Po (food)

Template:Short description Template:Italic title Template:Template other (Korean: Template:Category handler) is thin strips or sheets of dried meat and fish used in Korean cuisine. Po, which is made from meats including beef, pork, venison and poultry; and seafoods including whitefish, eel, squid, octopus, shrimp and crab; is eaten as snack food, banchan (food accompanying bap) or anju (food accompanying alcohol). Po is prepared for traditional occasions such as pyebaek (formal greetings from the newlyweds after the wedding ceremony) and jesa (ancestral rite).

Name

The Sino-Korean word () can be written with the hanja Template:Linktext, which in other East Asian languages and cuisines can also mean preserved fruit.

History

History of po is thought to date back to pre-historic hunter-gatherer societies.

According to the 1145 historical text Samguk sagi, in the 2nd month of 683, the King Sinmun of Silla sent 135 carts of rice, wine, oil, honey, jang (soy sauce, soybean paste), vinegar, and po to Kim Heum-un's house for his daughter's wedding.

Northern Song Chinese scholar Wu Ji (?–1142) described Goryeo-era Koreans seasoning (; Template:Category handler, dried venison) with cinnamon.

During the Joseon period, po made in governmental offices was called (; Template:Category handler, "governmental po"). Among them, large that was made in Bongsangsi (Office of Sacrificial Rites) for (governmental jesa) was called (; Template:Category handler). Geonpo used for jehyang was called (; Template:Category handler). At Korean New Year, it was common for provincial officials to send (; Template:Category handler, "po and candles") to their relatives and officials in the central government. Extravagant banquets were referred to as (; Template:Category handler), literally meaning "po mountains, meat forests". Beef po was also often used to make (; Template:Category handler), a kind of dasik (tea food). The 18th-century book Sasojeol (Elementary Matters of Etiquette for Scholar Families), which was written by the Joseon scholar Yi Deok-mu (1741–1793), states; "Do not frequently smell fish or seafood po". (; Template:Category handler, "thousand-ri po"), made from meats marinated for a day in wine, vinegar, and salt, was prepared for long journeys. (1 ri is around , and 1,000 ri is .)

Varieties

Meat or fish that is thinly sliced and dried is usually called (; Template:Category handler), while meat that is pounded flat and dried is called (; Template:Category handler). Dried meat in general can be referred to as (; Template:Category handler), with (; Template:Category handler) meaning "meat", while the differently ordered compound (; Template:Category handler) refers to dried beef slices. Dried fish is called (; Template:Category handler) with (; Template:Category handler) meaning "fish".

When the meat is seasoned with salt and pepper, it is called (; Template:Category handler), while the dried meats seasoned or marinated with soy sauce-based seasonings are called (; Template:Category handler), (; Template:Category handler), (; Template:Category handler), or (; Template:Category handler), according to the methods.

Meat

• (; Template:Category handler) – venison
• (; Template:Category handler) – Siberian roe deer venison
• () – pork, salted and dried, parboiled in diluted wine, and dried again
• (; Template:Category handler) – beef

By method

• (; Template:Category handler) – thinly sliced beef or pork, seasoned and dried on (; Template:Category handler) on fire
• (; Template:Category handler) – seasoned with aged soy sauce, massaged, and dried
• (; Template:Category handler) – thick slices of lean meat is repeatedly grilled to sear skin, beaten with bats, and seasoned with aged soy sauce, until thoroughly cooked
• (; Template:Category handler) – meat is pounded flat with knife, and dried
• (; Template:Category handler) – meat sliced into pieces and sun-dried
• (; Template:Category handler) – meat is thinly sliced, seasoned with soy sauce, oil, sugar, and pepper, massaged, and dried on sokuri

Poultry

• () – goose
• () – wild goose
• (; Template:Category handler) – pheasant

Seafood

File:Bugeo-po.jpg

Bugeo-po (dried Alaska pollock)

• (; Template:Category handler) – squid
• (; Template:Category handler) – thinly sliced fish
• () – fiddler crab meat
• (; Template:Category handler) – fish
• () – shrimp, halved, marinated, dried and grilled

Pressed

• () – thread-sail filefish, dried and pressed
• (; Template:Category handler) – giant octopus, dried and pressed
• () – squid, dried and pressed

Others

• (; Template:Category handler) – snake meat, eaten as folk remedy in the past

Uses

Po made from various meats, fish, and seafood are eaten as snack food, banchan (food accompanying bap) or anju (food accompanying sul). Salted and dried meat po are eaten as (), a salty banchan. Crab and other seafood po are beaten, puffed, seasoned with soy sauce and oil, and eaten as muchim. Fish po are seasoned with soy sauce or gochujang and are grilled as gui.

Po are one of the foods prepared for traditional occasions such as pyebaek (formal greetings from the newlyweds after the wedding ceremony) and jesa (ancestral rite). Po and sikhye (rice punch) used for jesa is called (; Template:Category handler). Often, po is put on the left side of the jesasang (table for ancestral rites) and sikhye is put on the right; this is referred to as (; Template:Category handler), literally meaning "left po, right sikhye". Another related term is (; Template:Category handler), literally meaning "wine, fruit, po, sikhye", which refers to simple offerings for jesa.

See also

• List of meat dishes