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Chashu

This Japanese adaptation of the Chinese dish char siu is seasoned with sugar, sake and dark soy sauce and braised at a low temperature for a few hours. It is then ready for using in ramen.

By bbcfood · From Open Recipes · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Sake and pork share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and 29 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-furfurylthiol, which smells coffee, roasted. The science ↓

The recipe

Prep30 min

Ingredients

Contains: soy, shellfish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Bring a pan of boiling water to a simmer, add the skin-on pork belly and simmer for 10 minutes, then drain and rinse it under cold water.

  2. Roll the pork belly tightly into a log, skin side out, so it holds its shape in the pot.

  3. Lightly crush the ginger, peel the garlic cloves, and slice the leek or onion.

  4. In a pot just large enough to hold the pork, combine the dark soy sauce, sake, mirin, oyster or teriyaki sauce and sugar. Stir until the sugar dissolves.

  5. Add the pork, leek or onion, garlic and ginger, then add enough water to just cover the pork. Bring to a boil.

  6. Reduce the heat to a gentle simmer, partly cover, and cook for about 90 minutes, turning the pork every 20 minutes, until tender when pierced with a fork.

  7. Check that the thickest part of the pork reads at least 145°F (63°C) on a thermometer. Remove the pork and let it rest for 3 minutes.

  8. Simmer the braising liquid uncovered over medium heat for 15 minutes until slightly thickened. Strain it, brush over the pork, slice and serve warm.

By bbcfood. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Sake + porktop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together29 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  2. Sake + gingertop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together114 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Garlic + gingertop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together6,402 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Leek + garlictop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together150 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanol (resin, flower).

  5. Oyster + porktop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,249 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the leek

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sauce, sake, oyster, sugar, pork, garlic, ginger):

  1. Tomatobetter flavor fit
  2. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  3. Potatobetter flavor fit
  4. Leekthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sauce, sake, oyster, sugar, pork, garlic, ginger. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).