Hiya! I was at the market today and secured some red bean tteok. It was sold unrefrigerated so I kind of guessed it would be fine to bring home but now I’m having second thoughts. I am in Seoul for four more days wirh access to a fridge and then the journey home is 40 hours. Do you think it would be okay to eat once I get back home/how long does tteok survive unrefrigerated in general? Thanks a lot!
Oh and it’s fully vegan so no dairy 🙂
by clubloki
6 Comments
It would probably get a little bit tough to eat after four days, maybe a little rancid. I would freeze it and then pack it in your checked luggage; it’ll be cold enough in the cargo hold to keep it frozen. Tteok generally thaws pretty well.
By Korean home standards You’ll be fine. That kind of dduk doesn’t get hard like nonglutinous rice dduk does.
By American food handlers standards it’s def a no. Haha
I’ve eaten dduk my whole life and had the freshest of fresh and oldest of old. You’ll be fine.
Ps. Being me some please
Tteok is sold at room temp. It’ll dry out before it goes bad. The best way to try to preserve the delicious flavor and desired tteok texture is to freeze it as soon as possible. Leave it in the freezer the entire 4 days. By the time you end your 40-hour trip and obviously thawed, it should be pretty close to how it was when you bought it. At this point, eat it all the same day to maximize the goodness of the tteok texture. If you can’t, the tteok is still fine to eat over the next few days, but it’ll get dry and hard. Steaming it can rehydrate, but it’ll not be quite the same.
Edit – spelling
ahhh…you can, but it will dry up before going off
Four days sounds way too long to keep at room temp, especially in this spring weather… Freeze the leftovers, and let it thaw for a couple of hours before you eat them. I don’t think it will survive the flight.
You could buy the dry ingredients (either 멥쌀가루/short grain rice flour or 찹쌀가루/glutinous rice flour depending on the type of tteok, maybe some mugwort powder, tteok molds, etc.) from a baking store (you might find some at 방산시장/Bangsan Market), take it home, hydrate the rice flour with some salt, steam and knead the dough to make the tteok from scratch. It’s the hard way, but it’s better than not having tteok at all.
Nuke it for a few secs if it gets dry. It’s fine to eat. You can also freeze it.