How to Cook Dongpo Pork: The Poet's Recipe

Editor’s Note: This page has been rewritten with measured quantities, pan temperatures and the failure points that actually matter. The story behind the dish is at Dongpo Rou: The Poet Who Braised Pork Better Than God.

Why Dongpo Pork Is Cooked in Its Own Fat

Dongpo pork is a block of pork belly that has been persuaded to hold its shape while everything inside it softens. The cut is a 1kg slab of skin-on belly, squared off and cut into pieces about 5cm across. Each piece carries skin, a layer of fat, a band of lean, more fat, and a little more lean. The cooking has to melt the fat and the collagen without leaving the lean dry, and the only reliable way is a low, wet heat with the skin doing the work of a lid.

Hangzhou claims the dish and names it for Su Dongpo, the Song dynasty poet and official who is said to have paid workers in pork. The story is told with more confidence than the evidence supports, but the shape of the dish is clear: dark, glossy, sweet-savoury, and soft enough to cut with a spoon if you leave it long enough.

Two things make it work. The first is the blanch. Starting the pork in cold water and bringing it up to a boil draws blood and impurities out through the skin; dropped into boiling water, the surface seizes and holds them in. Five minutes is enough, and the pork must then be dried properly, because water on the skin will spit in hot oil and prevent the sugar from adhering.

The second is the pot. Three scallions and 20g of ginger go on the bottom, not for flavour alone but to keep the pork off the base, where the sugar and soy would burn. The pieces are laid skin-down, close together, with only 200ml of water. That is deliberately less than a braise: the pork is meant to cook in rendered fat and its own juices, with the skin in contact with the sweet liquid, turning gelatinous rather than crisp.

Rock sugar, 60g, is melted in 2 tbsp of oil until it is amber, and that caramel does two jobs. It colours the skin a deep red-brown, and it gives the sauce a roundness that plain sugar lacks. Take it too far and the whole pot tastes bitter; the window between amber and burnt is about 20 seconds.

The braise runs at 95°C, not 100°C. At a full boil the skin contracts and splits, the lean fibres tighten, and the sauce reduces too fast and turns salty. Ninety minutes at 95°C softens the collagen, then 45 to 60 minutes with the lid off reduces the liquid to a syrup that coats the meat. Why this matters: at a full boil the skin contracts faster than the fat beneath it can render, and it splits along the edge. The traditional alternative is to steam the pork in a sealed bowl for 2 hours first and then finish it in the sauce; the texture is slightly more delicate, and the timing is easier to control.

Ingredients

For the pork

• 1kg skin-on pork belly, in one slab about 6cm thick
• 3 scallions, cut into 5cm lengths
• 20g ginger, sliced into coins
• 2 star anise
• 1 small cassia bark, about 5cm (optional)

For the braise

• 60g yellow rock sugar
• 2 tbsp (30ml) neutral oil
• 3 tbsp (45ml) Shaoxing wine
• 2 tbsp (30ml) light soy sauce
• 1 tbsp (15ml) dark soy sauce
• 200ml water
• 1 tsp (5g) fine salt, or to taste

For tying and serving

• 8 lengths of straw or butcher’s string, each 40cm, soaked
• 300g bok choy or 200g of mustard greens
• 300g steamed rice or 4 plain steamed buns

Substitution notes: If you have no dark soy, use 3 tbsp of light soy in total and accept a lighter, redder colour; the flavour will be right but the glaze will look thin. Butcher’s string is easier than straw and behaves the same way, provided it is cotton and soaked. Caster sugar can replace rock sugar at 50g, but it caramelises faster, so pull the pan off the heat 10 seconds earlier. There is no substitute for skin-on belly; a boned shoulder will braise but will not give you the jelly layer that defines the dish.

Prep: Cut, Blanch, Tie

1. Cut and blanch from cold (12 minutes)

Trim the slab to a neat rectangle, then cut it into pieces 5cm square; you should have 6 to 8, depending on the thickness of the slab. Put them in a wide pan, cover with cold water by 3cm, and bring to a boil over medium heat. Skim the grey foam as it rises, then boil for 5 minutes exactly. Lift the pieces out with a slotted spoon and rinse them under warm water, scraping any residue off the skin with the back of a knife.

2. Dry and tie each square (10 minutes)

Pat the pork thoroughly dry with kitchen paper and leave it on a rack for 5 minutes. Soak the straw or string in warm water so it does not burn. Tie each square in a cross, running the string under the base and over the top, tight enough that the meat cannot splay but loose enough that you can slide a finger under it. This trussing is what keeps the layers together through 2 hours of heat.

