Pork Jelly

A lovely pork jelly made from pork rind, with a lovely transparent or pure white color, has been popular in China for a long history, serving as side dishes for a meal in hot days.

When I was young, meat jelly, possible made from beef tendon, pork rind, pork trotter, chicken feet or even fresh fish, was my favorite cold dish in summer. The melt in texture are was so good, pleasuring and more importantly interesting for me because I totally had no idea of Gelatin or Agar Agar at that time. We don’t eat this frequently now but I still love to introduce this to you for the purpose of exploring the glory of food.I get two reasons to make this pork jelly this time. The first is I get lots of rind stored in the freezer and the second is because of the coming pan-fried buns (生煎包) and Steamed Soup Dumplings (小笼包). Adding some pork jelly inside the filling can help to make it super juicy after steamed.

The key process for the good flavor is the cleaning process. We need to scrape the fat and impurities from the rind and keep the gelatin layer only. Based on my personal experience, wash the rind with alkine powder or baking soda after the scraping can further purify the flavor. So there will be no weird taste in the final jelly. If the jelly is used in other fillings, you can skip the extra washing process with baking soda.

I introduced two ways this time. The first is to blend the pork rind after cooking which creates a pure white texture and the second is to steam (simmer either works but losing the transparent texture) and get a wonderful clear and transparent texture.

Steaming is the key tips to make it transparent. I highly recommend using a high presser cooker, which not only help to shorten the time but also avoid unnecessary boiling movement.

Instructions

In a large pot of water, add salt, scallion, ginger and Sichuan peppercorn seeds. Cook for 6-8 minutes. On one hand, help to remove raw flavors and on the other hand, we can remove the fat layer easily.

Then transfer out and remove the fat with knife. Try to remove all of the fatty layer on the surface and remove any hair.Add baking soda or alkaline powder and salt on the pork rind. Message for a while then you will white tissues coming out. Clean with hot water until the water turns clear and further cut the rind into smaller pieces.

Add water and then blanching the rind again fro 1 minute after the water boils. Then transfer out and strain the rind once again. We do lots of blanching and cleaning work in order to remove the impurities and keep this a lovely taste.

Add 900ml to 1200ml water ( you need 1200ml to 1500ml for regular pot heating) and then steam for 30 minutes in high pressure cooker. Let it cool naturally. Transfer to mould and then keep in fridge for 2 hours or overnight.

If you want to get the pure white version, transfer it to a blender and blend well. Then strain to remove any bumps and also the bubbles on surface. Stir in salt optionally. We don’t add too much flavor in the jelly because we will serve it with a dipping sauce.