Seven most commonly eaten parts
A: Shoulder blades.
The upper part of the chest is plum blossom, and the lower part is the heart of the scapula. The meat taken from the front of the pig's back to the scapula belongs to the part where pigs exercise a lot. Shoulder blades are rich in meat flavor, with a charming meat flavor, which can be used to make various cooking changes with tendons and grease.
Roasted pork shoulder with plum blossom;
It belongs to scapular meat, and the oil is evenly distributed. Is the most commonly used part. Because there is muscle and meat, it tastes good and has a wide range of uses. It used to be the highest price, commonly known as "serving meat". Most modern people don't like meat with too much fat, so most butchers will remove the skin and thick lard fat layer before selling it to consumers.
Cooking method: suitable for long-term stewing, stewing and roasting in large pieces, such as barbecued pork, stewed meat and boiled meat. The longer you cook, the more you can cook the fragrance into the meat, and you can also cut it into thin slices for hot pot and barbecue.
Shoulder heart: Shoulder heart is the lower shoulder, which is often said in Taiwanese in the traditional market. Because it has no fat, it is considered to be the best place to make minced meat. You can usually add a little fat to make minced meat dishes smoother, and cooked food such as jiaozi and steamed buns will taste better.
B: front leg meat
Some butchers will count the breast meat and plum blossom meat connected near the front leg, but in most cases, the front leg is just a simple leg part. The front legs are thicker and shorter than the rear legs, and the knees are bent forward. Generally, Wanluan pig's feet and German pig's feet are used on the front legs, but the difference is that Wanluan pig's feet will use the whole front legs, while German pig's feet mainly take the fleshy parts above the front legs, but not the hooves.
This part has less fat and more gum, and people who are afraid of eating oil often choose this part; The meat is slightly thicker than plum blossom meat, unlike the hind leg meat, which is too fine and has a moderate taste.
Cooking method: Because the meat quality is better than hind legs, it is suitable for stewing until cooked, or decocting, frying shredded pork or chopping into minced meat for stuffing.
C: latissimus dorsi pork lion
Located in the center of the pig's back, it is a good part of pork, with less fat, chewy meat and neat shape and texture. Because of the integrity of the meat, a large piece is especially suitable for making fried pork chops, and it is also very common when making ribs. After cooking, the meat flavor is stronger.
Cooking method: because the fiber is fine and dense, it is not suitable for long-term cooking; However, short-term cooking, such as roughly cutting into fried pork chops, or shredding and frying quickly, has a good taste and can get the bite of meat.
When processing, in order to make the meat softer, you can beat the meat with a meat mallet. This action will break the fibers and some tissues of the meat, and the contraction of the meat will be limited during the cooking process, and the taste will be maintained without being excessively dry and hard.
D: small pork tenderloin
It is the lean meat connected with the big ribs under the back bone, the part where pigs exercise the least, and the most tender piece of meat in the whole pig. It is characterized by light meat flavor, no bones and tendons, and low fat content. The tip of the internal muscle near the rib is a particularly tender part, also called "waist".
How to cook: This piece of meat has delicate fibers and is suitable for short-time cooking to avoid the loss of gravy. For example, frying, frying and frying are all suitable cooking methods for tenderloin, or simply making fried pork chops.
E: pork belly (pork belly)
It refers to the abdominal part below the back of a pig, commonly known as "pork belly". Skin, lard and meat are obviously layered, so it is also called "three-layer meat". It contains a lot of oil, so the taste of meat is particularly strong. A complete pork belly can taste a variety of flavors. You can choose a thicker pork belly, and the first half is the best.
Cooking method: The ratio of fat to thin can be selected according to the cooking needs. Pork belly rich in oil has a warm taste and is suitable for cutting into pieces, braising or stewing. Meat will not harden because of long-term stewing, but it will become more fragrant as it is cooked, such as braised pork with dried plum and Dongpo meat. Therefore, the outermost pigskin has become the representative food of Q-elastic collagen. If you want to stir-fry quickly or blanch and cut the dipping sauce, you can choose the ratio of fat to thin.
