Chinese meat wool

Known in China as rousong (yuk sung in Cantonese), or pork sung. This is pork (usually shoulder) cooked with a bit of soy sauce and lard, then teased into very thin shreds and dried. The tiny shreds have a lovely combination melt-in-your-mouth/chewy texture and subtle flavor. In China it's popular served at breakfast with congee. I like it on its own as a snack. Kenneth Lo's Encyclopedia of Chinese Cooking has a recipe for the Fujian regional variant under the name "Fukien Meat Wool". I also found it in Huang Su Huei's cookbook Chinese Snacks. I've never made it myself--it strikes me as the sort of thing like ketchup that's usually bought and not made at home from scratch. Pork fu is nearly the same thing but the shreds are finer and crispier. I find little if any difference between the two and enjoy them interchangeably. Kimbo brand is the one I can find in Asian groceries around here.

Does anyone else have experience with this stuff?

-Paul W.

Paul s this the same as pork floss? No experience of it , or them, but should try it next time any passes by.

Yes, pork floss is another English name for it.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

So I thought I knew a lot about Chinese food but you have me on this one, Paul. Zero experience, though I now realize what it is I've seen garnishing congee (in pix on menus, I haven't ordered it).

Speaking of Chinese meat, last time I was at H Mart I saw (and bought) thinly sliced fresh pork cheek. I was attracted by the novelty of the cut in western experience. Do you know what the typical preparation for it would be? Something different, I'm guessing, than mere stir fry?

I've never encountered pork cheek, although I bet it's been on the Chinese-only menu in some restaurants I've been to. It's bound to have a lot of connective tissue, so I'd red-cook it or stew it in an aromatic braize (lu technique) if it's in large chunks. Very thinly sliced I'd give it a brief, hot stir-fry.

Marcella Hazan says in one of her cookbooks that pork cheek is used in Bolognese mortadella and bologna.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Yes, it's thinly sliced for stir-fry. The Korean markets have all kinds of fun, crazy cuts. I just wondered if you knew of any dishes that traditionally called for this cut.

Googling "Chinese pork cheek" turned up some recipes.

-Paul W.

Yes, it's thinly sliced for stir-fry. The Korean markets have all kinds of fun, crazy cuts. I just wondered if you knew of any dishes that traditionally called for this cut.

I just posted a recipe for Cider-Braised Pork Cheeks, which uses whole cheeks (about 4 oz each), rather than sliced, but it's very tasty. You could probably adapt it for thin slices - just don't cook it so long.

The Saigon Market in Manchester NH has both Pork Sung and Pork Fu, from the same manufacturer, so I bought one of each to do a side-by-side comparison. The differences:

o Pork Fu has a lighter color than Pork Sung.

o Pork Fu is a bit fluffier and less dense than Pork Sung.

o Pork Sung has a more assertive, less sweet flavor than Pork Fu.

The differences are subtle and the two are interchangeable.

-Paul W.