Pork Belly

The closer together you make the crosshatch cuts through the skin, the easier this will be to eat.

The belly's thick layer of fat keeps the pork tender as it cooks. It's cooked low and slow to ensure the meat is tender, then crisped up over high heat.

Red-braised pork may be one of the most common of all Chinese dishes, but it is also one of the most glorious: a slow stew of belly pork with seasonings that may include sugar, soy sauce, Shaoxing wine, and spices.

A wildly popular Latin snack food throughout the Americas, chicharrones are made from pork belly that has been cooked for a long time with the skin on, and contains a little meat (what we think of as pork rinds in the United States). Though usually eaten as a crispy snack, they also make a tasty taco filling when heated in a sauce until softened and chewy. The most unusual chicharrones are those made from the whole pork skin fried in one piece—they’re about four feet long by two feet wide and resemble some dried prehistoric animal. You’ll see them for sale on weekends along the highways in areas of Mexico where there are a lot of pigs, sometimes next to a huge pot of pork fat boiling over an open fire. They’re almost always made to order; you stop and buy a piece or buy the whole thing. I’m guessing you only see them by the highways because they are so enormous you need a car or pickup truck to get one home.

A specialty of the southwest of France, cassoulet—named for cassole, the oval earthenware dish in which it was made—is a rich, slow-cooked bean stew made with white beans, meats (most often pork and sausages), and duck or goose confit. The dish is time consuming—it can take an entire day from start to finish—but is manageable when you break it into three tasks, which can be spaced out over a few days. The first step is to prepare Duck Confit (see page 232). Next the beans (which have to be soaked overnight) are cooked on the stove. Then the confit and beans are layered in a pot, along with pork and sausage, and baked for about three hours.

Porchetta is something you want to eat lukewarm: work on it in the morning, cook it in the afternoon, take it out, and eat it an hour or so later. We’re aware that a traditional porchetta is a whole stuffed pig; this is our version and has little affiliation with the Italian classic. Because you wrap the pork belly around the shoulder, you need a pretty skinny piece of Boston butt. We buy a 5-pound (2.3-kg) shoulder, slice it lengthwise, and use half (freeze the other half for another time). This recipe may look labor-intensive, but it won’t be, especially if you get your butcher to do all of the trimming for you.

You must believe me when I tell you that making sweet, smoky, succulent bacon with your own two hands is an undertaking you will never regret. It adds something indescribable to dishes like Potato and Asparagus Salad with Home-Cured Bacon and Egg (page 137), and tastes pretty amazing alongside a fried egg. In the restaurants, we cure our own and use it in everything from pastas to panzanella to lentils. Aleppo is a medium-spicy, fruity red pepper that comes from Syria. It has a nice complexity and heat that vanishes almost the minute you notice it’s there. You can find it in Middle Eastern groceries and on the Internet. For this recipe, you’ll need four days, a smoker, and wood chips, preferably hickory.

Most people are introduced to galangal, a relative of ginger, by way of Thai curries and seafood soups. The rhizome is seldom used in Vietnamese cooking, but when it is, it is paired with other bold-flavored ingredients. Here, its pungent heat brightens a northern fish kho, with the bittersweet caramel sauce tempering its fire. Use the smaller amount of galangal if you want a dish with less intensity. Although salmon isn’t native to Vietnam, it takes on the robust flavors of the kho remarkably well. Fresh side pork (pork belly), which you can find at Asian markets, is the stealth ingredient here, enrobing everything with its richness to create a unique surf-and-turf combination. The result is spicy, savory, and a touch sweet.

For the porchetta at the RoliRoti truck, Thomas uses a deboned pork middle, cutting out about half of the belly fat and leaving about 1/2 inch of fat on the loin. If you’re unable to find pork middle (a special request item, for sure), he suggests using a skin-on pork belly and wrapping the loin inside of it. Thomas also uses his signature rotisserie. Using a home version would be ideal, but this recipe has been adjusted so that it can be made in a standard oven.

With its golden crust and slightly sweet, subtly spiced flavor, this dish is especially good with eggs. Though much of the fat in pork belly is rendered during cooking, you’ll still have enough to achieve a nice caramelized color in this flavorful hash. Make this a day ahead of time if you like—it’s wonderful the second day. Serve pork belly hash with over easy, scrambled, or poached eggs (see pages 74 to 75).

Pork belly is not bacon because it is not cured. Pork belly is what bacon is made from. It is a delicious breakfast meat all by itself, especially when allowed to sit overnight with a little salt, pepper, and maple syrup before slowly cooking in a low oven. Most of the pork bellies in America are cured and smoked for bacon. However, raw bellies are rich, succulent, and very versatile. It may be difficult to find fresh pork belly at the supermarket, but the meat manager can probably special-order it. Otherwise, visit a reputable butcher and look for the leanest pork belly that you can find. (Even lean ones have generous amounts of fat.) It’s most convenient to cook pork belly when it is trimmed into pieces smaller than a whole belly. A three-pound piece is manageable at home. Start this project a day ahead of when you want to serve the meat, since the pork belly needs to marinate overnight, and then cook for about three hours.

