Rice Scoop

Jugeok, also called jugae or jubeok, is a kitchen tool used for scooping steamed rice into a bowl. It consists of a wide, roundish paddle designed to stir and scoop up food and a slim handle. Jugeok was also used for cooking rice porridge or boiling down grains into Korean hard taffy. Jugeok varied in usage, size, shape, and material. A large jugeok with a long handle was used for scooping a large amount of steamed rice from a cauldron, and a small jugeok with a short handle was used to serve steamed rice into a rice bowl. When scooping up red pepper paste, mixing cubed radishes with kimchi seasoning, cooking rice porridge, and boiling down grains into taffy, a large jugeok with a long shaft was favored because it could mix a large amount of food easily. A brass or bamboo jugeok was used for scooping steamed rice, and a wooden jugeok was for making red pepper paste. A plastic jugeok is also available in the present day. Rice in a cauldron was scooped in an inward direction, since it symbolized that good fortune would not leave the household. This custom is referred to as “scooping inward.” The homemaker scooped her husband’s rice first, and then scooped other family members’ rice or passed the jugeok to someone more junior to serve rice into other family member’s bowls. There was a folk proverb saying, “Passing the jugeok to someone else while scooping rice is passing your household to someone else.” This means that lending jugeok to someone else would lead to reduced wealth.