Seolleongtang

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Seolleongtang

Korean name
Hangul:	설렁탕
Hanja:	설렁湯
Revised Romanization:	Seolleongtang
McCune-Reischauer:	Sŏllŏngt'ang

Seolleongtang (설렁탕) is a Korean soup made from the bones of the four legs of an ox. Generally, only salt and green onions are used as seasoning. It is typically cooked over a period of several hours to an entire day, to allow the flavor to be gradually extracted from the bones. It has a milky off-white, cloudy appearance and is normally eaten together with rice; the rice may be added directly to the soup.

[edit] Etymology

In the Joseon dynasty, Koreans regularly made nationwide sacrifices to their ancestors, such as Dangun (the legendary founder of the kingdom of Gojoseon). The nationwide sacrifice was called Seonnongje (hangul: 선농제; hanja: 先農祭), and the altar for the sacrifice was called Seonnongdan (hangul: 선농단; hanja: 先農壇). Seongjoong of Joseon had visited the sacrifice with himself, and had eaten a meal with the people of Joseon. In order to supply enough meal for the people of Joseon, king Seongjong ordered to invent new food for many people made from insufficient material, which was Seonnongtang(Tang means soup). Only material for Seolleongtang is the leg bones of ox. At that time, this food was called Seonnongtang, and it is now called Seolleongtang for easy pronounication. The phonetic values have changed as follows.

Seonnongtang (선농탕, Sǒnnongt'ang) > Seollongtang (설롱탕, Sǒllongt'ang) > Seolleongtang (설렁탕, Sŏllŏngt'ang)

The first change involved making the two "N" sounds into softer "L" sounds. The second change is a vowel harmonization of the "O" sound affected by the "Ŏ" sound.

The more conventional current pronunciation is seolleongtang (설렁탕). The hanja characters "雪濃湯湯", with similar pronunciation, have also been adapted for the name of the soup. The characters 雪 (snow) + 濃 (thick, strong, concentrated) + 湯 (soup) describe the soup's whitish, cloudy appearance and concentrated flavor.