Jokbal (Soy-Braised Pig's Trotters)
Pig's trotters braised for two hours in soy sauce and spices until the skin turns to gelatin, then cooled and sliced thin. Slice it hot and it falls apart, so it has to go cold first — and the star anise and cinnamon must stay sparing or it tastes medicinal.
Ingredients
- Meat and its prep
- Pig's front trotters · 1.5–2kg. Front ones have more meat and go softer2
- Rice wine or soju · Split between the parboil and the braise200 ml
- Doenjang · For the parboiling water; tames the smell1 tbsp
- Braising liquid
- Water · Enough to cover3 L
- Soy sauce · The colour and the salt200 ml
- Sugar4 tbsp
- Corn syrup · For gloss2 tbsp
- Spring onions · In long pieces2 large
- Onion · Halved only1
- Garlic · Peeled, cloves whole1 head
- Ginger2 pieces
- Peppercorns1 tsp
- Spices (sparingly)
- Star anise · Two at most; more and it tastes medicinal2
- Cinnamon · A finger-joint's worth. Also sparing1 piece
- Bay leaves2
- Instant coffee · Optional; deepens the colour and masks the smell1 tsp
- To serve
- Saeujeot (salted shrimp) · The standard dip for jokbal
- Ssamjang · If salted shrimp isn't for you
- Lettuce and perilla leaves · For wrapping
- Pickled radish sheets · Ssammu; cuts the richness
- Raw garlic and chillies · Optional
Steps
- ⏲ 120 min
Soak the trotters in cold water for at least 2 hours to draw the blood out, changing the water two or three times. Scrape or singe off any remaining bristles now.
- ⏲ 15 min
Parboil them 10 minutes with 100ml of the rice wine and 1 tbsp doenjang, then throw that water away entirely and rinse the trotters under running water. Both the soak and the parboil are needed to get rid of the smell.
- ⏲ 10 min
In a clean pot put the trotters, 3L water, soy sauce, sugar, corn syrup, the remaining rice wine, spring onion, onion, garlic, ginger, peppercorns and bay. Add the star anise and cinnamon sparingly here — long-steeped whole spices are covered in Blooming spices.
- ⏲ 110 min
Bring to the boil, lower the heat, cover, and braise 1½ to 2 hours. It is done when a chopstick passes straight through the skin and the meat is about to come off the bone — that is how long the collagen takes to turn to gelatin. See Braising: collagen and time.
- ⏲ 5 min
Top up with hot water if the liquid reduces below the trotters, and turn them every 30 minutes so the colour goes on evenly.
- ⏲ 3 min
Taste, and adjust with soy sauce or sugar after the liquid has reduced rather than before — see Salt and seasoning.
- ⏲ 30 min
Turn the heat off and leave it covered for 30 minutes. The residual heat carries the braise into the inside of the skin.
- ⏲ 120 min
Lift the trotters out and let them go completely cold — an hour at room temperature, or wrapped in the fridge for two. This is the step the dish turns on: sliced hot, the skin and meat smear rather than cut.
- ⏲ 15 min
Bone the cooled trotters and slice 5mm thick, across the grain. Use a sharp knife — see Knife skills.
- ⏲ 5 min
Fan the slices out on a plate and scatter sesame seeds. Serve with salted shrimp, pickled radish, lettuce, perilla and garlic, and wrap a slice with a dab of shrimp in a lettuce leaf.
Tips & Variations
Variations
- Maeun-jokbal (spicy): the braised trotters are tossed in a gochujang, gochugaru and syrup sauce and briefly stir-fried or grilled. The braise is identical; only the finish changes.
- Naeng-jokbal (cold): chilled right down and served almost frosty, a summer version. The gelatin in the skin sets firm and the chew is much more pronounced.
- Bul-jokbal (fire): glazed and blowtorched or grilled so the surface picks up a lightly charred note.
- Front vs hind trotters: front are meatier and softer, and are what most places use. Hind trotters are bigger and more sinewy, and want longer.
- Pressure cooker: down to 40–50 minutes. The skin can end up too soft to slice cleanly, so release the pressure and reduce uncovered for another 20 minutes.
- Less spice still: if star anise bothers you, leave it out entirely and use only ginger, garlic and pepper. Unlike Chinese red-braising, Korean jokbal is better when the spices stay in the background.
- The relatives: suyuk boils the same animal in plain water with no spices and eats it with kimchi, and gamjatang uses the spine in a spicy broth. Jokbal is the one coloured and salted with soy sauce. Wrap it with kimchi and you are close to bossam.
Tips
- Slice it cold. This is the most common way jokbal goes wrong. Hot, the skin is slippery and the meat soft, so the knife smears everything. Cold, the gelatin has set and the knife goes through cleanly.
- Do both the soak and the parboil. Trotters smell strongly by nature, and one alone leaves something soy sauce and spices cannot cover.
- Two star anise, maximum. A little is good and a lot is bad: from three or four upwards the medicinal note takes over the braise and buries the pork. The same goes for cinnamon.
- Turn them every 30 minutes. They are never fully submerged, so unturned the top stays pale while the bottom goes dark.
- Let it stand off the heat. Thirty minutes covered lets the braise reach the inside of the skin. Lifted out immediately, the surface is salty and the inside bland.
- Slice thin, across the grain. About 5mm. Thicker and the skin eats tough; along the grain and it is hard to chew.
- Serve the salted shrimp. It is the standard partner rather than ssamjang, and its salt and fermented savour are what cut the rich skin — the structure is in Building umami.
- Keep the braising liquid. Strained and frozen, it goes into the next batch or into soy-braised beef. It gets better with reuse.
- Refrigerate leftovers. They are good cold as naeng-jokbal. To reheat, a steamer beats a microwave — the skin stays tender.
The basics behind this dish
- Browning and the Maillard ReactionMeat fails to brown for one of three reasons: it is wet, the pan is cool, or you put too much in at once. Plus how the brown film stuck to the pan becomes your sauce.
- Cooking Meat: Temperature, Resting, and Cutting Against the GrainDoneness is a core temperature, not a number of minutes. What resting actually does, how to handle a thick cut, and why the direction you slice changes the texture.
- Knife Skills: Grip, Cuts, and Why Size MattersHow you hold the knife matters more than how fast you cut. The pinch grip, the claw hand, and why uniform size is a cooking decision rather than a cosmetic one.
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