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Pork Packing in China

A preserved pork product made by marinating hind thigh meat with sugar, rice wine, salt, soy sauce, pepper, and drying in the sun.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and sauce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,147 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Pork Packing in China

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Chop the hind thigh meat finely.

  2. Mix the chopped meat with sugar, rice wine, table salt, soy sauce, and pepper.

  3. Spread the mixture out in the sun to dry until ready for tinning.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Sugar + saucetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,147 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Pepper + meattop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,777 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Sauce + meattop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,167 recipes
  4. Sauce + peppertop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,303 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Rice wine + peppertop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together192 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

Sauce and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,303 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Hind thigh meat
Provides the main protein and fat, forming the body and chewy texture of the finished pork.
Soy sauce
Adds savoury depth and a darker colour to the meat.
Sugar
Balances the saltiness and adds mild sweetness.
Rice wine
Adds aroma and a mild, rounded flavour to the meat.
Table salt
Seasons the meat and draws out moisture during drying.

The step that matters

Drying in the sun. Drying removes moisture, which concentrates flavour and firms the texture. If the meat is under-dried it stays soft and is more likely to spoil; if over-dried it becomes hard and dry. Check it until it is ready for tinning.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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