope my stories and guides help you understand Korea a little better — not just as a place to visit, but as a place where people live their everyday lives.