According to recent reports from South Korean media, housewives in South Korea are increasingly paying attention to the nutritional and textural differences between various parts of pork when buying it. In China, many people also carefully select their meat. However, the wide variety of pork cuts makes it difficult to distinguish them at once. Here is a brief introduction to help everyone understand how to choose pork properly.
The coat color of pigs can be pure black, pure white, soybean red, or a mix of black and white. China's excellent pig breeds include Habai, Jinhua, Kodong, Dahua Bai, Beijing Hei, Shanghai Bai, Yorkshire, Subai, Berkshire, and more. The meat is fragrant and mellow, and its versatile cooking methods allow it to be processed into a variety of flavorful foods and delicacies.
According to cooking needs, apart from the head, trotters (claws), and tail, pork is generally divided into the following 14 parts.
1. Blood Neck: The neck meat from the ear to the scapula, in a strip shape with equal parts fat and lean, and is tough. Suitable for making crispy pork, char siu, and meat fillings.
2. Eagle Beak: A square piece of meat located behind the blood neck and on the upper part of the front leg bone. The meat is fine and tender. The front part is suitable for making crispy fried pork, shredded pork, and sliced pork. The back part is suitable for making cherry pork, fried pork sections, and stir-fried dishes.
3. Hali Ba: The meat on the fan-shaped bone of the front leg (covering the bone), which is tough and has many tendons. Suitable for braising, stewing, marinating, and braising in soy sauce.
4. Tenderloin: Also known as small tenderloin. A long strip of meat between the kidney and the dividing bone, slightly thinner at one end, with reddish meat. This is the leanest part of the pork, suitable for stir-frying, sautéing, and deep-frying.
5. Loin: Also known as outside tenderloin. A long strip of meat outside and parallel to the spine. The meat is pale and fine. Suitable for quick stir-frying, soft deep-frying, and making minced meat paste. [China Cuisine]
6. Bottom Board: A rectangular piece of meat under the hind leg bone, close to the rind, with one end thick and one end thin. The meat is relatively tough. Suitable for making pot-fried pork, clear soy sauce pork, and shredded pork.
7. San Cha: A triangular piece of meat between the hip bone and the vertebrae, relatively tender. Suitable for stir-frying, sautéing, and making shredded pork or sliced pork.
8. Rump Tip: The meat close to the buttock, light red in color and fine. Suitable for making diced pork, pork sections, and shredded or sliced pork.
9. Fist Meat: Also known as hammer meat. The lean meat covering the hind leg bone, round like a fist. The meat is fine and tender. Suitable for making shredded or sliced pork, and for deep-frying or stir-frying.
10. Cucumber Meat: A long, lean piece next to the bottom board, resembling a cucumber in shape. It is relatively tough and suitable for making shredded pork.
11. Waist Pocket: A piece of lean meat between the front of the lower hind leg and the belly, with fat and lean connected and thin layers. Suitable for stewing, braising, and stir-frying.
12. Loin Meat: A ring of lean meat connected to the caul fat, covered by a layer of skin. Suitable for stewing, braising, or making fillings.
13. Pork Belly: Located behind the front legs and in front of the hind legs, the waist ribs have alternating layers of fat and lean, creating a three-layered "five-flower" pattern. The part with ribs is better and called "upper belly" or "hard ribs," while the part without ribs is inferior and called "lower belly" or "soft ribs." The upper belly is suitable for slicing, while the lower belly is suitable for stewing, braising, and making fillings.
14. Pork Hock: In the south, it's called the ham. It's the leg meat with a lot of connective tissue, hard and tough. Suitable for marinating, braising, and boiling.