Sous Vide Pork Shoulder Chashu Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What temperature is sous vide for chashu? ›

Meat cooked in a sous-vide bag will be moister, but you've got to have a sous-vide cooker for this to work. Cook your meat at, say, 155°F (68°C), and you'll get extraordinarily moist meat, but it'll take up to 36 hours to tenderize.

To Cook: Set your precision cooker to 165°F (74°C) for more traditionally textured pulled pork, or 145°F (63°C) for sliceable but tender pork. When the bath is at temperature, add sealed bag with pork and cover with foil or plastic wrap. Allow to cook for 18 to 24 hours.

The shoulder can be tied and braised in the same way as the pork belly in Kenji's braised-chashu recipe, but it can also be cooked sous vide, which gives the cook total control over what temperature the pork is cooked to. This recipe recommends cooking the pork to 145°F (63°C).

Chashu pork is most commonly made using pork belly, which helps it get to that super delicious, melt-in-your-mouth level of tender thanks to the fat content. If you can't get your hands on pork belly though, you can use pork shoulder or pork loin for your chashu pork.

So long as you're cooking at above 130°F, there are no real health risks associated with prolonged sous vide cooking. You will, however, eventually notice a difference in texture. For best results, I don't recommend cooking any longer than the maximum recommended time for each cut and temperature range.

And most people still prefer that pork is cooked through completely. However United States guidance now states that pork can be cooked to a minimum internal temperature of just 145°F or 63°C, and then left to rest for at least 3 minutes.

The safe internal pork cooking temperature for fresh cuts is 145° F. To check doneness properly, use a digital cooking thermometer. Fresh cut muscle meats such as pork chops, pork roasts, pork loin, and tenderloin should measure 145° F, ensuring the maximum amount of flavor.

You may recognize Chinese Char-siu by its signature red exterior and lean meat where Japanese Chashu is completely different. It's not red, has more fat and tenderness and is typically braised vs. barbequed.

Some recipes call to keep the skin; the methodology being that it helps lock the moisture in as you cook it. However, having had chashu both with and without I already knew I preferred it without skin. Once I got home and unwrapped it, I realized that the slab of pork belly came with a bunch of ribs attached!

Why is chashu pork red? ›

The red color of char siu traditionally comes from red fermented bean curd, or lam yuh. It doesn't give a very bright, vibrant red, but more of a natural redwood-looking hue. To get a very vibrant red color, most Chinese BBQ stalls add red food coloring.

So, streaky pork bacon is pork belly, but pork belly isn't bacon. Instead, pork belly is the whole slab cut from the fleshy underside of a pig. Streaky pork bacon is cut from this slab. Pork belly is unsmoked and uncured, while much bacon found in the U.S. can undergo a lot of processing—not ButcherBox bacon, though.

Sous Vide Pork Braising Temperatures. 156°F (68.8°C) for a shreddable, but still firm texture. 165°F (73.9°C) for a more fall apart texture. 176°F (80.0°C) for a really fall apart texture.

Most food pathogens grow fastest a few degrees below the temperature that they start to die. Most food pathogens stop growing by 122°F (50°C), but the common food pathogen Clostridium perfringens can grow at up to 126.1°F (52.3°C). So in sous vide cooking, you usually cook at 130°F (54.4°C) or higher.

As opposed to most traditional cooking methods, sous vided food is cooked at the temperature you want the final food to end up at. This is usually between 120°F (48.9°C) and 185°F (85°C), depending on the food being prepared. There are a few different categories of food, but in this lesson I will focus on meat.

Transfer to sous vide cooker and cook until completely tender, about 10 hours. Remove bag from cooker and chill thoroughly. Pork belly can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks after cooking if the bag remains sealed. When ready to serve, open sous vide bag and remove pork belly.