Galbitang (Korean Short Rib Soup): A Gut-Healing, Eczema-Friendly Ancestral Dish

It’s not just comforting — it’s a healing ancestral food that gently nourishes the gut lining, without overwhelming digestion.

Think of it as Korea’s version of a meat stock: mineral-rich, collagen-packed, and incredibly soothing.

Let’s jump right into the recipe — then I’ll explain

• why this meat stock is different from typical bone broth,

• how to make it even more gut-friendly, and

• why ingredient quality (heyyy, organic veggies & grass-fed and finished beef) matters more than you think.

Galbitang Recipe (Korean Short Rib Soup)

GALBITANG 갈비탕
Korean Short Rib Soup (~12 servings)

INGREDIENTS
• 10 lbs beef back ribs
• 10 cups filtered water (for soup base)
• 12 dried dashi anchovies (lightly toasted)
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 lb daikon radish, chopped
• 2" ginger, peeled & chopped into coins
• 1 tbsp minced garlic
• 7 pieces kombu (1x1")
• ½ tbsp sea salt

DIRECTIONS
Aromatics (for soup base):
Wrap the following in cheesecloth:
• 12 anchovies
• 1 onion
• 1 lb daikon
• 1" ginger
• 1 tbsp garlic
• 7 pcs kombu

Submerge the bundle in 10 cups of water. Bring to a boil. Once boiling, immediately lower to medium or medium-low

• You want steady bubbles — not a rolling boil, but not completely still either

• The surface should gently ripple, with small bubbles breaking every few seconds

• If it's bubbling too hard (like a rolling boil), turn it down — too much agitation clouds the broth and can toughen the meat.

Prep the Ribs:

1. Rinse ribs thoroughly.

2. In a separate pot, cover ribs with filtered water + 1" ginger + ½ tbsp sea salt.

3. Bring to a boil and let it boil for 3 minutes — this removes impurities (a.k.a. parboiling).

4. Drain and rinse each rib under cold water to remove bone fragments.

Simmer:

1. Add cleaned ribs to your boiling stock.

2. Simmer with lid cracked open for 1 hour. Remove aromatics & skim off fat/tallow.

3. Simmer with lid ajar for 1 more hour (2 hrs total) until ribs are fall-off-the-bone tender.

4. Salt to taste. Garnish with scallions & pepper if you’d like.

Storage Tips:
Fridge: 3–4 days
Freezer: 2–3 months

Serve with kimchi 🫶

💡 Pro Tip: Use leftover meat stock to cook rice or noodles — your gut will thank you!

🥣 Meat Stock vs. Bone Broth: What’s the Difference?

Meat stock (what galbitang is) is simmered for a shorter time (1–3 hours) using meaty cuts like short ribs. It’s rich in gelatin, amino acids, and minerals — but gentler on sensitive guts (great for babies/littles) and ideal in the early stages of gut healing (or eczema flares).

Bone broth, on the other hand, is simmered much longer (12–48+ hours) using mostly bones and connective tissue. While it’s very rich in nutrients, it can be quite intense for those with histamine issues, leaky gut, or eczema flares.

If you or your child are healing from eczema or digestive issues, meat stock is likely the better place to start.

Fat Skimming 101

After simmering, you’ll notice a layer of fat rising to the surface of your soup. Skim this off with a ladle for a cleaner, easier-to-digest soup — especially helpful for those with sluggish digestion, gallbladder issues, or in the early stages of gut healing.

If you're using high-quality, grass-fed, organic beef, consider saving the skimmed fat (a.k.a. tallow) for cooking. It's rich in stable saturated fats, fat-soluble vitamins, and CLA (conjugated linoleic acid), which has anti-inflammatory properties.

🔥 Hot Tip: Chill the soup in the fridge after cooking — a firm, pale disc of fat will solidify on top. This makes it easy to lift off and either discard (if your meat wasn’t organic/grass-fed) or store separately for future cooking.

⚠️ Why This Matters:

Fat from animals acts as a storage site for fat-soluble toxins — think… pesticides, heavy metals, antibiotics, and hormone residues(!)

