National Geography of Braised Pork

Written by Wei Shuihua

Braised pork in red sauce is the absolute protagonist of Chinese dining table. No matter which chef or which cuisine, when encountering braised pork in red sauce, all personalities, techniques, styles and creativity must compromise and give way to this national dish. Bright red, crispy and sticky, harmonious five flavors and long-lasting aroma, these are the common standards of Chinese cuisine for braised pork in red sauce, and also the collective memory of Chinese people for braised pork in red sauce. If Mapo tofu, scallion-fried sea cucumber, white-cut chicken and crab meat lion head represent the taste of Sichuan, Shandong, Guangdong and Huaiyang respectively, they are the four most watched pillars in Chinese cuisine. Then braised pork in red sauce is undoubtedly the pillar of national cuisine that surpasses them. A cup of good wine and a bowl of meat, a bright moon and an autumn river.

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No.1

The bright red color is the most attractive label of braised pork in brown sauce, and it is also the reason why countless people covet it. Ironically, the main ingredient that provides the color of braised pork in brown sauce: caramel, is tasteless. Whether it is the sugar color made from rock sugar or the dark soy sauce with caramel added, their main ingredients are organic compounds such as caramel anhydride (C12H18O9), caramelene (C36H50O25), and caramel (C125H188O80) produced by the carbonization of sugars under heat.

They provide almost no effective ingredients that humans can absorb and utilize, so it is difficult for human taste buds to sense their taste. Experienced chefs know that if sugar color tastes sweet, it means it is not cooked enough, and if it tastes bitter, it means it is overcooked. The right sugar color should not taste anything. Why can this tasteless natural color, when added to ordinary stewed meat, make people's eyes subjectively feel "delicious", "fragrant" and "fresh"?

The reason may be that the human brain misjudges the browning substance brought by the Maillard reaction and caramel, two organic compounds with similar colors. As we all know, protein is a peptide chain composed of multiple amino acids with a fixed structure. Humans can only absorb scattered and broken amino acids, and cannot absorb proteins from other organisms: this is the fundamental reason why many people with poor digestive function will have foreign body allergies to some high-protein foods. Some crabs, shrimps, oysters, and shellfish can taste the sweet and fresh amino acids even if they are cooked minimally or eaten raw, because the protein structure of lower organisms is relatively simple, and simple marinades such as white wine, vinegar, ginger, garlic, and human saliva can break their peptide chains.

As higher mammals, cattle, sheep, and pigs have much more complex peptide chain structures. Eating them raw will make people feel bland. Only through long-term cooking or deep fermentation can the amino acid flavor be extracted. During the long cooking process, amino acids will react with the sugars in the meat itself, or in the side dishes and seasonings, to produce some brown ketones, aldehydes, esters and other low-level organic substances that are easier for humans to absorb and utilize. Therefore, we also call the Maillard reaction the "browning reaction." The longer the cooking time, the more amino acids are precipitated in the meat, and the stronger the Maillard reaction. Therefore, some long-cooked meat can have a brown-red appearance even without any pigments or seasonings. Correspondingly, such meat is easier to digest and absorb by the human body.

The best taste in the world, oil and carbohydrates - the reason why humans think it is "delicious" comes from the active screening of energy-providing substances by taste buds during the evolution process. In fact, similar cooking methods are not uncommon in the global perspective. The French red wine stewed beef uses the residual sugar in the wine to add flavor to the meat; Brazilians learn from the Portuguese method and combine local products to add black beans and orange peels to the stewed pork. With the combined blessing of fructose and starch, the pork is thick and fragrant; Morocco's national dish "Malrakesh" adds cucumbers and sweet potatoes to lamb, and uses steaming and slow-cooking methods to slowly darken the color of the meat; the famous Russian stew zharkoe adds yogurt and tomato sauce to the meat dish to enhance the flavor of the beef with lactose; Japan's teriyaki chicken and teriyaki eel use sugar and soy sauce as the base sauce to give the oil-rich meat a shiny coat...

But Chinese braised pork is the most special one among many "Maillard braised pork".

Braised pork takes advantage of a clever loophole: part of the sugar participates in the cooking process of the meat, accelerating the progress of the Maillard reaction; the other part of the sugar caramelizes when heated, mixes with the oil and adheres to the surface of the meat, giving people the psychological suggestion that the cooking is done to perfection and is crispy and tender.

Chinese cuisine emphasizes "color, fragrance, taste and shape", which is not just a casual statement. It expresses the synergistic amplification effect of the color, shape, taste and aroma of the dishes. It comes from ancient traditions, but is deeply consistent with the scientific conclusions of chemistry, biology, nutrition and psychology. It vividly expresses the characteristics of Chinese cuisine that are good at experimentation and experience first, and the continuous and uninterrupted history of Chinese civilization.

