🍖 Shanghai-Style Braised Pork Belly | The Soul Flavor of Rich, Thick Sauce |

🔥 Ultimate Standards:

Fat-to-lean ratio: Three-layer pork belly (cut into 5cm wide pieces)
Caramel color: Amber, coating the spoon
Simmering time: 120 minutes (using cast iron pot timing)

🛒 Selected Ingredients

▫️ Main Ingredients

800g pork belly with skin (best with black hair pig)
200ml Shaoxing yellow wine
100g rock sugar (must be single-crystal rock sugar)

▫️ Auxiliaries

15ml dark soy sauce
30ml light soy sauce
30g ginger chunks (slapped)
1 scallion knot
1 piece cinnamon stick (3cm)

👨‍🍳 Classic Technique

1️⃣ 【Cutting and Preparing】

Cut meat into 4cm cubes with skin intact
Soak in cold water for 2 hours (change water every hour to remove odor)
Blanching: Put into cold water and bring to boil for 3 minutes (add 10 peppercorns)

2️⃣ 【Caramelizing Sugar】 (Key step)

Put 50g rock sugar + 20ml oil in a cold pan
Melt over low heat until sugar turns into "sesame oil color"
When "fish eye bubbles" appear, immediately remove from heat
Stir with residual heat until amber color is achieved

3️⃣ 【Searing and Sealing the Meat】

Pat meat dry
Dry-pan sear until all six sides are lightly charred (about 30% fat rendered)
Add caramelized sugar and quickly stir to coat evenly

4️⃣ 【Triple Braising Method】

First braise: Add 200ml yellow wine, bring to boil
Second braise: Add boiling water until meat is covered by 3cm
Third braise: Add aromatic spices (do not cover with lid)

5️⃣ 【Sauce Reduction Mastery】

Add remaining rock sugar in the last 30 minutes
Spoon the sauce over the meat repeatedly every 5 minutes
When sauce coats the spoon perfectly, turn off heat

💎 Veteran Cook's Secrets

▪️ Fat but not greasy: Ice chill for 10 minutes after blanching
▪️ Coloring secret: Add sugar twice (for color and for sauce reduction)
▪️ Substitute: Without yellow wine, use beer + Shaoxing wine (1:1)
▪️ Perfect accompaniment: Braised egg / tofu skin knots (add in last 30 minutes)

🚨 Failure Alerts

✖️ Tough meat texture (overcooked)
✖️ Overly sweet and greasy (inaccurate sugar amount)
✖️ Cloudy sauce (covering pot too early)

🍽️ Tasting Tips

"Color like agate, tender but not falling apart, fatty but not greasy."
Best eaten after chilling and reheating for deeper flavor.

✨ The ultimate test of Shanghainese culinary mastery - each cube glistens with caramelized perfection!