history

Among the making of traditional foods of the Korean nation is that of yot (taffy) by converting starch of grain into sugar.

The Korean word “yot” is derived from the meaning that it continues to stretch without breaking when it is pulled.

In the period of the feudal Joson dynasty (1392-1910), yot was further diversified in kind and the method of making it further developed.

Kosasinso compiled by scholar So Myong Ung in 1771 says that yot is made by fermenting and boiling white rice, glutinous rice, sorghum, corn and others.

The painting “Ssirum (Korean wrestling)” drawn by Kim Hong Do, a painter in the period of the feudal Joson Dynasty, vividly depicts a young man who sells sticks of yot on a wooden tray to spectators without paying attention to the outcome of a ssirum match.

On New Year's Day the Korean people made and ate white yot along with various dishes and grandparents made it a practice to give sticks of white yot to their grandchildren along with prepared gifts in return for their New Year’s bows. And mothers showed their daughters how to make yot as well as how to weave, embroider and make bean curd.

Though yot is not sweeter than sugar, it is tasty and highly nutritious, so the Korean people used it in making soy and bean paste and made insam yot, glutinous rice yot and chicken yot for weak people.

Yot was made of sorghum, corn, white rice, glutinous rice, potato and sweet potato and the best was glutinous rice yot made by mixing  glutinous rice gruel with malty powder, fermenting the mixture and boiling it down with black pepper, ginger and roast sesame seeds.

It had region-specific characteristics.

Corn yot was famous in Phyongan and Kangwon provinces, radish yot in Hwanghae Province and potato yot in Hamgyong Province.

Yot handed down in each region varies in variety according to the kinds of starch, subsidiary materials and shapes.

Today, too, foodstuff factories in different parts of the country produce yot by industrial methods.