In non-organic or conventionally raised beef, these substances often accumulate in the fat tissue, since the body stores what it can’t eliminate.

According to studies published in Environmental Health Perspectives and Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, animal fat is a known bioaccumulator of lipophilic (fat-loving) toxins — meaning if the animal was exposed, the fat will likely carry traces of toxins it was exposed to (which is quite a bit if not grass-fed/finished).

So if you're not using organic or grass-fed/finished beef, it's a good idea to remove and discard the fat layer. It’s a small step that makes a big difference in the quality and digestibility of your broth.

🐄 Why Organic + *Grass-Fed/Finished Ingredients Matter

When making medicinal, gut-healing soup like Galbitang, the quality of ingredients is e v e r y t h i n g — especially if you’re supporting eczema or gut flares. Why?

• Grass-fed beef contains more anti-inflammatory omega-3s and CLA (conjugated linoleic acid) than conventional grain-fed beef.

• Organic produce (i.e. daikon, onion, garlic, etc) means lower pesticide content — critical for children who have sensitive systems or eczema.

• No hormones / antibiotics means less toxic burden on our liver, which plays a role in skin health (i.e. eczema) and detox pathways.

• Cleaner animal fat (i.e. grass-fed/finished) is safer when you’re incorporating rendered fat or bone marrow into cooking.

every spoonful of this soup can be deeply nourishing or a hidden inflammatory trigger — invest in quality, especially when healing.

📌 Save This Eczema-Friendly Ancestral Recipe

Galbitang isn’t just comfort food. It’s such a nutrient-dense, gut-supportive Korean dish with its base of meat stock —

free of MSG, soy, refined sugar, and inflammatory oils when made at home with real, clean ingredients, it becomes a healing food you and yours will want on repeat.

Every time we visit LA, my mother-in-law makes a big pot of Galbitang — a clear, slow-simmered Korean short rib soup. As a mum super focused on supporting gut health (and eczema) naturally, I’ve come to appreciate this soup on a whole new level.

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FAQ

Why Do You Crack the Lid Open While Simmering Galbitang

Leaving the lid slightly open helps for a few key reasons:

1. Controls the Heat & Prevents Overboiling

   • If you fully close the lid, it traps too much heat and pressure, which can lead to aggressive boiling — not what you want for this soup. That’ll lead to tougher meat.

   • Cracking the lid allows steam to escape and keeps the broth at a gentle simmer, which helps extract nutrients without clouding the broth.

2. Allows Impurities to Rise to the Top

   • Simmering with the lid ajar helps release sulfur & blood proteins that rise to the surface as foam or scum — which you can skim off for a cleaner-tasting, clearer soup.

3. Reduces Excess Moisture (Ever So Slightly)

   • A slightly open lid lets a small amount of liquid evaporate, helping concentrate flavor just enough without drying it out. It's subtle but intentional.

Can I Use Pork Ribs Instead of Beef for Galbitang?

Short answer: No — it’s not recommended.

Galbitang (갈비탕) is a traditional Korean soup specifically made with beef short ribs, and the recipe is carefully built around the unique qualities of beef — especially the richness of the marrow, depth of umami, and mild, clean flavorthat beef bones bring when slow-simmered.

Here’s why pork doesn’t work well in this dish:

🐷 Pork Ribs Have a Very Different Flavor Profile

• Pork is naturally stronger, gamier, and sweeter than beef — this changes the entire flavor of the broth.

• Pork also releases more fat and scum, which can make the soup taste heavier or even funky if not handled properly.

🐮 This Recipe Is Designed Around Beef’s Structure & Flavor

• Galbitang uses meaty beef ribs for a delicate but rich meat stock — not overly fatty or intense.

• The aromatics (kombu, daikon, anchovy) are carefully balanced to complement beef, not mask the strong flavor of pork.

• The long simmer brings out gelatin and minerals from beef in a way that creates a clear, soothing broth — ideal for gut healing and gentle digestion.

If you’re craving a Korean soup made with pork ribs, try looking into Gamjatang (감자탕) — a spicy pork bone soup with potatoes, perilla seeds, and napa cabbage. Totally different vibe, but still delicious — and developed to highlight pork’s bolder flavor.