Tteok (Korean rice cakes): types, buying tips and how to cook them

Tteok is the word for Korean rice cake, and it covers a wide family of shapes, from the long white cylinders used in tteokbokki to delicate half-moon dumplings steamed for Chuseok. Tteok is a general term for Korean rice cakes, made with steamed flour of various grains, both glutinous and non-glutinous rice, and the steamed flour can also be pounded, shaped, or pan-fried. It is eaten not only as a dessert or seasonal delicacy, but also as a meal.

For most home cooks outside Korea, the tteok you actually need falls into two or three categories: the plain, savoury cylinders for stir-fries and soup, and the sweeter, often filled, cakes for snacking and holidays. This guide sticks to buying and using the kind you will find in the refrigerated or frozen section of a Korean grocery store.

What tteok is made from

Korean rice cakes start from one of two rices. Mepssal is standard non-glutinous short-grain rice, producing a firmer, more tender bite, the kind found in tteokguk soup slices. Chapssal, or Korean glutinous rice, is sticky short-grain rice with higher amylopectin content, which is what gives cakes like injeolmi their stretch. A common mix-up is assuming all tteok is sticky like Japanese mochi: a common misconception among newcomers is that all tteok is made from glutinous rice, the way Japanese mochi is, but the range of Korean rice cakes spans both varieties. That difference matters once the cake hits a hot pan or broth, because the glutinous ones turn soft and gooey much faster than the firmer non-glutinous kind.

Main types and what they are for

Type	Shape / rice used	What it’s for
Garaetteok	Long cylinder, non-glutinous rice	Snacking, grilling, cut up for tteokbokki or sliced thin for soup
Tteokbokki-tteok	Same dough as garaetteok, shaped into thinner logs around 0.5 inch (1.2cm) in diameter	Stir-fried rice cakes (tteokbokki), rabokki, skewered street snacks
Tteokguk-tteok	Garaetteok sliced thin, usually on an angle	Making tteokguk, rice cake soup eaten at Korean New Year
Injeolmi	Pounded glutinous rice, rolled in roasted soybean powder	Sweet snack, celebrations
Songpyeon	Half-moon, filled, steamed over pine needles	Chuseok (harvest festival)
Baeksulgi / sirutteok	Steamed layers of rice flour, plain or with beans and nuts	First-birthday tables, ceremonies

If a recipe just says “rice cake” without more detail, it almost always means garaetteok cut into short cylinders or the thin oval soup slices. Cut into thick rounds, garaetteok becomes tteokbokki rice cakes; sliced into thin ovals, it transforms into the coin-shaped pieces that float in New Year’s soup. On its own the cake barely tastes of anything: it is dense and chewy, with a talent for absorbing sauces slowly, and on its own garaetteok is quite bland, which is precisely what makes it such a brilliant canvas for bold Korean sauces.

How to buy it

Korean grocery stores sell tteok fresh, refrigerated or frozen, and all three are fine for home cooking. Tteokbokki has become popular enough in the US that it now turns up at mainstream frozen-food sections too, though Korean grocery stores sell it either freshly made, in the frozen section, or in the refrigerated section. Fresh tteok, when you can get it, should feel soft and slightly tacky, not dry or cracked at the cut ends; dryness is the first sign it has sat out too long. Frozen bags are the easiest option to keep on hand and work just as well once soaked or boiled.

Check the shape against your recipe: cylinders labelled for tteokbokki are usually thinner than plain garaetteok, and pre-sliced ovals are sold separately for soup. Some packaged tteokbokki kits come with sauce included, which is convenient but worth checking against the ingredient label if you need the dish gluten-free, since the sauce often contains soy sauce or other wheat-based thickeners.

