Title: Another Way to Eat Pork: Salt-Fried Pork | Serious Eats
Headings: Another Way to Eat Pork: Salt-Fried Pork
Another Way to Eat Pork: Salt-Fried Pork
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Get the Recipe

Content: Both are savory and spicy. ( That flavor duo—chili bean paste plus fermented black beans—graces so many of my favorite things: mapo tofu, red-braised beef, and of course, twice-cooked pork, just to name a few.) Twice-cooked pork is perhaps a smidgeon sweeter, containing a sweet bean paste. The main difference between the two dishes lies in one step, and one step alone. Twice-cooked pork is thusly named because the belly is parboiled before being stir-fried, whereas the cooking for salt-fried pork is done in one fell swoop. Don't get me wrong—I love twice-cooked pork, the way the slices of pork belly have that melt-in-your-mouth quality due to their being parboiled. But salt-fried pork is somehow more fun...as in, it's so much fun to chew! This is due mostly to the rind of the belly, which, when sliced as thinly as you can get it, crisps up in the oil, retaining a sort of toothsome texture. Now how to get your slices that thin?