Recipe - Information: Pork

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PORK, the most favored and prime meat of the Chinese, is prepared with
remarkable versatility. It is stirfried, deep fried, steamed, braised,
redsimmered, whitecooked, roasted or dryfried. It can also be cooked by
a combination of these methods.

Cuts of pork used include butt, chops, fresh ham, leg, loin, shoulder,
tenderloin and spareribs. Also favored is fresh bacon or belly pork, a cut
with four or five layers of alternating lean and fat tissue, ending with a
generous layer of lean meat. The Chinese call this FiveFlower Pork and
simmer it for hours until succulent. Variety cuts include pork kidneys and
liver; but just about every part of the animal is used, including the tail
for soup. COOKING TECHNIQUES AND SUITABLE CUTS OF PORK:

STIRFRYING ( cut or sliced up thin, occasionally minced): butt, chops, fresh ham,
shoulder and tenderloin.

DEEPFRYING (cubed): butt, chops, fresh ham, shoulder and tenderloin.

BRAISING (whole or in chunks, with some fat): butt, chops, fresh ham, loin
and shoulder.

REDSIMMERING (whole or in chunks): butt, chops, fresh bacon, fresh ham,
leg, loin and shoulder.

WHITECOOKING (whole or in chunks): butt, chops, fresh ham, leg, loin and
shoulder.

STEAMING (cubed, slice or minced): butt, chops, fresh bacon, ham, leg
shoulder and tenderloin.

ROASTING (whole, boned): butt, fresh ham, leg, loin and shoulder.

BARBECUING: eye of butt, tenderloin (in strips); chops (3/4inch thick).

NOTE: Regardless of cut, pork should be deep pinknot too red, not too
palewith very white fat. The meat should be firm to the touch. (In larger
cuts, particularly, it should be resilient and spring back when poked.) The
outer skin of pork shoulder, butt and fresh ham should be smooth, clear and
firm.

TIPS ON SELECTING PORK: A good allpurpose cut of pork is shoulder or
Boston butt, weighing about four pounds. The meat should be boned (with the
bone reserved for stock), trimmed of all gristle and some of the fat, cut
into several large pieces, each wrapped separately and then frozen. Some of
the pieces will be suitable for stirfrying, others good for braising,
porkballs, etc.

Porkballs should be minced with a small amount of fat, but never with skin
or tendon: the fat holds the meat together, makes for a smooth texture. (If
the meat is too lean, the porkballs will be dry.) The setting for
machineground pork should be at medium grind.

TIPS ON COOKING PORK: Braised or red or whitesimmered pork should always
be cooked in a heavy pot so that the gravy will not dry out. Salted and
dried seafood, or fresh vegetables, may be added near the end of cooking.
Sugar should not be added until the meat is nearly done (the gravy will
become sticky and dry and the meat may burn).

TESTING FOR DONENESS: Pork is done when its color is no longer pink ann
when its meat is tender enough to be pierced easily by a fork or chopstick.
Check for doneness by cutting into meat. Cook longer whenever necessary.

From The Thousand Recipe Chinese Cookbook, ISBN 0517658704. Downloaded
from Glen's MM Recipe Archive, http://www.erols.com/hosey.