Gochujang

Gochujang or red chili paste is a savory, sweet, and spicy fermented condiment popular in Korean cooking. It is made from gochu-garu (chili powder), glutinous rice, meju (fermented soybean) powder, yeotgireum (barley malt powder), and salt. The sweetness comes from the starch of cooked glutinous rice, cultured with saccharifying enzymes during the fermentation process. Traditionally, it would be naturally fermented over years in jangdok (earthenware) on an elevated stone platform called jangdokdae in the backyard. The Sunchang Gochujang Festival is held annually in Gochujang Village in Sunchang County, North Jeolla Province, South Korea. Shiyi xinjian (食醫心鑑), a mid-9th century Chinese document, recorded the Korean pepper paste as 苦椒醬 (lit. 'pepper paste'). The second-oldest documentation of pepper paste is found in the 1433 Korean book Collected Prescriptions of Native Korean Medicines. Pepper paste is again mentioned in a 1445 medical encyclopedia named Compendia of Medical Prescriptions.

Source: Wikipedia