''Suksil-gwa'' (), literally "cooked fruit", is a category of ''

hangwa ''Hangwa'' () is a general term for traditional Korean confections. With ''tteok'' (rice cakes), ''hangwa'' forms the sweet food category in Korean cuisine. Common ingredients of ''hangwa'' include grain flour, fruits and roots, sweet ingr ...

'' (Korean confection) consisting of cooked fruit, roots, or seeds sweetened with

honey Honey is a sweet and viscous substance made by several bees, the best-known of which are honey bees. Honey is made and stored to nourish bee colonies. Bees produce honey by gathering and then refining the sugary secretions of plants (primar ...

. Common ingredients include

chestnut The chestnuts are the deciduous trees and shrubs in the genus ''Castanea'', in the beech family Fagaceae. They are native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. The name also refers to the edible nuts they produce. The unrel ...

jujube Jujube (), sometimes jujuba, known by the scientific name ''Ziziphus jujuba'' and also called red date, Chinese date, and Chinese jujube, is a species in the genus '' Ziziphus'' in the buckthorn family Rhamnaceae. Description It is a smal ...

, and

ginger Ginger (''Zingiber officinale'') is a flowering plant whose rhizome, ginger root or ginger, is widely used as a spice and a folk medicine. It is a herbaceous perennial which grows annual pseudostems (false stems made of the rolled bases of ...

. ''Suksil-gwa'' is similar to—and sometimes classified as—'' jeonggwa'', but has unique characteristics that differentiate it from the ''jeonggwa'' category. It has been mainly used for special occasions such as ''janchi'' (banquet), or ''

jesa Jesa (, ) is a ceremony commonly practiced in the East Asian cultural sphere. Jesa functions as a memorial to the ancestors of the participants. Jesa are usually held on the anniversary of the ancestor's death. The majority of Catholics, Buddh ...

'' (ancestral rite). During the

Joseon Joseon (; ; Middle Korean: 됴ᇢ〯션〮 Dyǒw syéon or 됴ᇢ〯션〯 Dyǒw syěon), officially the Great Joseon (; ), was the last dynastic kingdom of Korea, lasting just over 500 years. It was founded by Yi Seong-gye in July 1392 and re ...

era (1392–1897), it was consumed by ''

yangban The ''yangban'' () were part of the traditional ruling class or gentry of dynastic Korea during the Joseon Dynasty. The ''yangban'' were mainly composed of highly educated civil servants and military officers—landed or unlanded aristocrats ...

'' (scholar-officials) and in royal court cuisine, due to the requirement for good quality fruit and an elaborate cooking process. ''Suksil-gwa'' is usually served with two or three kinds in one dish.

Varieties

''Suksil-gwa'' can be divided into ''ran''-type and ''cho''-type by the cooking method. Each of the terms is affixed to the main ingredient. The ''ran''-type involves meshing of the cooked ingredient, mixing them with honey, and shaping the mixture into the shape of the fruit. The ''cho''-type are made without the meshing process. * '' Yullan'' (; ) – made by mashing and sieving boiled and peeled

s, mixing the sieved chestnut with

cinnamon Cinnamon is a spice obtained from the inner bark of several tree species from the genus '' Cinnamomum''. Cinnamon is used mainly as an aromatic condiment and flavouring additive in a wide variety of cuisines, sweet and savoury dishes, breakf ...

powder and honey into a dough, then shaping the dough into chestnut-shaped confection and garnishing it with

pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family (biology), family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. The World Flora Online created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanic ...

nut powder. * '' Joran'' (; ) – made by mashing and sieving boiled and deseeded

, mixing the sieved jujube with cinnamon powder and honey into a dough, then shaping the dough into jujube-shaped confection and optionally garnishing it with pine nut powder. Sometimes, ''joran'' can be filled with the mixture of chestnut powder and honey. * '' Saengnan'' (; ) – also referred to as ''gangnan'' (; ) or ''saenggang-ran'' (; ), made by boiling peeled and finely minced ginger in a lot of water to reduce the heat, sieving it, simmering it in honey, cooling it, and shaping it into ginger-shaped confection and garnishing it with pine nut powder. * '' Bamcho'' () – also referred to as ''yulcho'' (; ), made by simmering peeled

s in water, with honey of the same weight as chestnuts added. When the honey penetrates the chestnuts, cinnamon powder is added and the confection is drained and coated with pine nut powder. Both dried and fresh chestnuts can be used to make ''bamcho''. * '' Daechu-cho'' () – made by deseeding jujube, steaming it for a short time and stuffing it with around two pine nuts, simmering the stuffed jujube with honey and cinnamon powder, and coating it with pine nut powder. When served, daechu-cho is garnished with a toasted pine nut on the stalk end of the jujube.

References

Hangwa {{Korea-dessert-stub

Varieties

See also

References