Tool Used to Shape or Scoop Rice Cake

Tteokkal, also called sirukal or mokkal, is a knife specially designed to cut bean-flour-covered and pounded rice cakes to be served on a plate in their original shape. Pounded white rice cake rolled into a cylindrical shape is also cut into pieces using this knife and made into rice cake soup. Among commoners, it was normal to craft the knife out of wood or to use iron knives. On the other hand, the wealthy used relatively sophisticated knives made of brass or bronze. A kitchen knife is usually used to cut white rice cake, yet sometimes a special knife resembling a straw cutter was also used to cut a large amount of rice cake at once. This type of knife is made by mounting a handled knife on a wide board with a pin joint. Since it was said in Gaeseong region that rice cake was more delicious when it was cut using a wooden knife, snowman-shaped joraengi-tteok rice cake was cut using a wooden knife to cook rice cake soup. Wooden knives have a short triangular blade with a handle attached. The blade is double-edged, while the tip of the blade is rounded. The part connecting the handle and the blades roughly create a moderate incline. The spine and flat are thick, while the edge is trimmed thin.