F: pork ham with hind legs
The meat in the hind legs is particularly strong, and the meat closer to the buttocks is thicker and less fat, so the taste of the meat is astringent.
Hip meat:
It belongs to the top of hind legs, with more lean meat and less oil, and the taste is astringent; However, due to the lack of fascia, it is easy to handle, and it is often used to make ground meat, broth or fried, and also used to make processed meat, especially sausages and ham.
Cooking method: thick meat, suitable for frying shredded pork and making minced meat. In fact, most processed products such as meatballs, ham and minced meat are made of hind legs.
If you want to cook barbecue dishes with your ass, you can slice and flatten the meat first, and change the structure of the meat, so that it will taste better after treatment.
Hoof:
The part from the lower thigh to the knee is called the hoof, and some people call it the "leg bank". There is much meat here, the meat is fat but not greasy, and the pigskin is thin, which is generally suitable for long-term stewing with skin.
Cooking method: usually suitable for long-term stewing with skin, it can be cut into pieces, stewed or braised in brown sauce, and fried and roasted is also good.
G: Pig's feet and trotters.
Below the hooves are trotters and trotters. Pigs belong to cloven-hoofed animals, and each leg has two big hooves. Toe nails are usually removed before cooking, which is also called hoofflower. The hoof skin is thick and the palm is also full of collagen, which is soft and elastic.
Cooking method: Suitable for long-term stewing.
Tendons:
Also known as pig's trotters tendon. Although there are tendons in the front and rear feet and hooves, it is difficult to take out the tendons in the front foot, so most of them are taken out from the rear feet and hooves in the market. Because the quantity is small, it's best to book from vendors in advance, or you can buy dried tendons that need foaming in dry goods stores. Generally speaking, in addition to the Buddha jumping wall, which is often eaten in table dishes, the cooking method can be slightly fried and marinated. Many people like the taste and rich gum of QQ.
Favorite! Special part
1- pork neck
Commonly known as "Matsuzaka pig", at first some people found that this part tasted like Matsuzaka cattle, so they took this name to attract buyers. This is a very popular ingredient in recent years. The proportion of pig neck meat in the whole pig is very small, and a pig has only six taels, so it is also called "golden six taels".
This part of the meat is crisp and greasy. When cooking, you should master two principles: quick cooking and slicing. Do not cook or stew for a long time, or the meat will become harder and harder.
2- liver mesophyll
As the name implies, it is a piece of meat located above the liver, which separates the thoracic cavity from the abdominal cavity in the pig viscera and connects it with the liver. Therefore, it is called liver joint meat, the only lean meat in viscera, and also known as "Matsuzaka meat in viscera", and its preciousness can be seen. It is not easy to buy pork liver in the traditional market, because most of them have already been booked by noodle vendors.
3- Pig cheek
The meat on both sides of the chin and cheeks of pigs, also called "mouth meat" and "chrysanthemum meat", has less fat and tender meat. Because pigs keep moving meat into their mouths when eating and chewing, the meat is soft and chewy, and it is delicious when scalded, sliced or barbecued.
Four-bone cub
That is, the pig's head meat, the fine meat on the pig's bones is taken off and cut off, which becomes delicious bone meat.
5- Tiger Claw
It is the ligament and cartilage tissue at the knee of the pig. Because the Tiger Claw of the forelegs is small, the Tiger Claw of the hind legs is used more. They are white in appearance, soft in taste and rich in gum, and are usually sold with large bones rich in gum. Because of the small quantity, it is recommended to make an appointment with the manufacturer in advance. In addition to the dish "Braised Black Ginseng with Tiger's Palm" which is often heard, it is also suitable for heavy dishes such as braised pork or three cups.
