Anchovy Broth

On January 14, 2026 0 Comments - Cooking

Anchovy broth or myeolchi yuksu (멸치육수) is a basic fish stock. It is an essential base for many Korean dishes. It is very easy to make, has endless uses and large batches can be frozen in single use containers to use later on. The recipe can be as simple as just anchovies and water or it can incorporate a number of aromatic vegetables or even seaweed and dried mushrooms. The recipe below uses anchovy, kelp and just a few other ingredients to make a delicious stock. This recipe gives you about 8 litres / 2 gallons of stock. If this seems too big, just half or quarter all of the ingredients.

Ingredients:

  • 8 litres / 2 gallons of water
  • 40-50 medium large dried anchovies (around 100 grams)
  • 8-10 small squares of dashima seaweed aka kombu (around 10-15 grams)
  • 500 grams Korean radish
  • 1 large onion
  • 12 cloves of garlic

Dried anchovies can be found at Asian grocery stores. They come in a few different sizes from very tiny (1 cm) to fairly large (about the length of a finger). The ones I am using are on the larger side.

Dashima is thick, rigid and sometimes powdery looking dark green seaweed. You can find it in the dry goods section of Asian grocery stores in big long strips or a smaller bag of pre-cut squares. Either work fine. I prefer the little squares just because they are easier to work with in smaller recipes. There are lots of different dry seaweeds on the shelf. The one we are using here will say Dashima / 다시마 or Kombu if it is from Japan.

Process:

Remove the guts from the anchovies.

The guts in these bigger anchovies can be bitter so it is a good idea to remove them. I find it is easiest to split the fish from the back with a fingernail like this. The guts are the hard black mass behind the head.
Fish with guts removed
After cleaning all the anchovies there is a fair amount of guts. You can imagine that there is enough here to affect the final flavour if they are left in. Gutting them is quick and easy and definitely worthwhile.
Chop onion and garlic into big chunks.
Peel and slice radish into nice uniform pieces. These can be saved and eaten later.
Everything goes into a stockpot along with the 8 litres of water.
Cover pot and bring to a boil over high heat.
Once the stock is rolling, reduce heat to medium and cover the pot. This will cook for 25-30 minutes. We will remove the kelp after about 10 minutes so set a timer.
About halfway through cooking (after 10 or 15 minutes max), remove the kelp (dashima). If you cook kelp longer, it will start to release tannins which can add unpleasant flavours to the stock. Afterwards, cover the pot and continue to cook for another 15 minutes.
When the stock is fully cooked after 25-30 minutes, remove the radish pieces.
Lay them out flat to cool. These radishes absorb all the flavours of whatever they are cooked with. These leftover radish pieces retain enough firmness and are so full of flavour that they are delicious to eat as is. Use them as a side dish. Or, dip them in your favourite twigim or tempura batter and fry them up.
Pass the stock through a strainer.
Discard the spent fish and veggies.
I divide my anchovy stock into yogurt containers and freeze them. Each container holds enough stock to make one big portion or two smaller portions of soup/jiggae etc..
These will keep in the freezer for a few months at least. I end up using them much faster.

Uses:

This stock is the base for many Korean dishes including sundubu jiggae, kimchi jiggae, noodle soups, etc. In almost any savoury recipe that calls for water, substitute with this stock to make it extra delicious. Dishes like Tteokbokki reach new heights of tastiness when made with a good strong anchovy stock.

In the heat of summer, I will even drink this stock ice cold as is. It is that delicious and refreshing!

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please leave them below. I am always happy to hear from you. Thank you for reading TigerSalad : )

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