i am more super awesome than...

Siew yok

Efforts to polish my super-awesome skillz continue. I am in the midst of preparing 'siew yok', which means roast meat in Cantonese. It is well-known that a fine and sexy piece of 'siew yok' proceeds as such:

an airy, crispy layer of skin that has been crackling under a grill, ready to give way to the hedonist's domain: a layer of melting fat,
- the seductive nature of fat provides an unparalleled mouth-feel. This is from my food science textbook. Endorsed by scientists, guys! -
which then interacts with the tender bite of perfectly-roasted meat, which has efficiently absorbed the heady mixture of spice marinade in its 24-hr isolation period.

It's secondary to charsiew in my opinion, but damn, you'd still stare at it walking down the street 'cause it's a fine piece of arse...

The most important step here is the evolution of the perfect skin texture, that most people fuck up. I've definitely done that but back then, I was young... I never ran test trials, I didn't do research.

The skin has to be leached of moisture prior to the roast for good performance in this context. We take the science of 'cold burn' and apply this. 'Cold burn' or 'freezer burn' is notorious for drying out fresh vegetables and meats that have not been properly stored in the refrigerator; an osmotic process. More moisture in meat, less moisture in air... guess where H2O goes.

In this case, the burn is a good thing. The skin loses water while the meat, rubbed with spices, absorbs the flavour during the incubation period. I am trying to figure out the science behind scalding the rind prior to putting it in the fridge, in boiling water and vinegar. But I am on summer holiday and it would be improper to begin thinking too hard. Most likely, it serves to aid in moisture removal.

After t= >12hr, it is time. The meat is cooked at about 15 mins at 450F, after which the skin has become soft enough to pierce with a fork. The grilling commences. You first go apeshit with the fork, poking holes in the skin like your life depends on it. I also cut a pattern of diagonally-aligned squares into the skin before I started this process. This made the skin snap and pop much faster than expected.