How to adjust the sauce for braised pork?

When it comes to the methods of braised pork, it should be said that there are various methods and forms.

The most important key point is "umami and aroma"! Everyone is trying their best to retain and improve it!

Whether it’s the Sichuan people’s “Shao Bai”, the Cantonese people’s “Plumb Braised Pork with Vegetables”, or the Zhejiang cuisine’s “Bean Curd Braised Pork”, their ultimate goal is to make the braised pork delicious. Fragrant and moist, with a soft and waxy texture!

Today I will share my own method of adjusting the sauce when making braised pork for your reference!

In Sichuan cuisine, most of our braised pork refers to "roasted pork". It is an indispensable dish in the old-fashioned banquet "Three Steamed and Nine Knots". The main raw materials are pork belly and salted vegetables (the latest method is to mix half and half of Yibin sprouts and old salted vegetables).

The following introduces the specific proportion and method of sauce preparation!

①: First prepare the small ingredients: 15 grams of ginger slices and 15 grams of green onions.

②: Prepare spices: 3 grams of dried red pepper, 10 grams of dried chili segments, and 2 star anises, broken into pieces by hand.

③: Seasoning: 10 grams of dark soy sauce, 2 grams of sugar, 3 grams of MSG, 2 ml of high-strength liquor, 10 ml of cooking wine, 10 ml of light soy sauce, 5 ml of mature vinegar, 2 grams of pepper, and 1 gram of thirteen spices.

PS: The function of each seasoning will be explained in detail later.

The following introduces the sauce preparation method and the precautions for mixing the meat.

Sauce preparation: Mix all ③ seasonings together in a small bowl and stir evenly.

How to mix the meat with the sauce: put the cut roasted white meat into a basin, put all the star anise, chili pepper, and Sichuan peppercorns, then pour the sauce in and stir evenly, so that the meat can fully absorb the sauce the taste. After stirring, the color of the meat will be sauce color (brown slightly black).

Arrange the meat and add the ginger and green onions: Place the mixed meat pieces into the bowls one by one. After placing them in each bowl, add 2 slices of ginger, 3-5 segments of green onion, and small pieces of star anise. About 3 pieces, then pour the sauce in the basin evenly into the meat bowl, and finally put the washed and sauteed salted vegetables into the bowl.

Steaming and best consumption time: Steam over high heat for 1 and a half hours, take it out to cool and leave it overnight, put it in the steamer again and steam it for 30 minutes the next day! Take it out and turn it into a plate. The roasted white rice at this time is the most delicious. Among them, the pork is steamed for a long time, soft and glutinous, fat but not greasy, and the aroma of salted vegetables is heated →

Cooled →

Heated, and the aroma is repeated in these processes. It penetrates into the meat, and you can smell the aroma of the meat from afar, and you won’t feel tired after eating it! During our banquet, the aroma of this dish when it comes out of the cage can reach up to about 100 meters, and you can basically smell this aroma outside the hotel.

Finally, let me explain why I cook the white sauce like this! and precautions.

The first point: the salted vegetables should be old salted vegetables + Yibin sprouts. The ratio is 1:1. For the old salted vegetables, try to use ones with more stems and longer time. This will make the braised pork more fragrant! The salted vegetables and bean sprouts on the market are very salty and have sediment, so after buying them home, rinse them with water and drain them, then add dried Sichuan peppercorns and dried chili peppers and stir-fry them together to remove the water and bring out the aroma. .

The second important point: the ginger slices and green onion segments are placed directly in the bowl. Its function is to remove the fishy smell of the meat and increase the fresh flavor.

The third important point: adding the aroma of star anise to the braised pork can make it more fragrant.

The fourth point: Why add rice wine when white wine is added? The volatility of white wine is very good and can remove the fishy smell as much as possible. The essence of rice wine is low-alcohol wine (although most of them are blended with alcohol on the market), but it is still a low-alcohol wine, and it is easy to volatilize, remove the fishy smell, and improve the taste. Fresh and aromatic effect. Here it mainly plays the role of integrating various seasonings.

Special reminder: Do not add too much liquor, otherwise the finished dish will have a strong smell of alcohol! When we make batches, we add up to 30 grams of liquor to 20 pounds of meat.

Fifth: Some people may ask if adding "vinegar" will not make it sour? The answer is that after a small amount of vinegar is heated to high temperatures, all the acetic acid evaporates, leaving only the umami and aroma in the meat. But special attention must be paid to the amount of vinegar! Generally, the ratio of vinegar to white wine is 2:1.

Sixth: Adding pepper and thirteen spices, pepper can remove the fishy smell and add fragrance, and thirteen spices can make the flavor of the braised pork richer! But the amount must be small, just add a little bit, just like yeast acts as a primer when baking wine.

Finally: the main purpose of making this sauce is to make the braised pork more fragrant and fresh! All seasonings are based on these two purposes, and dark soy sauce purely adds color to the fat, so the amount of dark soy sauce needs to be added according to the actual situation! It is better if the meat is slightly brown when the sauce is done.

Light soy sauce only increases salinity and umami. The mixed pork belly should not be too salty! Just a little salt to taste. Because the salt vegetables and bean sprouts covering the meat are very salty.

This sauce preparation method was learned when I was working in a hotel in Padang in 2009. It is very different from the traditional sauce preparation method. But the effect was still very good, so I have continued to use this method myself. I just share it with you here, I hope it can bring you a little help.