How to make braised pork bones

Braised pork bones, also called sauced pork bones, are a famous traditional dish in the Northeast region. They can be made into braised chicken bones, braised spareribs, or braised pork ribs. Their characteristics are that they can be cooked for a long time without the meat becoming too tough. They have a soft and glutinous texture and are very popular. They are a very good dish to go with wine, have a relatively high nutritional value, and have a good calcium supplement effect.

How to make braised pork bones

1. Wash the large pieces of pork spine briefly, place them in a large basin filled with clean water and soak them for about 6-12 hours. You can change the water several times in the middle. If the room temperature is high, you can put the basin in the refrigerator to prevent the pork from spoiling.

2. Rinse the spine several times after soaking it in water to clean the blood, then put it in a large pot and add water to cover the bones, add a few pieces of ginger (smashed), a few scallions tied into a knot, a few star anise (spiced anise), a small handful of Sichuan peppercorns, a small piece of cinnamon, 2 bay leaves (optional), a little thirteen spices (optional), Shaoxing wine, dark soy sauce, soy sauce, fried sugar color, white sugar, black bean sauce or high-quality soybean paste (optional).

3. Bring to a boil over high heat, then skim off any floating residue. Add an appropriate amount of salt (the marinade needs to be saltier to fully flavor the marinated bones, so a larger amount of salt is used), then turn to medium-low heat, cover and simmer for about 1 hour.

4. Add appropriate amount of chicken essence, turn to medium-high heat and simmer with the lid open for about 30 minutes (the purpose is to slightly reduce the soup and make the meat and bones more flavorful).

Production points

1. In order to make the marinated bones rich in flavor, it is recommended to stew no less than 5 pounds of meat bones at a time. For example, I stewed nearly 8 pounds this time. According to Mr. Yuan Mei's requirement for boiled meat, "if it is less than 20 pounds, it will be bland and tasteless." My five pounds is not much. Although the braised bones are "red boiled meat", the principle of more meat and richer flavor still applies - the reason is that if there is less meat, the meat flavor will inevitably run into the soup. The amount of meat is really small, so the soup can be thickened a bit.

2. The first step to remove blood is to soak the meat in cold water for a long time rather than the more time-saving "boiling", which is also to better preserve the flavor of the meat. If the method of blanching is adopted, because the raw materials are larger and more numerous, it will inevitably take a longer time to boil and stew to remove all the blood, not to mention the loss of meat flavor.

3. When making braised/stewed dishes, you can try using several different soy sauces or sauces at the same time. This will often make the finished dish taste richer and more delicious. For example, this time in addition to dark soy sauce and soy sauce, I also used a smaller amount of soy sauce syrup and black bean sauce, and a little soy sauce.

4. The broth left over from the braised bones is a good ingredient for making braised eggs, smoked eggs, braised tofu skin/dried tofu, and tiger skin eggs.