3. Measure the braise and line the pot (5 minutes)

Mix the Shaoxing, light soy, dark soy and 200ml of water in a jug. Lay the scallions and ginger across the bottom of a heavy clay pot, then set the star anise and cassia on top. The bed should cover the base completely, with no gaps where pork could touch the clay.

Step by Step: Caramel, Braise, Rest

Step 1: Take the sugar to amber (5 minutes)

Warm the oil in a wok over low heat, add the rock sugar and let it melt without stirring for the first minute. Then stir slowly with a wooden spoon. The sugar will foam, then turn the colour of weak tea, then amber. At amber, after about 4 minutes, pour in the soy and water mixture; it will bubble hard. Stir until the caramel dissolves, then taste: sweet and salty, with a faint bitter edge that will mellow as the pork cooks.

Step 2: Build the pot, skin down (5 minutes)

Lay the tied squares in the pot skin-down, packing them snugly in one layer. Pour the caramel liquid over them; it should come about a third of the way up the meat, no more. Scatter the star anise and cassia into the liquid. Bring to 90°C, then cover with a lid and a sheet of baking paper pressed onto the surface.

Step 3: Braise at 95°C for 90 minutes

Hold the pot at 95°C, checking with a thermometer rather than trusting the flame. The liquid should shiver, not bubble. After 90 minutes the pork will have released a great deal of fat and the skin will give when pressed. Do not turn the pieces; the skin is fragile and will tear.

Step 4: Lid off for 45 to 60 minutes

Remove the lid and raise the heat slightly, keeping the liquid at a bare simmer. Let it reduce until it coats the back of a spoon, 45 to 60 minutes, basting the tops of the pork every 10 minutes with a ladle. The fat that rises can be skimmed and kept for another dish. The meat should look lacquered, not drowned.

Step 5: Cool overnight in the sauce (8 to 12 hours)

Turn off the heat and let the pot cool to room temperature, then refrigerate overnight. This is not a shortcut you can skip. Cooling sets the gelatin in the skin and sauce into a soft jelly, firms the fat so the cubes cut cleanly, and lets the salt and sugar settle into the meat. The next morning the surface will be covered with a solid layer of white fat; lift it off and keep it. Why this matters: gelatin sets below about 35°C, so the jelly that holds each cube together cannot form in a warm pot.

Step 6: Reheat and glaze for 5 minutes

Return the pork to the pot with the jellied sauce and 50ml of water. Warm over low heat, covered, for 10 minutes, then uncover and spoon the sauce over the cubes for 5 minutes, until each one is glossy and the sauce is thick enough to cling. Do not stir; the cubes will break.

Key Pitfalls

The skin split and the cubes curled. The pork was not tied, or it went into hot water instead of cold. Blanch from cold, dry it well, and truss each square before braising.

The meat is dry and stringy. The pot boiled, or the cut was too lean. Hold 95°C and use belly with a clear fat layer at least 2cm thick.

The sauce tastes bitter. The sugar went past amber. Pull the wok off the heat at the first amber colour and add the liquid immediately to stop it cooking.

The bottom of the pot scorched. The scallion bed was too thin or the liquid ran dry. Use 3 scallions and 20g ginger in a full layer, and check the level every 20 minutes.

The pork tastes greasy and the fat has not rendered. It stayed covered for the whole cook. The 45 to 60 minutes with the lid off is what drives off water and renders the fat.

The cubes collapse when you cut them. It was served straight from the pot. Chill overnight in the sauce so the gelatin sets, then reheat gently.

The skin looks pale and dull. There was no final glaze, or too little dark soy. Spoon the reduced sauce over the cubes for the last 5 minutes.

The dish is too salty. The sauce reduced too far. Taste before the final reduction and add 50ml of water if needed; the soy is doing all the seasoning.

Serving Suggestions

Serve one or two cubes per person, skin up, with a spoonful of the sauce and a mound of steamed rice. The fat needs something plain and hot beside it, so blanch 300g of bok choy for 90 seconds and dress it with a little of the pork sauce rather than soy. A steamed bun is the Hangzhou way to mop the plate, and a sharp pickled cucumber or mustard green cut through the richness.

Warm Shaoxing wine, or strong black tea. The dish is better on the second day, and better again on the third, provided it is reheated gently with a little water. Leftover cubes can be chopped into fried rice, but keep the sauce separately and add it at the end. The skimmed pork fat is excellent for potatoes and greens, and keeps for a month in the fridge.

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This is the companion recipe to Dongpo Rou: The Poet Who Braised Pork Better Than God. Read the story, then cook the dish.