[Korean culture] Making smoked pork belly (훈제 삼겹살)

[Learning English with writing]

Korea is a country with four seasons. March is the season when the cold winter passes and spring comes. In March, I decided to make smoked pork belly with my father-in-law. Pork belly eaten in Korea is famous for charcoal-grilled pork belly, which is usually made by burning wood. Today's dish is also charcoal-grilled, but it is generally different from pork belly sold in pork belly stores in that it is smoked once more.  

When making smoked pork belly, it is recommended to purchase whole pork belly (Korean : 통삼겹살) rather than sliced pork belly. Sliced pork belly is difficult to taste the gravy because the moisture flies quickly during baking, but in the case of whole pork belly, the moisture is preserved and you can taste moist pork belly. If whole pork belly is grilled over charcoal for about two hours, the outer part of the pork belly is cooked crispy, and the inner part is cooked moist, so you can eat soft meat.

Cover pork belly in foil before slice for 10 minutes. Pork belly wrapped in foil is cooked once again with steam itself. Steamed pork belly makes the crispy outside moist, so you can enjoy the gravy of the meat. Pork belly wrapped in foil does not quicly cool and preserves warmth in the foil. After 10 minutes, take out the grilled pork belly and slice it, and you can see that the gravy is alive. 

Smoked pork belly is more delicious if you dip it in Ssamjang (Korean : 쌈장)and red pepper paste(Korean : 고추장), which are Korean seasoning. If you dip pork belly in ssamjang and wrap it with perilla leaf or lettuce, the taste doubles. Ssamjang (쌈장) is a kind of paste made by mixing soybean paste and red pepper paste. As the name suggests, it is a processed soybean paste that is served to enhance the taste when wrapping a wrap (Korean : 쌈) or eating meat.