Chinese · Dongbei · main

Pickled Cabbage and Pork Belly Pot (Suan Cai Bai Rou)

Pickled Cabbage and Pork Belly Pot (Suan Cai Bai Rou) reads richness 6.3, umami 6.2 and salinity 4.2 on Palate's 0–10 flavor X-ray — a Chinese · Dongbei main, about 3 hr 22 min. Measured from the recipe itself: ingredients and technique.

The flavor X-ray — six axes, 0–10

The measured notes (of 18)

Richness 6.3 · Umami 6.2 · Salinity 4.2 · Allium 3.9 · Funk & Ferment 3.3 · Heat 3.1 · Sourness 3.1 · Nutty 3.0 · Warm Spice 2.2 · Herbaceous 2.1 · Sweetness 2.0 · Smoke 1.8 · Earthy 1.1 · Bitterness 0.6

What's in it (14)

Time & effort: about 3 hr 22 min (1 hr 22 min active) · effort: involved

Nutrition (per 100 g, engine-estimated): 109.6 kcal, 2 g protein, 10.8 g fat, 1.1 g carbs

Dietary: Contains meat — engine-derived; double-check anything allergy-critical.

How it's cooked (6 steps)

  1. Put the belly in a pot with the water, ginger, spring onions and Shaoxing wine. Bring to the boil, skim well, and simmer 40 to 45 minutes, until a skewer goes through the skin cleanly. Leave it to cool in the broth, then chill 2 hours. Keep the broth.
  2. Slice the cold belly as thinly as you possibly can, about 2 mm, and wide, so each slice drapes. Bai rou means white meat, and the slices should be nearly translucent.
  3. Taste a shred of the suan cai. It should be pleasantly sour and still crunchy. If it is aggressive, rinse it a second time, but do not wash the sourness out. The northeast gets its sour from cabbage buried in crocks through the winter, not from vinegar.
  4. Strain the broth, bring 1.5 L of it back to the boil, add the suan cai and simmer 25 to 30 minutes, until the shreds are soft and the broth has turned faintly cloudy and sour.
  5. Add the drained vermicelli and cook 5 minutes, until glassy and slippery, then lay the pork slices over the top and heat through 2 minutes without stirring. Season with the salt and white pepper.
  6. Mix the fermented bean curd, sesame paste, chilli oil, garlic and chives into a thick dipping sauce and give everyone a small bowl. The soup is drunk from the pot as it empties.

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Every number above is Palate's engine-measured estimate, computed from this recipe's ingredients and techniques — not human-tasted ratings or reviews.