6- mouse meat
There is a piece of thigh with a large amount of exercise, commonly known as "mouse meat", which is a part of pig's hoof tendon, and refers to the pig's hoof tendon of hind legs. Each pig can only take out four pieces. Fleshy q-bomb, chewy but not too hard, looks like olives, covered with meat film, with soft tendons hidden inside.
Where is the tendon of pig's trotters?
Pigs have tendons on their front and rear legs. Olive-shaped pig tendon is located in the muscle bundle of thigh. The tendons in the front legs are smaller and the hind legs are thicker, so some butchers also call them small tendons and big tendons. There is no fat and soft tendon here, which is suitable for long-term stewing, stewing or braising pork. This part is often used in pork slices common in general convenience stores.
7-2 layers of meat
A thin layer of meat under the pigskin and between the internal muscles is soft and tender, with a small quantity and high price. It is recommended to slice against the grain and then blanch in the sauce, which is similar to the way garlic slices are eaten, and the special taste can be tasted best.
Know pork chops and bones
Schwartz:
The bone attached to Jia's heart is called Jia's heart Thick bones are resistant to cooking, and are often used to make soup, such as stewed ribs.
Rib:
Pork belly leaves the last layer of lean meat connected with bones, which is called ribs. This part of the meat is juicy, and it is often used for barbecue to make grilled ribs. The meat stalls often pick out the ribs and turn them into thin bones. The meat part is used to sell three layers of meat, and the bones are used to make soup.
Rib row:
The bone attached to the internal muscle, called internal muscle steak, is also called "veal steak", which is a relatively short bone left in the middle after removing the back and supporting bone. A short piece of meat is rich and suitable for long cooking. For example, sweet and sour pork and braised pork are common practices, and the meat quality is similar to that of the inner tendons, which is more chewy.
Back off:
Commonly known as keel, it is the backbone of pigs. If it is connected with the major muscles, it is the ribs in the stool. But if you take out the main muscles on both sides, basically only bones are left, and there is almost no meat. But because the spinal cord contains colloid, it is often used for stewing soup and making soup.
Leg bone:
It is often heard in snack bars that the head of noodle soup or soup is made of big bone soup, and the front leg bones and rear leg bones of pig legs are mainly used for making soup. You can ask the stall owner to help you cut the bones into sections, which is not only convenient to handle, but also allows the bone marrow and soup to blend with each other, so that the soup head can better absorb the aroma of the leg bones.
Pig blood and lard are also delicious.
How to cook pig blood?
It is generally not easy to buy pig blood in pork stalls, because in slaughterhouses, merchants who specialize in collecting pig blood will buy it directly and then process it, so it is usually easier for people to buy pig blood clots or rice blood cakes in supermarkets. Because pig blood is rich in iron, it smells very strong. No matter how Chinese and western methods are used to treat pig blood, it is suggested to add some heavy-flavored ingredients such as garlic, leek or fennel, or sprinkle peanut powder and coriander on the rice blood cake like the vendors outside, which can also reduce the fishy smell.
Does lard have magical effects?
The subcutaneous fat of pigs is developed, and the fat is a piece of white lard on the pork stall. Traditional families are used to cutting lard into small pieces and frying them in a pot to extract fresh lard that can be used for cooking or bibimbap, or supermarkets can also buy frozen ready-made lard, which can also be used for cooking, bibimbap and dough mixing after heating and melting.
Lard can also appear in sausages and some processed products to increase the taste and smoothness of food. The commonly used lard is mostly pig back oil, which is not only large and complete, but also produces less impurities during processing. In addition, there is also a kind of pig belly oil, which will make food taste bad because of more impurities in the cooking process, so it will only be used for frying food at most, and then thrown away after frying. In addition to this block oil, there is also a "reticular oil". In addition to this block oil, there is also a reticular oil, which is located under the pancreas and wraps the pork tenderloin. It is more commonly used to fix the stuffing of the snack "Dragon and Chicken Legs".