Cured Pork in a Jar

Cured Pork in a Jar

　　 Northern Shaanxi homemade “cured pork in a jar” has a history of nearly 100 years and is widely popular in the Yulin and Yan’an regions of Shaanxi Province. It is cured using traditional folk methods of salt curing and oil sealing. The finished product is neat and attractive in appearance, cut into square blocks about 10–12 cm wide and 5–7 cm thick, each weighing 0.4–0.6 kg. The lean meat is red or dark red, while the fat is white or light yellow. The meat has a good texture, with alternating layers of lean and fat that are clearly defined in red and white (or light yellow), bright in color, and tender and juicy in appearance. The flavor is well-balanced in saltiness, pure and rich in aroma, with a distinctive cured taste. It can be stored for a long time (2–3 years) without spoiling.

　　How to Make Northern Shaanxi Cured Pork in a Jar

　　1. Select healthy pork that has been slaughtered under relatively hygienic conditions. Remove any remaining hair, scrub clean any blood or dirt, debone (ribs may be left bone-in), remove trotters, then cut into square blocks approximately 10–12 cm wide and 5–7 cm thick as required for later use.

　　2. Prepare the jar and stone lid. Wash them clean with water, then cover and set aside in an appropriate place. Choose the size of the jar based on the amount of meat—generally, the meat should be filled to a level about 20–30 cm from the mouth of the jar. Jars that are too large or too small are not conducive to proper preservation of the meat.

　　3. Fry the salt: Place the required salt (Da Qing Salt produced in Dingbian, Shaanxi) into an iron pot and fry until it turns slightly yellow. Frying the salt greatly impacts the product quality and is key to the success of “cured pork in a jar.”

　　4. Roll the snowball (coat with salt): Place the fried salt in a basin. While the salt is still warm, roll the meat pieces in it several times so that a relatively thick layer of salt sticks to the surface. Lift the meat piece and shake lightly—salt should remain adhered without falling off.

　　5. Cure and sun-dry: Arrange the salt-coated meat blocks on clean mats (made from sorghum stalk covers) and place them in the sun to cure and dry. In summer and autumn, this takes about one day; in winter and spring, about three days. The goal is to sun-dry until moisture surfaces on the meat.

　　6. Rub salt again: Take the sun-dried meat blocks and rub them with salt once more. This helps draw out excess moisture and adds additional salt.

　　7. Re-cure: Shake off excess salt grains and moisture from the rubbed meat blocks, making the surface relatively dry, then proceed to re-cure. 8. Semi-cooked processing and curing: There are two methods—one with stronger salt flavor through the salt-burying method, and one with milder salt taste using the oil-sealing method.

　　(1) Salt-burying method: ① Steam in basket: Arrange the cured and cooled meat blocks skin-side up in a steamer basket and steam for 10–15 minutes, then take out and cool. ② Place in jar: First, press a base layer of fried salt about 5 cm thick at the bottom of the jar, then arrange the meat blocks with alternating layers of fat and lean, neatly and with slight gaps, skin-side up. Place one layer in the jar, then sprinkle a layer of salt to cover the meat, press lightly, and continue stacking the next layer until all the meat is placed. The final layer should have about 5–8 cm of salt spread over it and be pressed down slightly. ③ Cover and seal: After all the meat is placed, cover the jar tightly with a stone lid, then tie a rope around the middle of the jar’s mouth a few times to secure it and prevent cracking. The entire production process is now complete.

　　(2) Oil-sealing method: ① Oil soak: Fry and refine lard, pork belly fat, and other fats from the pig, remove the residue, then heat the oil to a temperature of 6–70% cooked. Immerse the cured and cooled meat blocks one by one in the oil, frying until the edges begin to brown, then remove and cool. Repeat until all meat is done. ② Clarify the oil: Continue heating the used oil to fully evaporate all moisture, then clarify it by removing impurities and set aside for later use. ③ Place in jar: Put the oil-soaked meat blocks one by one into the jar, arranging them skin-side up, neatly and with alternating fat and lean, offsetting upper and lower layers, leaving gaps on the left and right, and stacking layer by layer until the jar is filled to about 25–30 cm from the top. ④ Oil seal: Once the clarified oil has cooled to 40–50°C, slowly pour it into the jar until it covers the meat surface by 5–10 cm. ⑤ Cover and seal: First cover with a stone lid, leaving a gap, then seal tightly once the oil has cooled. The curing process is now complete.