Gochugaru powder vs paste?

Gochugaru powder vs paste? - Sugar paste title with stars on ceramic plate near pomegranate seeds and fir tree sprigs during New Year holiday

I'm making Korean pork bulgogi and the recipe I am using calls for gochugaru powder but all I could find was a paste.

Can I use it and would it still be the same amount? The recipe asks for 4 tbsp. of the powder.



Best Answer

If you are referring to gochujang, gochugaru and gochujang have significantly different flavors (gochugaru is thought to impart a "cleaner" hotness to dishes, while gochujang tends to be a bit more complex due to aspects like added sugar and grain e.g. rice flour (which adds a thickening element) and some fermentation.

Thus Korean recipes will often use both, and as a rule of thumb gochugaru is the more flexible of the two (due to being mainly used for only hotness and color). In addition, while gochujang is reasonably replaceable with gochugaru + some sweeteners and thickeners, trying to replace gochugaru with gochujang is generally a bad idea. I'd recommend trying a different kind of relatively fine red pepper flakes - preferably a less spicy and less "aromatic" (i.e. one that has few flavors and aromas outside of "hot") variety, although your mileage may very depending on the type your local market has.




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Can you use gochujang paste instead of powder?

Generally speaking, gochugaru and gochujang are not interchangeable. That being said, the Korean chili pepper is an ingredient common to both gochujang (hot pepper paste) and gochugaru (red pepper flakes or powder), which sometimes means that they can be substitutes of one another in some specific recipes.

Can I substitute gochujang for gochugaru?

Gochujang is another popular Korean spice and an ideal substitute for gochugaru. Both of these spices are prepared from gochu pepper, so they have almost the same flavor. However, the texture sets both spices apart. Gochujang comes as a thick paste and contains other components, such as salt, soybeans, and sticky rice.

Is gochugaru the same as Korean red pepper powder?

Korean gochugaru is a Korean chili powder or chili flake, depending on how you make it or the brand you acquire. Korean cuisine uses these red pepper flakes in all sorts of dishes, including cold salads, kimchi, stews, and more.

What can I use instead of gochugaru powder?

Top 7 Gochugaru Substitutes
  • Chipotle Powder. Chipotle powder is the result of smoking the Jalapeno chilies while removing the moisture inside them. ...
  • Cayenne Pepper. ...
  • Chile Pasilla. ...
  • Paprika. ...
  • Gochujang. ...
  • Chile De Arbol. ...
  • Aleppo Pepper Powder.




What's the difference between gochugaru, chili flakes, and cayenne pepper?




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