Yunnan Thousand-Slice Pork

Yunnan Thousand-Slice Pork

　　Ingredients:

　　Thick-sliced pork belly with skin, ginger, scallions, cooking wine, salt, pickled vegetables.

　　Method:

　　1. To make Yunnan Thousand-Slice Pork, choose large slices of pork belly with skin, at least seven to eight centimeters wide. Place the pork belly in boiling water with ginger, scallions, cooking wine, and a little salt. Cook until about 70–80% done, then remove and let it cool slightly. Evenly brush the surface of the meat with a layer of honey.

　　2. Heat oil in a pan over medium heat. When the oil reaches about 50% heat, carefully place the honey-coated pork belly in the pan to caramelize. Caramelizing is a skillful process—key to controlling the heat, as honey burns easily. If the oil gets too hot, the surface can blacken, affecting the dish’s appearance, especially the skin. Pay extra attention to the skin.

　　3. Once the pork is evenly colored, remove it, let it cool, and slice it into thick, even pieces. Arrange them neatly in the bottom of a bowl. For “Salty Braised Pork,” soy sauce or caramel color is used for coloring, but I find the color from honey to be brighter and more appealing. Maltose should also work well for coloring—I haven’t tried it yet, but I’ll experiment with maltose coloring in the future.

　　4. The base ingredient for Thousand-Slice Pork is dried pickled vegetables, locally called “dry cured vegetables.” Among these, those from Tengchong are the most famous, though they are not commonly found in markets now. Take an appropriate amount of dry cured vegetables, soak and rinse them clean, then squeeze out excess water. Heat oil in a pan, add the dry cured vegetables and stir-fry briefly. Add sugar, soy sauce, and salt to adjust the color and flavor. Once seasoned, add a small amount of water and simmer. When the water has mostly evaporated, spread the stir-fried dry cured vegetables on top of the pork slices. Steam the entire bowl over high heat for about 40 minutes, and the Yunnan Thousand-Slice Pork is ready.

　　Yunnan Thousand-Slice Pork

　　Notes:

　　Dry cured vegetables have a sweet-and-sour flavor and are particularly good at absorbing the fat from the pork belly. The acidity also helps counter the meaty smell. Though the thick slices of fat in Thousand-Slice Pork may look intimidating, they actually melt in your mouth and aren’t greasy at all. I especially love the dry cured vegetables in the dish—the sauce at the bottom is especially delicious with rice. Once you’ve mastered Thousand-Slice Pork, you can switch up the base ingredients to make dishes like Salty Braised Pork or Preserved Vegetable Pork Belly.

　　I love pickled vegetables, and I especially enjoy Thousand-Slice Pork made with dry cured vegetables.

　　At first glance, the name “Thousand-Slice Pork” might sound intimidating—as if there were a thousand slices of pork. It’s an exaggerated expression, similar to other dish names like “Thousand-Layer Cake” or “Thousand-Layer Pancake.” Even a simple dish name can carry a playful touch of numbers.

　　The origins of Thousand-Slice Pork are unclear, but a quick online search shows that Hubei cuisine, known for its “Jingchu” flavors, also features a dish called Thousand-Slice Pork with a very similar cooking method. It emphasizes a “salty and savory” taste, focusing on tenderness, softness, smoothness, and freshness. It’s quite possible that Yunnan Thousand-Slice Pork was introduced by Hubei immigrants who settled in Yunnan.

　　Yunnan Thousand-Slice Pork, Sichuan Salty Braised Pork, and coastal-style Pork Belly all share very similar preparation methods. Salty Braised Pork uses sprouted mustard greens as a base, along with fermented black beans and pickled chilies, steamed to completion. Coastal Pork Belly, represented by Preserved Vegetable Pork Belly, uses preserved mustard greens as the base. Yunnan Thousand-Slice Pork uses dried pickled vegetables. Their only difference lies in the base material, while the cooking methods are largely the same. So once you master one of these dishes, you can easily adapt the method to make the other two.