The Ferguson Recipes


Budae Jjigae (Army Base Stew)
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Budae Jjigae (Army Base Stew)
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Dig into the fascinating story of Budae Jjigae (Army Base Stew), Korea's ultimate fusion comfort food combining American military surplus ingredients with traditional Korean flavors. Born from post-Korean War food scarcities, this hearty stew transforms Spam, sausages, and processed cheese by simmering them with kimchi, gochujang, and fresh vegetables. The resulting spicy, savory, and slightly sweet dish demonstrates culinary creativity in the face of hardship.
Budae Jjigae, Army Base Stew, is a Korean stew made with processed American food including spam, sausages, canned baked beans, and sliced American cheese. As a consequence of the Korean War, food scarcities led Koreans to supplement their diets with surplus protein from U.S. military bases. Budae Jjigae originally consisted of these proteins along with with Kimchi and chili paste (Go Chu Jang), but now can also include vegetables, tofu, noodles, and rice cakes. Thanks to @wooaesil, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Gettysburg College, for bringing Budae Jjigae to our attention!
Recipe is from here.
Learn more about the politics of Budae Jjigae, Army Base Stew from The Politics of Cuisine at Instagram.
Ingredients
For the stock:
2 dried shiitake mushrooms
8 large dried anchovies, heads and guts removed, in a soup strainer or tightly wrapped in a cheesecloth
Dried kelp (a 5 x 6 inch sheet)
8 cups water
1 teaspoon kosher salt

For the seasoning paste:
6 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon hot pepper paste
2 tablespoons Korean hot pepper flakes (gochugaru)
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons water

For stew:
½ pound pork belly (or pork shoulder), cut into bite size pieces
2 ounces of sweet potato starch noodles, soaked in water for 30 minutes and drained
1 cup worth cabbage, cut into bite size pieces
½ of a medium onion, sliced
2 green onions, cut into 1 inch pieces
½ cup fermented kimchi, chopped
4 ounces of Polish sausage, sliced
4 ounces of  spam, sliced thinly
½ of packaged instant ramyeon
1 cup worth radish sprouts (or spinach, watercress, arugula)
½ cup worth tofu, sliced (Optional)
¼ cup canned baked beans (Optional)
12-16 sliced rice cakes (Optional)
1 slice of American cheese (Optional)
Directions

Prepare stock:

  1. Combine the water, anchovies, mushrooms, and kelp in a large pot. Cover and cook for 25 minutes over medium high heat. Add the pork and cook for another 10 minutes.
  2. Remove the pot from the heat. Take out the anchovies, kelp and mushrooms. Slice the mushrooms into bite size pieces.
  3. Strain the mixture of the stock and the pork into a large bowl. Put the pork into a small bowl. You will get about 6 cups of stock. Stir in the salt until dissolved.

Make seasoning paste:

  1. Combine the seasoning paste ingredients – garlic, hot pepper paste, hot pepper flakes, soy sauce, sugar, and water in a bowl. Mix well.

Arrange the ingredients in a shallow pot (10 to 12 inch):

  1. Put the cabbage, onion, green onion, pork, and the mushrooms, on the bottom of the pot.
  2. Add the kimchi, and the seasoning paste over top.
  3. Add the spam, sausage, rice cake, tofu, baked beans, and cheese.
  4. Add the ramyeon and the sweet potato starch noodles.
  5. Put radish sprouts on top and add 3 cups of stock.
Cook and serve:
 
Cook over medium high heat. Korean style is to cook at the table with a portable burner. Friends and family will be sitting around the pot, talking and laughing, and maybe drinking. You can take a bit of cooked sausage or the meat with your chopsticks as you wait for the broth to boil and the noodles to soften. If you don’t have a tabletop burner, you can cook it on the stove away from the table.
When it starts boiling about 10 minutes later, stir and turn the ingredients over with tongs to cook evenly.
Serve right after the noodles and ramyeon have softened. Transfer some cooked stew to individual bowls and serve. Add more stock as the broth boils down.
Serving Size: Serves 4
🧑‍🍳 The Cook:  Dave Ferguson 🔑 Keywords: POC, Korean, pork, stew, kimchi, Spam
🗂️ Categories: 🥡 Asian Foods, 🐖 Pork, 🥣 Soups & Stews
📚 Cookbooks: The Politics of Cuisine, The TFR Cookbook
Recipe #1285 was added on December 14, 2022 and last updated on March 14, 2025.
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