No.2

The earliest documented history of Chinese people making braised pork can be found in the Southern and Northern Dynasties. In the agricultural encyclopedia "Qimin Yaoshu", there is a method of cooking pork: After boiling the pig, wash it with hot soup. If there is dirt in the pores, wipe it with grass, do this three times, and wash it clean. Cut it into four pieces and cook it in a large pot. Use a ladle to collect the floating fat and put it in another jar; add a little water and collect the fat. When the fat is gone, filter it out, break it into four square pieces, and cook it again with water. Add two liters of wine to kill the fishy smell - both green and white are fine. If there is no wine, use vinegar instead. Add water to collect the fat, just like the above method. When the fat is gone and there is no fishy smell, filter it out, cut it into pieces and fry it in a copper pan. One row of meat, another row of chopped green onions, black beans, white salt, ginger, and pepper. After the steps are completed, boil the meat in water until it turns amber. You can eat as much as you want without feeling sick, which is better than stewed meat. The original text describes everything in detail, which can be summarized in a few words: Wash the whole pig, blanch it in water, chop it into four pieces, add wine, green onions, fermented black beans, salt, ginger, and peppercorns, boil it slowly in water until it turns amber. You can eat as much as you want without feeling sick, which is better than roasted meat.

Two seasonings appeared here: wine and hunchi. Under the technical conditions of the sixth century AD, distilled wine had not yet been introduced to China. The wine used here should be non-distilled wine containing a lot of residual sugar; and the so-called "hunchi" may be fermented black beans that are not fermented deeply enough and still retain their complete appearance.

Obviously, the sugar in the wine provides the necessary caramel color and Maillard reaction raw materials for the braised pork during the long cooking process; the fermented black beans use the Maillard substances extracted from the fermentation of beans to deepen the color of the braised pork and add to the delicious flavor of the braised pork. Compared with today's braised pork, although it is constrained by the materials, its cooking ideas have been fully mature. The three words "amber" that describe the final product well express the crystal state of the meat in the red date red. Today, in the eastern Fujian region, there is a "red dregs meat" that is similar to braised pork. The pork belly is fried to extract oil, and then the dregs of a local rice wine "Qinghongjiu" brewed with red yeast rice are added to stir-fry for color and stewed on low heat. The finished dish is bright pink, bright and fragrant. Obviously, the residual sugar in the dregs and the natural pigments rich in red yeast rice have played the role of caramel.

The "Nanru Rou" that was created later has a similar logic.

In Sichuan and Chongqing, many people like to add fermented glutinous rice and bean paste when making braised pork. Fermented glutinous rice provides sweetness, while bean paste provides saltiness and enhances color. In essence, this seasoning logic is the same as the use of fermented soybeans and wine 1,500 years ago. Obviously, these braised pork with special flavors have retained their ancient appearance.

No.3

In the New Book of Tang, there is a record: Li Shimin, the "Heavenly Khan" with great military achievements, received envoys from Magadha in India. After tasting the "hard as stone, sweet as honey" rock honey offered by foreign countries, he ordered the extensive planting of sugarcane in Lingnan. Yes, rock honey is the sugar made from sugarcane.

Although this is only recorded in a few words in official history, it is an epoch-making scene in the history of changes in the Chinese dining table: from then on, sugarcane became the most important seasoning for Chinese cooking after salt. Rather than saying that sugarcane entered the mainstream diet spectrum due to the introduction of advanced foreign technology during the Tang Dynasty, it is better to think that this is a long-tail bonus after the Lingnan region was incorporated into the Chinese territory after the Qin and Han Dynasties. In Mr. Ji Xianlin's "History of Sugar", the custom of stewing mutton with sugarcane in the Jiangnan region is interestingly recorded. To this day, in Suzhou, Huzhou, Jiaxing and other places on the east bank of Taihu Lake, this way of eating is still preserved: a large wood stove is built, sugarcane tips are laid on the bottom, mutton is piled on top, and water and seasonings are added to simmer over a slow fire. The sugarcane on the bottom of the pot can not only prevent the mutton from burning, but also precipitate sucrose and achieve caramelization and coloring during the long stewing process.

It skips the sugar-making process and links sugarcane with meat, which is simple, convenient and original. Perhaps this cooking method was already popular in Jiangsu and Zhejiang during the Tang Dynasty when sugarcane was grown on a large scale in the south. It was also in the early Tang Dynasty that another ingredient from the south began to appear in literature. Yuezhong Bianlan records: "Pruned mustard greens are divided into mustard greens, rapeseed greens, and Chinese cabbage greens. Mustard greens are fresh, rapeseed greens are mild, and Chinese cabbage is tender. They are used to cook duck and roast meat with a unique flavor." It is different from the dried vegetables recorded in the Book of Songs and the salted vegetables popular in the Qin and Han Dynasties. This "pruned mustard greens" has the advantages of both: low water content, deep fermentation, and moderate salinity.

