Homemade Cantonese bacon

Overview

Special reminder: It is better to finish drying Cantonese-style cured meat before the Winter Solstice. It is said that the dried food after the Winter Solstice is not as fragrant, so pay attention to the time. Like many families, they pickle bacon, dried fish, and cured duck in autumn and winter, which the whole family loves to eat.

Tags

• private kitchen
• light soy sauce
• old soy sauce
• pork belly
• rice wine
• white sugar
• salt

Ingredients

Steps

1. 1 There is no need to wash the pork belly. Use a knife to scrape the pig skin clean, and then tie a rope to one end of the meat strips. The reason why you do not wash it is because if the meat has moisture, it will not be able to absorb salt in the second step. Just wash it once in the third step. Don't worry.

   

2. 2 Put a small amount of salt on the pork belly, scratch it a few times, and try to coat the whole pork belly; do it one by one, add a small amount of salt at a time, enough to make one strip, if you add too much, it will be very salty; stack the salted ones on a plate, and let them marinate for about 3 hours;

   

3. 3 After the meat strips are marinated, soak them in hot water; the hot water is about 60-70 degrees, not too hot or warm; they will be very white after washing;

   

4. 4 Hang the bacon that has been treated with hot water in strips and let it dry for a while; I dried it for about 2 hours, it depends on the weather;

   

5. 5 Take an appropriate amount of soy sauce, rice wine, and white sugar to prepare the marinade; you don’t need to add too much soy sauce, I poured half a bowl of soy sauce into the 9 pieces; add dark soy sauce according to personal preference, I don’t like the color to be too dark. I only used light soy sauce for the first batch, and the color is also very beautiful. I added a tablespoon of dark soy sauce to the second batch to make it darker; the amount of white sugar is optional, but be sure to add it. In addition to adding freshness, it can also make the fat part crispier; the amount of seasoning can be increased or decreased according to the amount of pork;

   

6. 6 Put the dried pork belly strips into the marinade and mix well, then stack them on a plate; marinate for about 1 day (overnight); during this period, be sure to turn them up and down every once in a while to let them absorb the flavor evenly;

   

7. 7 After marinating, you can officially start drying; when the weather is bad and there is no suitable place to hang, just put it away, wrap it in a fresh-keeping bag, and put it in the freezer of the refrigerator. When the weather is good, take it out to continue drying;

   

8. 8 If the weather is sunny and the sun is out, the drying process will be fast; this batch will start to produce oil on the 2nd day. The picture shows that on the 4th day, the meat strips shrink significantly and are put away on the 6th day of drying. Note that the oil production is obviously reduced and it is almost ready. If the drying time is too long, it will be dry, especially the lean meat will be very hard;

   

9. 9 Cut the sun-dried bacon into pieces, wrap it in a fresh-keeping bag and store it in the refrigerator; when you need to eat it, take it out and rinse it before use. It can be steamed on top of the rice while cooking; it can also be used to stir-fry vegetables, make glutinous rice, claypot rice, etc. (It can also be stored in whole pieces. If you cut it into pieces, make sure the cutting board is dry.)

   

10. 10 The picture shows the steamed bacon: the fat meat is transparent and refreshing, the lean meat is soft and easy to chew, and the saltiness and sweetness are moderate, making it a good meal.