Fermented foods were widely available in
Three Kingdoms of Korea, as
Sānguózhì, a
Jin Chinese historical text published in 289, mentions that the
Goguryeo Koreans are skilled in making fermented foods such as wine, soybean paste and salted and fermented fish in the section titled
Dongyi in the
Book of Wei. The first Korean record of
jeotgal appeared in the historical text
Samguk sagi, with a reference that
King Sinmun offered rice, wine, jerky, and
jeotgal as wedding presents in 683. In 1124, a
Song Chinese envoy wrote that
jeotgal was enjoyed by high and low alike in
Goryeo. Twenty-four types of
jeotgal appear in
Miam ilgi (), a 16th-century diary written by a 16th century Joseon literatus , and over 180 types of
jeotgal can be found in the coeval books
Gosa chwaryo (고사촬요; ) and
Swaemirok (쇄미록; ), and in 17‒18th century books
Ŭmsik timibang,
Sallim kyŏngje, and
Chŭngbo sallim kyŏngje. ==Types==