Just from its name, it seems there’s not much difference between this dish and the classic Sichuan dish "Garlic White Pork," but only after Jiang Yu understood the recipe, he realized the two are vastly different.
The biggest difference lies in the exquisite knife skills showcased by Li Village White Pork.
The cooked "secondary cut pork" requires using a long, thin blade to slice into the pork skin, cutting the pork into pieces of consistent thickness, approximately 20 centimeters long, 10 centimeters wide, and only 1 to 2 millimeters thick, thin enough to be translucent.
When eating, you pick up one end of the sliced white pork, gently flick it with chopsticks, and the meat rolls up, then dip it in the prepared sauce. Once it enters the mouth, it feels fresh and smooth, rich but not greasy, breaks down while chewing, leaving an endless aftertaste.
In essence, this is a dish that tests knife skills.
The ingredients used for Li Village White Pork are also particular; not just any pork can be used. It must be the "secondary cut pork" from the pig’s hind leg.
The so-called "secondary cut pork" refers to the part left after removing the first cut from the pig’s rump.
Each pig has only a little over three kilograms of "secondary cut pork." This part of the meat, juicy and tender, offers an excellent taste and has a balanced proportion of fat and lean, making it very appealing.
Jiang Yu carefully selected a piece of "secondary cut pork," approximately 20 centimeters long and 10 centimeters wide, cleaned it, and placed it into a pot of cold water. While boiling, he skimmed off the scum to remove any gamey flavor.
Each time the water boiled, Jiang Yu added a ladle of cold water to cool it down, keeping the water temperature around 90 degrees Celsius, ensuring the meat was evenly heated.
After boiling for about half an hour, Jiang Yu pierced the meat with a bamboo skewer and, seeing no blood oozing out, knew the meat was cooked.
He then took out the whole piece of pork and soaked it in cooled boiled water to prevent the pork from "skinning over," which would affect the slicing later.
Next, it was time to showcase the real "technique"!
Jiang Yu took a deep breath, lifted the large piece of pork chilled in cooled boiled water, and set it aside to drain the water.
He then took a clean white towel, spread it flat on the cutting board, and after the surface moisture of the meat had somewhat dried, placed it on the towel to prevent slipping during slicing.
Additionally, the towel served another purpose: absorbing the moisture seeping out during meat slicing.
After the preparations, Jiang Yu picked up the chef’s knife, took a deep breath, and leaned forward. He gently pressed an open palm on the pork, holding the knife horizontally with the edge inward, starting from the pork skin, slicing the meat bit by bit.
During this process, Jiang Yu was highly focused, hardly breathing.
Since the meat was quite large, once the knife went in, it was almost impossible to see how deep it cut, so he had to rely on feel to cut the meat. A slight mistake either resulted in slices of uneven thickness or cutting through the meat in the middle.
Either of these situations, should they occur, meant the dish was essentially a failure.
Although Jiang Yu hadn’t made Li Village White Pork before, his knife skills had always been decent, especially now that his culinary skills had reached Technician level. With tasks like slicing meat, once practiced a few times, it becomes progressively more natural.
However, slicing such a large and thin piece of meat for the first time made him a bit cautious.
Being laughed at by Lao Jia was no big deal, but if the dish didn’t meet standards and the old man wasn’t willing to teach him those "secret techniques," that would really be a loss!