Siu Yook (Roast Pork Belly)

[devinl]

That pork belly looks wonderful! What does puncturing the skin do? Does it help dry out the skin in the oven?

Once the roasting is done, is there any hint of vodka flavor?

[origamicrane]

That pork belly looks wonderful!  What does puncturing the skin do?  Does it help dry out the skin in the oven?

Once the roasting is done, is there any hint of vodka flavor?

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To get good crackling it seems that you need to get as much moisture out of the rind as possible and you need to degrade the tough surface layer of the rind.

I think this is also what the hot water and vodka is doing.

I guess puncturing or scoring degrades the outer layer of tough rind and allows more moisture to escape out of the rind due to an increased surface area. The increased surface area probably allows for the salt to draw out more moisture too.

Also the crackling starts to form at the score and puncture points first probably due to the hot oil escaping from those points first.

there no hint of vodka at all as it will have evaporated off during the overnight drying and the cooking.

Although if you used whiskey or some stronger flavoured alcohol you might get some flavour left on the rind.

Edited March 19, 2008 by origamicrane (log)

[Sher.eats]

hey everyone

I have a 25x25cm 5cm thick skin-on "back rib", which I'm planning to crack.

The "standard" method is:

1) Torch, scrap, hot water, poke/score skin. Salt/Baking soda, let dry

2) Roast at high heat.

I'm thinking of breaking down the collagen between the bone and meat before crackling the skin:

1) Torch, scrap, hot water, poke/score skin. Salt/Baking soda, let dry (same)

2) Low temp (65C) oven uncovered for 6-8hours (abitary time)

3) 2) Roast at high heat. (same)

Good idea?

Thanks!

[Prawncrackers]

Any success with your experiment Sher.eats? Just thinking about cooking for 6-8 hours, wouldn't that make the skin very difficult if not impossible to crisp up. If it's enough time to break down the collagen between meat and bone then surely it will break down the collagen in the skin too. I'm only guessing that it'll be detrimental to getting crispy skin though i can't be sure. Any luck?

[Sher.eats]

Any success with your experiment Sher.eats?  Just thinking about cooking for 6-8 hours, wouldn't that make the skin very difficult if not impossible to crisp up.  If it's enough time to break down the collagen between meat and bone then surely it will break down the collagen in the skin too.  I'm only guessing that it'll be detrimental to getting crispy skin though i can't be sure.  Any luck?

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hey Prawncrackers!

yeah that's what i thought, the slow cooking will break down the skin collagen too so there won't be any build up of pressure during the roasting = no crackling....

the meat didn't "shrink down" the bone during the 30min of roasting, but was still tender enough anyway...

thanks!!

[chef koo]

has anyone tried boiling it, then deep frying it? i know the rule of thumb is to dry the skin but the if the skin is really wet, i'd think that the moisture would turn to steam, making the skin bubble during the frying. the crispness probably wouldn't last as long and the texture wouldn't quite be the same but it sounds like it'd still give good results.

edit: i'll try it and post the results

[origamicrane]

has anyone tried boiling it, then deep frying it? i know the rule of thumb is to dry the skin but the if the skin is really wet, i'd think that the moisture would turn to steam, making the skin bubble during the frying. the crispness probably wouldn't last as long and the texture wouldn't quite be the same but it sounds like it'd still give good results.

edit: i'll try it and post the results

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what you described are pork scratchings. Piece of pork rind boiled and deep fried to crispy.

Scratching are nice give it a try you should like what you get

but it is quite a different product to the chinese roast pork you would get find in a chinatown.

[CFT]

has anyone tried boiling it, then deep frying it? i know the rule of thumb is to dry the skin but the if the skin is really wet, i'd think that the moisture would turn to steam, making the skin bubble during the frying. the crispness probably wouldn't last as long and the texture wouldn't quite be the same but it sounds like it'd still give good results.

Sounds like the preparation for "kau yook".

[hzrt8w]

Sounds like the preparation for "kau yook".

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I was wondering about that too. We are on the topic of "roast pork". Boiling it wouldn't quite make "roast" pork.

[Tepee]

Ooooh.....that duck!!!! Recently, I had roast quail with skin just like that. Yum! Off to look for De Duck Thread....Any CNY meals??

But before that, here's the siu yook I made on Saturday. Boiling water, score, wipe dry, rub salt and a bit of 5-spice powder, vodka, vodka, 24 hours in fridge, put under broiler. Thumbs up!

[Susan in FL]

This is a great thread, what beautiful food. Getting notification of this post reminded me that I hadn't shared my first pork belly cooking experience, which was successful. Thanks to this topic and to mixducky's recipe on RecipeGullet...

