Korean Chilli Pepper

The Korean chilli pepper - "gochu" in Korean - encompasses several related cultivars rather than referring to a single specific variety, all of which serve the foundational role in Korean cuisine that defines Korean cooking's heat profile. The chillies arrived in Korea through Japanese trade routes in the late 16th and 17th centuries, having travelled from the Americas via European-Asian commercial networks. The arrival of chillies in Korea profoundly transformed Korean cuisine. Before chillies, Korean food was largely free of significant heat - the earliest forms of kimchi were made without chilli, relying on radish, garlic, and vinegar for preservation and flavour. Within a few generations of chilli adoption (roughly mid-18th century), gochugaru (chilli flakes) and gochujang (chilli paste) became foundational Korean ingredients, and modern kimchi - inseparable from chilli - emerged as the national dish. Korean cuisine uses several distinct chilli forms in different applications. Fresh green Cheongyang chillies (now sometimes treated as a separate cultivar) provide cooking chilli for fresh applications. Dried Korean chillies are ground into gochugaru, the coarse chilli flakes that distinguish Korean cuisine from other Asian chilli traditions. Fermented Korean chillies form the basis of gochujang, the umami-rich chilli paste used as a foundational seasoning. Each application traditionally uses slightly different cultivars or maturation stages of the same variety. Korean chilli cultivation has remained relatively concentrated within Korea itself, with only modest international spread. Korean diaspora communities in major Western cities support local Korean chilli growing and Korean grocer demand for both fresh and processed Korean chillies. UK Korean supermarkets reliably stock gochugaru, gochujang, and various forms of fresh and dried Korean chillies, while UK home growers can succeed with Korean chilli varieties through Asian seed sources, with the cool autumn-harvest period of UK gardening suiting Korean chilli ripening reasonably well.