Making Homemade Salt Pork and Pot-au-Feu Without Consommé: Ryuji's "Serious Recipe"

First comes preparing the salt pork. Ryuji previously cured pancetta in a carbonara video. This time, the goal is to show that it can be used for many things besides carbonara.

Two blocks of pork belly are used, each about 340 g. Salt equal to 3% of the meat's weight, or about 10 g per block, is rubbed in. Ryuji usually rubs in black pepper too, but says black pepper isn't that important and can be added later. What matters is the salt. No garlic is rubbed in.

One of the two blocks was bought by a staff member and was very fatty. Joking that "there's nothing to eat on it," Ryuji explained how to use this meat. In Italy there is a salt-cured pork called guanciale, made from the fattiest part, the jowl (tontoro). Curing this fatty belly in salt would produce something close to guanciale. Ryuji said it's a common experience to ask for a pork belly block and have someone bring back meat that's all fat, and recommended curing it in salt when that happens.

The salted meat is placed on a rack so air can circulate underneath. If you don't have a rack, you can line up several disposable chopsticks and set it on top. Then it goes straight into the fridge. It is not covered with plastic wrap.

A staff member mentioned that when they made pancetta before, they wrapped it in a special moisture-absorbing sheet. Ryuji replied that those sheets (Pichit sheets) are expensive, so you can just leave it this way. According to Ryuji, drying it without wrap draws out moisture and concentrates it, making the pork's umami very strong. As a guideline, it becomes edible in about three days and keeps for several weeks.

On safety, Ryuji repeatedly stressed that it's "at your own risk." Ryuji says they have never once gotten an upset stomach from this method. However, they attribute that to never eating it raw like ham and always cooking it through.

Ryuji reflects that none of their recipe videos had ever involved "preparing something and using it later." Still, there was a reason for using this format this time. The previous carbonara video used a labor-intensive method—"first, cure a block of bacon in salt and leave it for three days"—yet it got lots of views and was well received. Ryuji feels that elaborate dishes have started getting watched recently, and that viewers' enthusiasm for cooking may be growing. They made this video with the thought that if they recommended it, people might surprisingly give it a try.

Ryuji also pointed out its advantages as preserved food. A raw pork belly block will spoil, but cured in salt it can be used for a long time. If you prepare a batch when pork belly blocks are cheap, the price per gram is much lower than bacon, Ryuji says.

The scene moves forward several days. The salt pork had been kept in the fridge on the rack for about five or six days, then transferred to a Ziploc bag. About another week had passed since it went into the bag, making it about two weeks since curing began. The meat is firm and rock-hard. Ryuji added, however, that over-drying it isn't good either.

Even after going into the Ziploc bag, a little water seeps out of the meat. Wiping off this water helps it keep longer. At this point, there was no sign of spoilage or mold. Ryuji repeatedly urged viewers to always check by sight and smell for any unpleasant rotten odor or mold, and once again emphasized that it's at your own risk. They believe it's fine as long as it hasn't spoiled or grown mold, but also reminded viewers to always cook it through.

How the two blocks would be used was also decided. The leaner block would go into the pot-au-feu. The fattier block was slated for amatriciana, a traditional pasta made with guanciale. However, deciding it would be a waste to cram two good dishes into one video, the pasta was moved to a separate video to be released later.

Pot-au-feu takes a long time to simmer, so it's made first. Ryuji describes pot-au-feu as a home-style dish like "French oden," and cuts the ingredients into large pieces.

One whole carrot is used, cut into big chunks. It isn't peeled. Even unpeeled, it becomes delicious once simmered. The onion can also stay in large pieces, since it falls apart when stewed. Any sprouts on the potatoes would be removed, but these were just bought and have none, so they're used with the skin on. A quarter head of cabbage goes in with the core attached. Because the cutting is so rough, the work is easy and the quantities are easy to understand, Ryuji says.

When a staff member said, "The only pot-au-feu I know has consommé in it," Ryuji replied that you can use consommé, but since the vegetables and pork release a lot of umami, it's only needed as a boost, and it's plenty delicious without it.

The key to this pot-au-feu is browning the vegetables in olive oil before simmering them. Ryuji also used this step in their previously released "Ultimate Pot-au-Feu," and says it tastes better browned. Since the browning creates the color of the broth, the carrot, onion, potato and cabbage are seared in that order.

When a staff member asked whether every side should be browned, Ryuji answered that not all of it needs to be, just enough to get some charred spots. Even if the cabbage seems underdone—"Is this really enough?"—it turns meltingly soft once simmered. "Just char the vegetables. This is important," Ryuji says.

