Have you ever wondered how a bowl of Chinese pork/chicken/prawn noodles from hawker stall is ever so rich in taste? Okay, msg might be one of the reasons. But then, have you ever wondered how they are made; the authentic kind? It always start with a stock. It’s the base of every soup. For this post, let’s learn how to make a simple pork stock. I’ll also show you an example of what I use the pork stock for.
My beautiful Chinese style pork stock!
Let’s do it!
Two pieces of pork marrow bones (about 480g). To clean it: I add a little bit of salt and rub on them. Then rinse with water.
You can experiment with different types of bones. I choose marrow bones because they are rich in collagen. Pig’s feet and knuckles are also rich in collagen. My main purpose is not about beauty purpose, instead for healthy gut.
Place the cleaned marrow bones in a saucepan and fill water about 1 inch above the bone’s level. Bring it to a boil on stove top and then simmer for 20 minutes in low heat. What we’re doing now is parboiling the bones to remove blood and impurities. Depending on the size of your bones, it can be shorter than 20 minutes or longer.
The scum floating on the surface is the blood from the bones. Use a ladle to remove them. This way, you can check whether there are any new ones floating.
After 20 minutes, remove the marrow bones from the saucepan. Discard the water from the saucepan and wash it clean.
You can use a brush or just your fingers to remove the blood residue from the bones. Clean them well because they will give your stock undesirable smell, taste and color.
Add the cleaned marrow bones in the pot and fill a pot with 2 liter water (or until just covering the bones). Bring it to a boil, then reduce to simmer in low heat. Add a knob of ginger and 2 tablespoons Shaoxing wine. This is to get rid of undesirable smell. Simmer with lid on for 4 to 6 hours. If you see any scum floating, do skim them.
Remember to check the water level from time to time. Just in case.
I started with 2 liter of water and after I obtained 1.4 liter of stock after 4 hours. So happy for the white semi-clear stock.
Strain the stock into jars. Let it cool before refrigerating it.
The aftermath of making pork stock from marrow bones. There are some meat there which you can eat it by dipping with soy sauce. This is the Chinese way of not wasting food. For me, I fed the bones+meat to the dogs behind my house only if the bones are soft. I’m sure it was a feast for them. 😉
My pork stock after being refrigerated a day. If you squint your eyes, you can see a layer of fat at the top layer. Those are precious fat. Don’t throw them away ya. Just use the fat together with the stock.
Basically this pork stock has very lil’ taste. It’s quite bland but with some aroma. To spice it up for my soup, all I did was to add salt. And it became so YUMMY! 😍
Noodle in pork soup made with pork stock. All I did was add salt to the pork stock, made some pork balls and boil them together. Here’s the same dish which I posted in Instagram.
Give the pork stock a try. It’s very healthy!
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