{"id":1293,"date":"2026-05-15T04:47:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T19:47:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comeonkorea.com\/?p=1293"},"modified":"2026-06-17T13:17:44","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T04:17:44","slug":"history-korean-meat-cuisine-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/comeonkorea.com\/en\/history-korean-meat-cuisine-culture\/","title":{"rendered":"From Prehistoric Hunts to Hanwoo \u2014 A History of How Koreans Eat Meat"},"content":{"rendered":"

Meat holds an important place in Korean food culture. The K-BBQ (Korean BBQ) that people around the world enjoy today is the product of a long history. This article traces how Korean meat dishes evolved from prehistoric hunting all the way to becoming a global K-food, and Korean BBQ history runs through every step of that journey. It also points travelers to specific restaurants and directions so you can experience this history firsthand.<\/p>\n

The Historical Arc of Korean Meat Dishes<\/h2>\n

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From Prehistory to the Three Kingdoms: Hunting and the Influence of Buddhism<\/h3>\n

The history of eating meat on the Korean Peninsula begins with hunting in the Paleolithic era. People of the time used chipped stone tools to hunt animals such as wild boar and deer. Animal husbandry began in the Neolithic era, but hunting remained an important source of food. Records from the Three Kingdoms period (57 BCE \u2013 668 CE) note that the Goguryeo people were skilled hunters, and the Hwarang (an elite corps of young Silla men) also hunted as a way to train body and mind. Chinese texts mention a grilled meat dish called maekjeok (\u8c8a\u7099), and some scholars regard it as a food of the Goguryeo lineage and a distant ancestor of Korean-style grilled meat. Meanwhile, Buddhism was adopted around the 4th century (records note its arrival in Goguryeo in 372) centered on the royal court, and the doctrine against killing living things is said to have spread a trend of abstaining from meat, especially among the aristocracy.<\/p>\n

The Goryeo Period: Mongol Influence and the Revival of Meat-Eating<\/h3>\n

Through the early Goryeo period (918\u20131392), meat-eating culture was suppressed amid an atmosphere of reverence for Buddhism. Meat was used only in limited fashion at state rituals or at certain aristocratic banquets. However, the 13th-century war with the Mongols and the period of Yuan dynasty intervention are known to have brought major changes to the peninsula’s food culture. The common view is that as a nomadic culture centered on meat as a staple flowed in, the reluctance to eat meat gradually faded. Soup dishes made by simmering ox bones and meat for a long time are thought to have become widespread in this era, and some trace the origin of today’s seolleongtang\"\"<\/span> to this point. That said, the origins of seolleongtang\"\"<\/span> are hard to pin down, with theories including one tracing it to the Seonnongdan rituals at which Joseon kings prayed for a good harvest. Centered on Gaegyeong (present-day Gaeseong), meat consumption is said to have increased, and butchery techniques and methods of processing meat developed as well.<\/p>\n

The Joseon Period: A Precious Food in an Agrarian Society<\/h3>\n

The Joseon period (1392\u20131910) was an agriculture-centered society. Because oxen were essential labor for farming, the state strictly controlled their slaughter. The mechanism for that control was the hyeonbang (\u61f8\u623f), an officially licensed butcher shop that slaughtered cattle and sold beef under state authorization, operated by the banin attached to the Sungkyunkwan academy. It was a system designed to control slaughter while still supplying the beef needed by the royal court and government offices. Beef was that precious, a food mainly enjoyed by the royal family and the yangban aristocracy. At royal banquets and the grand feasts of yangban households, premium beef dishes such as galbi (short ribs) and neobiani appeared. Joseon texts describe a cooking method called seolhamyeok, in which charcoal-grilled meat was cooled and re-grilled repeatedly, and the common view holds that this passed through neobiani to become today’s bulgogi\"\"<\/span>. Pork and chicken, by contrast, faced relatively fewer restrictions, so commoners could taste them on special days.<\/p>\n

Modern and Contemporary Times: The Road to Popularization and Globalization<\/h3>\n

During the Japanese colonial period (1910\u20131945), as urban dining out grew, meat dishes began to take their place on restaurant menus. The oldest known printed instance of the word “bulgogi\"\"<\/span>” appears in Hyun Jin-geon’s short story “Tarakja,” published in the magazine Gaebyeok in 1922. One theory holds that the term, originally referring to neobiani-style grilling in the Pyeongan region, spread nationwide, and Pyongyang’s bulgogi\"\"<\/span> was counted a local specialty at the time. After liberation and the Korean War, through the 1960s, economic hardship meant meat was still a special food eaten only on holidays or birthdays. <\/p>\n

From the 1970s, meat consumption began to become widespread alongside Korea’s rapid economic growth. The improvement of Hanwoo (Korean native cattle) and the industrialization of livestock farming got underway in earnest, and in the 1980s today’s Korean BBQ restaurant format took hold, with gas or charcoal roasters placed right on the table for grilling your own meat. Even then beef was expensive, so the relatively cheaper pork, especially samgyeopsal\"\"<\/span> (pork belly), gained huge popularity and became the “national meat.”<\/p>\n

From the late 1990s into the 2000s, galbi specialty restaurants and samgyeopsal\"\"<\/span> restaurants increased explosively. The beef grading system was introduced in 1992, followed by the 1+ grade in 1997 and the 1++ grade in 2004, segmenting the premium Hanwoo market. Riding the Hallyu wave, K-food spread across the world. Japan’s yakiniku is also known to have originated when Korean residents in Japan established Korean-style grilled meat there around the time of liberation. Korean BBQ, which started in the Koreatowns of Los Angeles (LA) and New York, is now a food that locals seek out. A variety of meat dishes such as LA galbi, dakgalbi, and budae-jjigae\"\"<\/span> are winning over palates worldwide.<\/p>\n

A Guide to Experiencing Korean Meat Dishes: Seoul<\/h2>\n

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This guide proposes a route for experiencing the history of Korean meat dishes by theme in Seoul. Each location is easily reachable by public transit. Prices and hours are as of June 2026, so it’s a good idea to check for changes before you visit.<\/p>\n

Theme 1: Traditional Flavors: Hanwoo and Seolleongtang<\/h3>\n

This course lets you experience the beef enjoyed by Joseon-era kings and aristocrats, along with the history of soup dishes said to have continued since the Goryeo period. It centers on the Jongno and Majang-dong areas in the heart of Seoul.<\/p>\n

Step 1: Majang Meat Market<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Majang Meat Market<\/a> is Korea’s largest livestock-products market. It took shape after a cattle market moved in around 1958 and a municipal slaughterhouse relocated there in the early 1960s. A distinctive feature is the system where you pick out meat directly at a butcher in the market, then take it to a nearby chojang-jip (a table-setting restaurant), pay only the table-setting fee, and grill it right away. Since you can buy and grill just as much as you’ll eat, it’s a good course even for solo travelers who find the typical two-portion minimum order a burden.<\/p>\n