Ingredients
Scale
- 2-pound slab of boneless pork belly, skin-on
- ½ cup of soy sauce
- 1 cup of sake
- 1 cup of mirin
- ½ cup of sugar
- 6 scallions, roughly chopped
- 6 whole garlic cloves
- One 2-inch knob of ginger, roughly sliced
- 1 whole shallot, split in half (skin on)
Instructions
- Place the pork belly atop a cutting board and wrap it up lengthwise, with the skin facing outwards.
- Bind the pork belly tightly at ¾-inch intervals with butcher’s twine.
- Heat up your oven to 275 degrees Fahrenheit. In a medium saucepan, bring 1 cup of water, sake, soy sauce, sugar, mirin, scallions, ginger, garlic, and shallot to a boil over high heat. The pork belly should be added to this mixture (it should not be submerged). Cover it, but ensure that the lid is a little ajar.
- Cook the pork belly in the preheated oven, rotating it occasionally, for 3 to 4 hours, or until pork is thoroughly cooked and a thin knife or a cake tester pushed into its center meets no resistance.
- Refrigerate the ingredients after moving them into an airtight container until totally cool.
- Remove the pork belly and drain the soup as soon as you’re ready to serve. Save the broth for use later (a recipe like ajitsuke Tamago will benefit greatly from the pork belly broth). The pork belly should be sliced into tiny rounds (first cutting it in half lengthwise is a good idea).
- Heat up the pork belly slices with noodles or any other garnishes in soup stock. Optionally, you can heat up the pork belly with a blowtorch, charring the surface, or warm a little amount of the leftover stock inside a skillet and cook the pork slices in the broth until they get hot. Serve and enjoy them afterward.
Pork belly is always a wonderful addition to ramen, and when cooked properly, the possibilities for flavor are limitless. Follow the cooking instructions outlined above carefully in order to get the best results out of your cooking.
If you’re interested in more recipe ideas for pork belly, ensure to check out this video recipe.