The market

Smoked pork belly

Layers of fat and meat from the underside — the cut for crackling, red-braised pork and Korean barbecue.

What to do with it

Classics built on it
HunanHunan smoked porkPork belly salted, then smoked for weeks over a wood fire until dark and firm, sliced thin and stir-fried with garlic shoots or leeks and chilli.No one here has made it yetHunanSteamed trio of cured meatsSlices of smoked pork, cured chicken and cured fish packed together in a bowl with fermented black beans and chilli, and steamed until their fats and flavours mingle.No one here has made it yetAlsatianChoucroute garnieSauerkraut braised in white wine with juniper, then heaped with smoked and salted pork, sausages and boiled potatoes.No one here has made it yet

Kinds

Skin-on slab
For roasting with crackling, or braising.
Sliced (samgyeopsal)
Thick strips for Korean barbecue.
Cured
As pancetta or streaky bacon.

Knowing it

Where to buy
Butchers, and Chinese and Korean grocers.
Worth knowing
For crackling: score the skin, dry it uncovered in the fridge overnight, salt it, and start it hot.

Kitchens that keep it in

Alsace — north-eastern France, between the Vosges and the RhineAlsatianFrench and German at once: sauerkraut and pork, yeasted cakes and bread, fresh cheese and cream, cooked with the dry white wines of the Vosges foothills.9 classics