The basic sauces of most Korean homes during the Choson Dynasty were soy sauce, bean paste, barley paste, and red pepper paste.  The soy sauce and bean paste were cured with soybean malts, barley paste with barley malts, and red pepper paste with red pepper powder and malts made of glutinous rice, bean and rice.  Since many Korean dishes are seasoned with these sauces, they are the key to what makes Korean food taste Korea.  Soybeans are boiled in the early winter to make malt, which is then dried during the winter season  Between late February and early March, the malt is soaked in water and fermented for 60 - 100 days.  Later, some portions of the malt is sterilized by heating and made into soy sauce; the remaining dregs become bean paste.