China · Home-style
Pork Skin Aspic
A northern Chinese cooler made by boiling pork skin until the collagen sets into a clear, wobbly jelly. Chilled and sliced, it is a classic companion for baijiu.
This belongs on the northern New Year Eve table, and it usually arrives late, once the same pig has already appeared in several other guises. The slow part is not the cooking but the cleaning: the skin has to be soaked, scrubbed and skimmed until no pork smell is left, and only then does a long simmer turn the broth clear. It must set in the refrigerator and never the freezer, or the texture turns hard and icy instead of bouncy.
Ingredients
- pork skin1 kg
- salt13 g
- star anise10 g
Directions
- 1
Chop the pork skin into pieces no larger than 10 cm, soak them in cold water for 12 hours, then put them in a pot of cold water with 10 g ginger and 50 ml cooking wine, blanch for 5 to 10 minutes, and lift them out into cold water.
- 2
Lay the blanched skin on the board, trim away all the white fatty layer on the underside, then cut it into strips no thicker than 3 mm and put them in a basin.
- 3
Add 20 g white vinegar and 5 g salt, scrub hard for 3 minutes, then rinse under running water; the skin should carry almost no smell now.
- 4
Put 4 kg water in the pot with the skin, 10 g scallion, 10 g sliced ginger, 10 g star anise and 5 g Sichuan peppercorn. Bring to the boil over high heat, then simmer for 90 minutes until the skin is soft.
- 5
Season with 8 g salt, 10 g MSG, 15 g chicken bouillon, 50 ml light soy sauce and 20 ml dark soy sauce, pour into a tray, pick out the aromatics, and leave to cool until set like jelly.
- 6
Chill in the refrigerator and serve cut into small cubes or thick slices.
Source: HowToCook · WorldBite adaptation · Unlicense source text; bilingual recipe adapted by WorldBite.