The funny thing about gyoza is that I never cooked them—until I moved to America. Back home I always went out for these extremely popular, garlic-infused pan-fried dumplings, which have a special place in the hearts of Japanese. When I arrived in America, gyoza was one of the comfort foods I missed the most, so I started cooking them at home. That’s when I realized how easy it is to prepare perfect gyoza: they simply need a fragrant, juicy, flavor-packed filling; crispy skin on the bottom and silky skin on top; and a spicy dipping sauce. Now my kids and I love to make homemade gyoza together. This recipe is the classic pork-filled version that I grew up with. Keep in mind that you can conveniently freeze uncooked gyoza for up to a month. To prepare, follow the fry-steam technique below with the frozen dumplings—no need to defrost. Just extend the cooking time by 3 minutes. Note: You can also prepare this dish without pork belly. Just substitute more ground pork (1 pound total). But I love using pork belly here because it adds so much flavor and richness to the gyoza.

The elegant preparation I introduce here, braised pork belly served in a “sandwich” with a tangy hoisin sauce, is a mouthwatering appetizer. But this dish is also fundamental to ramen noodle cooking. Sliced, it’s a classic topping for ramen noodles. And the braising liquid has many uses. You flavor ramen broth with it; simmer bamboo shoots in it, a classic garnish; and even cook hard-boiled eggs in this liquid, which are then sliced in half and added to a bowl of noodles. (See page 24 in the ramen section for an example.) This recipe takes a little bit of time but is very simple to execute—do not be afraid. In fact, when you’re cooking the pork or simmering it in the braising liquid, just set a kitchen timer and forget about it. You don’t have to watch it closely.

This dish is perfect for anyone with a hearty appetite. In Japan, it’s especially popular with teenagers, who devour large plates of these satisfying and filling fried noodles. Yaki udon is also a staple of Japan’s izakaya, or eating pubs, especially as a late night snack or complement to a frosty mug of beer. This recipe works best in servings of two. If you’d like to make it for four people, just prepare the dish in two batches.

Tsukumen means, literally, “dipping ramen,” and it’s a dish that’s taken Japan by storm. When I was growing up, we didn’t eat ramen this way, but now you can find this dish offered in shops across the country. It’s not hard to understand why—eating ramen in this deconstructed way gives you a chance to enjoy the noodle and each of the garnishes on its own, dipped in the flavorful broth. This dish is also a delicious play between cold ramen and hot broth. Think of it as noodle nouvelle cuisine! Naruto has a signature spiral swirl, and interestingly enough, it’s an ingredient used almost exclusively for ramen (and on rare occasions, udon).

This is Japan’s classic ramen, the one I crave most when I want to go back to the basics. Also known as “Tokyo-style” ramen, it’s the way ramen was originally prepared after it was adopted from Chinese cooking. Native to, yes, Tokyo, it’s always served with the same venerable toppings, which I include in the recipe below.

Chances are, you probably have bacon in your fridge right now. And if you’re like me, you love it. Making bacon at home is not rocket science; people make a big deal about it because it takes some time and a little planning, but it is so worth it. The first step is curing pork belly with salt, sugar, maple syrup, and pink salt, which contains sodium nitrite. The main purposes of the cure are to prevent any bacterial growth on the meat and draw out some water. To store, tightly wrap in plastic and keep in the fridge for up to two weeks. If for some crazy reason you don’t eat it all in a week, you can cut it into pieces, label and date it, and freeze for up to three months. Bacon is best smoked, but if you don’t have a smoker at home, you can roast the pork belly in the oven as directed in the recipe. When bacon is called for in recipes throughout this book, it is uncooked.

Let me start off by saying that this not-to-be-missed dish . . . takes several hours to make. Even though the recipe involves a time commitment, someone who enjoys cooking will take pleasure in the process, and the end result is all the more satisfying. And I promise you, when you make this dish, it will blow everyone away! The succulent pieces of pork belly are melting on the inside and crispy on the outside. Spicy kimchi is the perfect counterpoint to the unctuous belly. Sweet, spicy, hot, cold, crispy, fatty, crunchy, and chewy—this dish has got it all.

The beauty of this recipe is its simplicity: pork and endive. The key is to not disturb the pork in the pan. Yes, it will stick. Let it; it’ll unstick later and you’ll have the satisfying crispness you were after. The endive, roasted first with smoked bacon, vinegar, and caraway seeds, serve almost as a condiment.

Braising the pork belly yields crisp-tender nuggets ready to mingle with caramelized sweet potatoes. "It's a very American profile, sweet potato and pork," says Jared Wentworth, the chef at Chicago's Longman & Eagle, who gave us this recipe.