Today, people in Jiangsu and Zhejiang call it "moldy dried vegetables", Hakka people in Fujian and Guangdong call it "meicai", people in Hunan and Hubei call it "dried vegetables", and people in Sichuan and Chongqing call it "sprout vegetables". Although the ingredients, process details and presentation forms are slightly different, in essence, they are all direct descendants of the "mei dried vegetables" of the Tang Dynasty. The concentrated appearance of more advanced fermented pickled vegetables is related to the technological progress in the Tang Dynasty, when people were increasingly able to master the fermentation flora and duration; it is also related to the local products: by the seventh century AD at the latest, the farming level in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, the Sichuan Basin and the southeast coast had developed to a considerable extent, and the process of pickling vegetables spared no effort and did not seek efficiency, and gradually changed from a method of preserving vegetables to a way to obtain more umami flavor.

Whether it is the preserved vegetables and pork in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, the preserved vegetables and pork in the Hakka, the braised vegetables and pork in Hubei, or the steamed bean sprouts and pork in Sichuan and Chongqing, they are all important members of the Chinese braised pork family. The sugars and amino acid salts in the preserved vegetables provide the meat with umami, coloring and saltiness; the fat that overflows from the meat during cooking soaks the preserved vegetables and makes them moist and fragrant. A match made in heaven.

No.4

If fermented black beans, sugar cane, and dried vegetables are the accelerators that gradually promote the taste evolution of braised pork, then another seasoning that appeared in the Song Dynasty truly shaped the taste world of braised pork. In the middle of the Song Dynasty, the word "soy sauce" appeared in two literati's food notes, "Shan Jia Qing Gong" and "Wu Shi Zhong Kui Lu". "Shan Jia Qing Gong" uses soy sauce and sesame oil to stir-fry spring bamboo shoots, fish and shrimp; "Wu Shi Zhong Kui Lu" uses wine and soy sauce to steam crabs.

In fact, the prototype of soy sauce appeared a long time ago. Whether it is the water-fermented black beans in Sichuan, the Puning bean paste in Chaoshan, or the miso brought back by the Japanese "Tang Envoys", they all represent the appearance of early soy sauce. However, discarding the residue after fermentation of beans and only using the clarified juice for cooking in order to make the dishes clean and refreshing, elegant and graceful is a "detail" that was born in the Song Dynasty, when spiritual pursuits were highly developed and material civilization was highly prosperous.

Technology is the external condition that guides the level of diet, while economy is the key factor that determines the diet style.

The birth of soy sauce has contributed to more than half of the Chinese cuisine. Whether it is stewing, dipping, braising, or stir-frying, every time soy sauce appears at the right time, it can always set off an inescapable storm on the tip of the tongue. In braised pork, soy sauce is the protagonist behind the scenes that gives the meat a bright red color, delicious taste, and crispy texture. To this day, even those braised pork that insist on not adding a drop of soy sauce still need to rely on the help of fried sugar color, rice wine, and fermented black beans. To some extent, soy sauce concentrates the "core technology" of braised pork.

More importantly, with the addition of soy sauce, the inclusiveness of braised pork is greatly improved. Those slashed eggs, shelled chestnuts, large pieces of bamboo shoots, fried crispy gluten, knotted tofu skin and tripe, soaked dried seafood, peeled water chestnuts...each one can find a suitable place in the braised pork.

In essence, these light ingredients can enter the door of braised pork because of their ability to absorb juice and flavor. The concentrated and unobtrusive salty and fresh taste of soy sauce provides a large stage for the many auxiliary ingredients of braised pork. Later, from Su Shi's "wait for it to be cooked by itself, don't rush it, it will be delicious when the fire is enough", to Yuan Mei's "fast fire porridge, slow fire meat", the ingredients and craftsmanship of braised pork have hardly changed. And its simple and subtle cooking methods, as well as its characteristics of accommodating ingredients and blending flavors, are increasingly associated with the Chinese philosophy and way of dealing with the world. The reputation of "national dish" is well deserved.

| Northeastern China·Pork in a Jar|

| Henan·Shuixi Braised Pork|

| Shandong Braised Pork|

| Sichuan·Steamed Pork with Bean Sprouts|

| Hunan·Mao's Braised Pork|

| Jiangsu·Su-style braised pork|

| Anhui · Dried Vegetables and Meat|

| Zhejiang Dongpo Pork|

| Jiangxi · Chestnut Roast Pork |

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The golden standard for judging whether braised pork is successful is whether the soup has reached the state of water and oil separation. The best state is that the yellowish lard floats thinly on top, and the soup at the bottom has dried up into a semi-fluid colloid. If the water and oil are fuzzy like paste, it is either that the meat is not cooked for a long time and the lard has not been forced out in a sufficient proportion; or the fire is turned up too high, the soup is emulsified and the meat is coarse and tough.

Whether it is Sichuan style, Suzhou style or Hunan style, any school and any cooking method of braised pork, "eat it while it's hot" is the first principle. It's best to eat it right out of the pot and before it's served on a plate, when the meat is tender and tender, the sauce is rich, and the fat is overflowing when you chew it. After three rounds of wine, the braised pork has cooled down, and the fat has condensed into white frost. At this time, you need a big bowl of steaming hot rice, pour the soup and oil on the rice, and mix it while it's hot. The rice soaked in the soup is distinct, and the fat has long melted away. There is no better food in the world.