Pyeonyuk

Boiled pork wrapped tight and pressed under a weight as it cools, so it slices thin without falling apart.

Pork, Shellfish. Not vegetarian — contains fish sauce, pork, shellfish.

Ingredients

• 1.5 kg pork belly, skin on, in one piece
• 3 litres water
• 2 tablespoons doenjang
• 1 onion, halved
• 1 head garlic, halved
• 1 piece ginger, 6 cm, sliced
• 4 spring onions
• 2 tablespoons instant coffee granules
• 1 tablespoon black peppercorns
• 2 bay leaves
• salted shrimp, kimchi as on its own page, and ssamjang as on its own page, to serve

Method

1. IT IS PRESSED UNDER A WEIGHT WHILE IT COOLS, and that is what the name describes. The hot cooked belly is rolled tight in cling film or muslin, laid on a tray with a board and a few tins on top, and left until completely cold. The gelatine sets under compression and the layers of fat and meat bond into a block that cuts into sheets two millimetres thick. Cooled loose, the same piece of pork falls into its layers the moment a knife touches it.
2. SO IT IS A TWO-STAGE JOB WITH HOURS IN BETWEEN, and the page should say so before anyone starts: boil in the afternoon, press, and slice in the evening or the next day.
3. THE DOENJANG AND COFFEE ARE FOR THE SMELL, NOT THE FLAVOUR. Two spoonfuls of fermented bean paste and two of instant coffee in three litres of water; you will taste neither in the finished meat. They deal with the smell of boiling pork, which is the reason most people do not boil pork. Left out, nothing is wrong with the pork and the kitchen is unpleasant for two hours.
4. IT IS SIMMERED AND NEVER BOILED HARD. A bare simmer for ninety minutes. Boiled, the belly's layers separate while it cooks and no amount of pressing afterwards puts them back together.
5. AND IT IS SLICED COLD AND SERVED COOL OR BARELY WARM. Warmed through it softens and the slices sag. This is a cold dish, which is unusual here and is the point of it.
6. Pork belly rinsed and any loose flap tied with string so it holds a roughly even shape.
7. The water, doenjang, onion, garlic, ginger, spring onions, coffee, peppercorns and bay brought to the boil in a deep pot.
8. The pork lowered in and brought back to a BARE simmer. Any foam skimmed.
9. Simmered gently 1 HOUR 30 MINUTES, until a skewer goes through the thickest part with no resistance.
10. Lifted out and left 5 minutes, just until it can be handled.
11. Rolled TIGHTLY in two layers of cling film or a sheet of muslin, as tightly as it will go, and the ends twisted shut.
12. Laid on a tray with a board on top and 2 or 3 kg of weight on the board.
13. LEFT TO COOL COMPLETELY under the weight, 3 hours at least, then refrigerated still weighted if there is time.
14. Unwrapped and sliced as thinly as the knife will go, across the layers.
15. Served cool with salted shrimp, kimchi as on its own page and ssamjang as on its own page, wrapped in lettuce.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under South Korea · All recipes