Suyuk (Boiled Pork)

Variations

• There is a reason for using barely enough water. Carnitas spells it out: water stops at 100°C, and the water-soluble part of the meat leaches out into it. The more water there is, the more room there is for that to happen. Suyuk uses just enough to cover — and then recovers what did leave by serving the broth alongside.
• Pyeonyuk takes the same pot one step further. Wrapped and weighted while still hot, the dissolved gelatine spreads between the fibres and sets, gluing them into a block that slices at 2-3mm. Same pot; that one step is the whole difference.
• Bossam: wrapped with salted napa cabbage, bossam kimchi and oysters.
• Garlic bossam: piled with sliced raw garlic.
• Perilla suyuk: simmered with plenty of ground perilla seed for a nutty broth.
• Cold suyuk salad: chilled and tossed with vegetables and a mustard sauce. Mustard has to be let down with water and left ten minutes before it is hot at all — the reason is in dak-hanmari.

Tips

• Simmering with doenjang takes the gaminess off and adds savour; coffee and rice wine help too.
• Use just enough water to cover — too much leaches out the flavour.
• Rest the pork in the broth before slicing so it stays moist; pulling it out straight away makes it dry.
• Always slice against the grain.
• Belly is richer; shoulder and leg are leaner.
• Keep it just below a simmer rather than boiling. Turning collagen into gelatine takes time rather than temperature (braising), and a rolling boil only contracts the muscle fibres and toughens them.
• Cooling it in the broth is how the meat takes liquid back. Lifted out hot, it dries from the surface inward. It is the same thing oden relies on as it cools — there it is the point of the dish.
• Add the rice wine or soju with the lid off. The volatile amines behind the gamey smell evaporate along with the alcohol, and a lid condenses them and drops them straight back in (alcohol in cooking).