How to cook it

Frozen tteok needs a short soak before it goes into a pan or pot, otherwise it stays hard in the middle while the outside turns mushy. If using frozen tteok, soak in cold water for 10 minutes to soften first. Some cooks skip the soak when they are short on time: if you don’t have time, you can just add frozen tteok, even if the pieces are stuck together, and cook until they become soft, which makes them easier to separate. Either way, expect the pieces to be glued together when frozen; this is a common frustration with tteokbokki tteok, and it helps to try separating them once defrosted, before they go into the pot.

For tteokbokki, the cakes are usually boiled briefly first, then finished in the sauce. A straightforward method: bring a pot of water to the boil, add the soaked tteok for about a minute, drain and rinse in cold water to stop them sticking further, then toss them in the sauce and cook over low to medium heat until they turn glossy and chewy, stirring so they don’t catch on the bottom of the pan. For soup (tteokguk), the thin oval slices go straight into simmering broth; they only need a few minutes to turn tender and will fall apart if left too long. For grilling or skewers, dry cylinders of garaetteok take well to direct heat once they have softened slightly in water, developing light char marks on the outside while staying chewy inside.

Common mistakes

Skipping the soak entirely. Unsoaked frozen cakes can stay hard in the centre even after a long simmer, so either soak first or expect to cook them longer from frozen.
Overcooking thin soup slices. They turn tender in minutes; left in hot broth too long, they go soft and starchy and cloud the broth.
Using sticky glutinous cakes in broth or stir-fries. Very glutinous rice cakes made for desserts melt into a paste in hot liquid instead of holding their shape; save those for snacking, not soup.
Crowding the pan. Tteok releases starch as it cooks; too many pieces in too little sauce or water and they clump together and stick to the pan.

Substitutes that actually work

Korean tteok is the real thing for Korean dishes, but when it is out of reach, a few swaps hold up reasonably well.

Substitute	Ratio	Notes
Chinese rice cake (nian gao)	1:1 by weight	If you cannot find Korean tteok at all, the closest substitute is Chinese rice cakes, which are made from non-glutinous rice flour and offer the exact same dense, chewy texture.
Fresh gnocchi	1:1 by weight	Not Korean, but shares the chewy bite in a pinch for stir-fried dishes; it will taste different and cook faster, so watch it closely.
Rice paper rolled into logs	As needed	If rice cakes aren’t available at all, some cooks try making a stand-in with rice paper sheets, soaked and rolled; texture is softer than real tteok.

One swap to avoid: Japanese mochi. Avoid using Japanese mochi or sweet dessert rice cakes as a substitute in hot liquid, because mochi is made from highly glutinous sweet rice flour, which melts quickly when heated, turning soup or stir-fry into a sticky, gooey paste. Keep mochi for its own desserts and reach for nian gao or gnocchi instead when tteok is unavailable.

Is tteok gluten-free?

Plain rice cakes made only from rice flour contain no wheat, but always check the label and the sauce. Traditional tteok made entirely from rice flour is naturally gluten-free, which is reassuring for anyone avoiding gluten. The risk sits elsewhere: tteokbokki sauces may include ingredients such as soy sauce that contain gluten, and some packaged cylinders are blended with wheat starch, so a quick read of the ingredient list is worth the extra minute if this matters to you.

How to store it

Tteok has high moisture and no preservatives, so it spoils faster than dried noodles or rice. Due to its high moisture content, proper storage is essential to prevent spoilage from yeast and mold growth.

Short term (a few days): refrigerate it in an airtight container submerged in clean rice water, which acts as a natural preservative and keeps the cakes soft; if that feels like too much, plain water works too, with the water changed every 2 to 3 days, and the tteok used within a week.
Long term (months): freezing is the best option; portion it into a zip-lock bag, add a little vegetable, sesame or olive oil and shake to coat, flatten the bag to remove air, and it will keep for up to three months, separating more easily when you come to use it.
Before cooking from frozen: thaw in cold water for about 30 minutes and rinse once or twice to remove any residual oil before cooking.

If you are storing homemade or fresh market tteok rather than a commercial frozen bag, treat the fridge method as the default and move leftovers to the freezer the same day you buy them if you know you won’t use them within the week.