🍽️ Dongpo Pork Knuckle

Braised pork knuckle, Meishan.

Dongpo Pork Knuckle is a traditional famous dish of Meishan, Sichuan, the hometown of Su Dongpo, a Sichuan-style braised pork hock. A pork fore-hock is blanched and singed, pan-fried until the skin wrinkles, then slowly braised with soy sauce, rock sugar, cooking wine, ginger and scallion until fall-apart tender. It turns glossy red, rich yet not greasy, the skin glutinous and the meat meltingly tender, the gravy thick enough to coat a spoon, savory with a pleasant sweetness. It is a grand dish on Meishan Dongpo banquets and home feasts, cut and served with its own sauce, best over rice. Linked in legend to the Northern Song literatus Su Shi, today it wins on its own soft, well-soaked taste. A great Dongpo hock needs full heat and a bright sugar glaze—a dish that demands patient slow braising.