Banchan or bansang are small side dishes served along with cooked rice in Korean cuisine. As the Korean language does not distinguish between singular and plural grammatically, the word is used for both one such dish or all of them combined.
The basic table setting for a meal called bansang (반상) usually consists of bap (밥, cooked rice), guk or tang (soup), gochujang or ganjang, jjigae, and kimchi. According to the number of banchan added, the table setting is called 3 cheop (삼첩), 5 cheop (오첩), 7 cheop (칠첩), 9 cheop (구첩), 12 cheop (십이첩) bansang, with the 12 cheop used in Korean royal cuisine.
Banchan are set in the middle of the table to be shared. At the center of the table is the secondary main course, such as galbi or bulgogi, and a shared pot of jjigae. Bowls of cooked rice and guk (soup) are set individually. Banchan are served in small portions, meant to be finished at each meal and replenished during the meal if not enough. Usually, the more formal the meals are, the more banchan there will be. Jeolla province is particularly famous for serving many different varieties of banchan in a single meal.
While the countries surrounding Korea were preserving foods with their abundance of livestock resources, Korea was forced to utilize another way to safeguard their resources. Due to their focus on agriculture, the main ingredients in their fermented foods were grains and vegetables. The fermentation process is necessary as most parts of the Korean peninsula are isolated by mountains from all sides. Additionally, this process of fermentation can be used to enrich the flavor profile of food with the use of gochujang. Kimchi is a perfect example of this enriched food utilizing the flavor and fermentation process together. Therefore, banchan is mainly seasoned with fermented soy products, medicinal herbs, and sesame or perilla oils.
Gochujang was added to enhance each meal. Potentially, this could refer to another chojang (vinegar sauce) that was used as a dipping sauce. Mustard was an additional important seasoning used to enrich the flavor of the foods. Chojang was made by mixing gochujang with honey, vinegar, and ground pine nuts. It was made by adding mustard powder or whole mustard to water and grinding it out, then adding vinegar, salt and sugar and leaving the mixture upside down in a warm place.
For the fermentation of vegetables jangkwa (pickled vegetables and fruit) were served. These dishes were created by pickling the different seasonal vegetables with kanjang, gochujang, and doenjang. However, in the palace, jangkwa also referred to a dish made by pickling cucumber, radish, young radish, parsley, or cabbage heart with salt, then drying it in the sun, removing all moisture; the vegetables were then stir-fried with beef, shredded red pepper, sesame oil, and sesame and salt.