Korean Rice Cakes (Tteok): Types & Uses Explained

Garaetteok (가래떡) is the long white cylinder that shows up in tteokbokki and tteokguk alike. Made from just steamed rice flour, salt, and water, then pounded into a smooth log, garaetteok is the most versatile rice cake in Korean cooking. The dough is the same regardless of diameter. What changes is the slicing. Thin oval coins go into tteokguk soup. Thicker batons go into tteokbokki. Left whole, garaetteok can be grilled over charcoal until the outside chars and the inside turns creamy, like a savory marshmallow.

Unlike coated or filled rice cakes, garaetteok has almost no flavor on its own. Its value is structural: dense enough to hold its shape in boiling broth, chewy enough to absorb gochujang sauce layer by layer, and neutral enough to pair with anything from sesame oil to honey soy. If you only buy one type of tteok, this is the one.

Songpyeon (송편) are half-moon rice cakes filled with sesame seeds, red bean paste, or chestnuts, then steamed on a bed of pine needles. They are the defining food of Chuseok, Korea's autumn harvest festival, and the dish most closely associated with family togetherness, and families gather to shape hundreds of them in the days before the holiday.

What sets songpyeon apart from every other tteok is the pine-needle steaming. The needles prevent sticking, but they also leave a faint resinous scent that permeates the dough. The filling is sealed inside the half-moon shape before steaming, so the first bite gives you soft dough followed by a warm, sweet center. Each family has its own ratio of sesame to sugar to chestnut, and arguments about whose version is better last generations.

Injeolmi (인절미) is glutinous rice that has been steamed, pounded until elastic, then torn into bite-sized pieces and rolled in coatings, most commonly roasted soybean powder (konggaru) or crushed red beans. The pounding is what gives injeolmi its signature pull: stretchy and taffy-like, the kind of chew that makes you slow down and pay attention to what you're eating.

Unlike garaetteok, injeolmi is made from glutinous rice (chapssal), which has a higher amylopectin content and produces that elastic, sticky texture. The coatings aren't decorative. They keep the sticky pieces from fusing together and add nutty, earthy flavor that balances the mild sweetness of the rice. Ssuk injeolmi, made with mugwort, adds a herbal bitterness that cuts through the richness.

Tteokbokki tteok (떡볶이떡) looks like a thinner version of garaetteok, and that is essentially what it is: same dough, same technique, but shaped into slim batons about half an inch in diameter. The thinner shape is the point: it cooks faster, absorbs gochujang sauce more efficiently, and gives you that soft, yielding chew that defines a good plate of tteokbokki.

Do not confuse tteokbokki tteok with tteokguk tteok, the flat oval slices used in New Year's soup. They come from the same base dough, but the shapes serve different purposes. If you can only find one, tteokguk slices work in a pinch for tteokbokki, the texture is slightly denser, and you lose some of the sauce-absorbing surface area, but the dish still holds together.

Baekseolgi (백설기) translates to "white snow cake," and the name fits: a round, pure-white steamed rice cake with a soft, powdery crumb. It is the traditional centerpiece of a doljanchi, a Korean first birthday celebration, where it is shaped into a round form to resemble a birthday cake and presented to the child as a wish for purity and good health.

Unlike pounded tteok like injeolmi or garaetteok, baekseolgi is purely steamed: rice flour is mixed with water and sugar, then steamed in a siru (earthenware steamer) until set. The texture is somewhere between a dense sponge cake and a firm pudding. It crumbles rather than stretches, which is the whole point: this is not a chewy snack but a ceremonial food with a gentle, understated presence on the table.

Mujigae-tteok (무지개떡), sometimes called "rainbow rice cake," is a layered steamed cake with horizontal stripes of color, each about two centimeters thick. The colors come from natural dyes: gardenia for yellow, mugwort for green, devil's tongue powder for pink, with white layers in between. It appears at Korean celebrations — first birthdays, 60th birthday banquets, weddings — where its bright colors signal festivity.

Each layer is steamed sequentially, which makes mujigae-tteok one of the more labor-intensive tteok to produce. The layers fuse during steaming but remain visually distinct, and the finished cake is sliced into wedges or rounds for serving. The texture is similar to baekseolgi, soft and slightly powdery, but the layered construction gives it more structural integrity. It holds its shape on a buffet table in a way that freshly pounded tteok cannot.

Jeungpyeon (증편) is the only major tteok variety that involves fermentation. Rice flour is mixed with makgeolli (unfiltered rice wine) and left to ferment in warm conditions before steaming. The result is a spongy, airy cake with a yeasty tang that no other tteok has. Traditionally a summer specialty, since the fermentation process requires warmth that the Korean summer naturally provides.

The texture is what surprises people most: light, porous, and almost bouncy, nothing like the dense chew of garaetteok or the powdery softness of baekseolgi. Jeungpyeon is often eaten plain, without fillings or coatings, because the fermentation flavor is the point. It pairs naturally with tea, and the slightly sour finish makes it feel less like a snack and more like a small, self-contained course.

Gyeongdan (경단) are small, round glutinous rice balls that are boiled until they float, then rolled in coatings: crushed black sesame, roasted soybean powder, red bean paste, or mugwort. They are the only boiled tteok in the standard repertoire, and the cooking method gives them a softer, more pillowy texture than anything steamed or pounded.

The filling goes inside before boiling: a small ball of sweet red mung bean paste or sesame paste, sealed within the glutinous rice dough. After boiling, the outer layer becomes slightly translucent and slick, which helps the dry coatings adhere. Gyeongdan shows up at Korean tea ceremonies and as a dessert course at traditional restaurants, where the variety of coatings (dark sesame against pale soybean against green mugwort) creates a visual display that matches the flavor range.

Jeolpyeon (절편) are flat, stamped rice cakes made by pressing pounded glutinous rice dough into carved wooden molds. The molds leave detailed patterns on the surface (floral designs, geometric motifs, nature scenes), turning each piece into something closer to edible art than a simple snack. They are associated with formal occasions and royal court cuisine.

The pounding process is identical to injeolmi, but jeolpyeon takes a different path after that: the dough is pressed flat rather than torn into pieces, stamped, then sometimes lightly oiled to prevent sticking. The texture is smooth and slightly springy, with a clean bite that lacks the extreme elasticity of injeolmi. The patterns are decorative, but they also serve a practical purpose: the grooves hold sesame oil or honey when the cakes are served.