It was braised. I used Ellen's recipe as a guide. Now that I know how yummy it is, next time I'm going to try roasting and strive for the crispy, crusty version, and hope it's as successful as this method was. I was out of star anise, so that wasn't used, and I used palm sugar instead of Chinese yellow rock candy for the sweetener. I threw some garlic into the making of the sauce, and used just one soy sauce (Thai) instead of dark and light. The pork belly was between one and two pounds, so I halved the recipe. I think that's it for my modifications. What deliciousness! One of the best things I've ever eaten. Thank you, Ellen.

[hzrt8w]

Ooooh.....that duck!!!!    Recently, I had roast quail with skin just like that. Yum! Off to look for De Duck Thread....Any CNY meals??

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Gong Hey Fat Choy, TP! Welcome back! Miss us? The roast pork looks great!

[dmreed]

regarding the Roast Pork Belly...I bought some yesterday at a local store and they provided a dipping sauce which my wife really likes. it is a bit sweet and may contain soy sauce. does anyone have any idea what this sauce might be and what the ingredients are?

[hzrt8w]

regarding the Roast Pork Belly...I bought some yesterday at a local store and they provided a dipping sauce which my wife really likes. it is a bit sweet and may contain soy sauce. does anyone have any idea what this sauce might be and what the ingredients are?

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Hoisin sauce mixed with some sesame oil.

[dmreed]

regarding the Roast Pork Belly...I bought some yesterday at a local store and they provided a dipping sauce which my wife really likes. it is a bit sweet and may contain soy sauce. does anyone have any idea what this sauce might be and what the ingredients are?

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Hoisin sauce mixed with some sesame oil.

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definitely nice to see you back at egullet!

I will try that mixture.

[origamicrane]

regarding the Roast Pork Belly...I bought some yesterday at a local store and they provided a dipping sauce which my wife really likes. it is a bit sweet and may contain soy sauce. does anyone have any idea what this sauce might be and what the ingredients are?

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or could be yellow bean sauce cooked with a load of sugar

[dmreed]

regarding the Roast Pork Belly...I bought some yesterday at a local store and they provided a dipping sauce which my wife really likes. it is a bit sweet and may contain soy sauce. does anyone have any idea what this sauce might be and what the ingredients are?

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or could be yellow bean sauce cooked with a load of sugar

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thenks, more likely soy with hoisin or some other sauce...it is very liquid just like soy sauce

[origamicrane]

regarding the Roast Pork Belly...I bought some yesterday at a local store and they provided a dipping sauce which my wife really likes. it is a bit sweet and may contain soy sauce. does anyone have any idea what this sauce might be and what the ingredients are?

←

or could be yellow bean sauce cooked with a load of sugar

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thenks, more likely soy with hoisin or some other sauce...it is very liquid just like soy sauce

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arrr...

That could be soya sauce, water, sugar, sesame oil and probably some msg in there. They use that on the duck rice.

[Dejah]

Or it could simply be sweet soy sauce?

[dmreed]

regarding the Roast Pork Belly...I bought some yesterday at a local store and they provided a dipping sauce which my wife really likes. it is a bit sweet and may contain soy sauce. does anyone have any idea what this sauce might be and what the ingredients are?

←

or could be yellow bean sauce cooked with a load of sugar

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thenks, more likely soy with hoisin or some other sauce...it is very liquid just like soy sauce

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sounds close but there was no glossiness of oil

arrr...

That could be soya sauce, water, sugar, sesame oil and probably some msg in there. They use that on the duck rice.

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Edited March 13, 2009 by dmreed (log)

[SaladFingers]

Second time of trying to get crackling and second fail! I cut 2 large onions, but them cut side down in a roasting tin. They acted as a trivet for the pork...

Scored the pork, rubbed salt into it and cooked at 150c for 3 hours, then turned up to 200c for 20 minutes before putting it under a grill for 5 minutes

Scraped off the top surface to what I hoped would reveal lovely crackling.

Nope - it's just soft and tastes slightly acrid. I can only presume the skin wasn't dry enough to begine with. Ugh, another wasted 4 hours!

[CFT]

Have you tried brushing the scored skin with alcohol? Vodka seemed to work well if I remember previous posts correctly.

[origamicrane]

Hi saladfingers

could you give more detail on how you are preparing the pork?

If you can please post some photos of what you are doing and we can try to figure out how to get better results.

please have a read of my recipe in recipe gullet

http://recipes.egullet.org/recipes/r2100.html

Are you not getting any crackling forming at all?

Who's recipe are you following? as the 150C at 3 hours sounds like a european recipe for roast pork rather then chinese version.

Wwhen you lay the pork belly on top of your onions make sure that there pork is lying curved over the onions like a hump and that there is no dip in the middle of the belly where the fat can pool as this will prevent the crackling from forming.

Also once the pork belly is in the oven do not open the oven door until you need to grill the skin.

[Prawncrackers]

I would say 3hrs at 150C is not conducive to getting that proper Siu Yook crackling. Needs to be moderate to high heat for a shorter time.

[SaladFingers]

I'll try your recipe next origamicrane