Crushed garlic can be added if you like. Crushing releases its aroma and gives the broth a nice fragrance. Ryuji's position is that pot-au-feu isn't a delicate dish but home cooking, so there are no rules.

About 350 g of salt pork is cut up and used. It's better to cut it so the flavor comes out well. When cut, a cross-section concentrated all the way through is visible. Unlike the vegetables, the salt pork is not browned. Ryuji explains that browning would render out all the fat, so simmering alone is enough.

The salt pork is arranged on top of the browned vegetables, and 800 ml of water is poured in. The vegetables haven't been seasoned. That's because the salt pork contains about 10 g of salt, which dissolves into the broth the longer it simmers. However, Ryuji predicted that with so many vegetables, the salt from the salt pork alone would probably fall a little short. The plan was to finish with only the salt pork's salt if possible, and add a little salt if not.

A whole package of sausages also goes in. With so many vegetables, they add heft as an ingredient and also contribute stock. Since the cabbage isn't submerged, it's better to put the lid on. The heat is low, and Ryuji instructs keeping it at a constant gentle bubble.

While it simmered, Ryuji explained where the umami comes from. On the same principle as prosciutto, pork develops umami as it ages. That umami all dissolves into the broth, and with the sausages' umami added, seasoning with salt alone may be plenty delicious. They also touched on seasonal ingredients. Spring cabbage is tender so it doesn't need long simmering, but it's delicious to use. New-season onions might be good too. Ryuji said they have always loved stewed dishes and love drinking while watching the pot, and had white wine brought out.

Partway through simmering, Ryuji reiterated the assessment that the pork's saltiness alone wouldn't be enough. For four servings, they estimated that adding about 2/3 teaspoon of salt would be about right.

The original plan was one hour, but it actually simmered for about an hour and 15 minutes. Ryuji says they think this is just about ideal. After tasting the broth, they decided it did need salt and added about 2/3 teaspoon. Bringing it to a rolling boil distributes it throughout, they say.

In the finished dish, the cabbage is wilted and all the vegetables are soft enough to break apart with a spoon. The salt pork is jiggly too, and falls apart with just a press. The carrots and potatoes cut cleanly, which Ryuji likened to the daikon in oden. No umami seasoning was used, but Ryuji judges that the salt pork, vegetables and sausages produced plenty of stock, and called it a pot-au-feu "you could serve at a restaurant." The broth's deep color comes not from umami seasoning but from charring the vegetables.

At the tasting, a staff member first tried the salt pork and reacted, "It's way too good." Ryuji emphasized the effect of salting and aging: "Raw meat doesn't give you flavor."

When they moved on to the vegetables, the reactions to the onion and cabbage were even bigger. Ryuji explains that the vegetables taste so good because all the salt pork's umami has gone into them. The staff member was surprised it was seasoned with salt alone, and the two of them traded remarks like "I keep eating only the vegetables" and "I can't get around to the meat." Both agreed that the vegetables are the stars of this pot-au-feu. The staff member said, "I never thought pot-au-feu could be this delicious."

Ryuji also touched on this recipe's limitations. The salt pork is edible after about three days of drying, but the longer it ages, the stronger the umami. So if you make it with three-day salt pork and find the flavor lacking, it's perfectly fine to add umami seasoning. Another option is to increase the amount of pork. For example, if you prepare 500 g of salt pork and use it all, the total amount of umami goes up. This time there wasn't that much pork, so salt was used to make up the difference, yet this much umami still came through, Ryuji explains.

Ryuji positions this pot-au-feu as a version of the earlier "Ultimate Pot-au-Feu" made with salt pork and further reworked to use no consommé. The two tasters said it tastes like consommé even though none was added.

Ryuji's explanation is as follows. Consommé is originally made from the umami of meat and the umami of vegetables. So simmering browned vegetables with meat produces a flavor close to consommé. When a staff member asked, "So if you boiled this down, it would become consommé?" Ryuji replied that if you concentrated it a lot, it would become a mass of umami like consommé.

In closing, Ryuji admits that it takes time to make. They say they hadn't released many serious recipes because they thought no one would make them even if they did. Still, they think it's worth experiencing this kind of flavor at least once in your life, and went so far as to say they don't think any restaurant serves pot-au-feu of this quality.

Ryuji ended the video by urging viewers to prepare the salt pork and make this pot-au-feu, which lets you enjoy the vegetables whole, at least once in their lives. The amatriciana made with the fattier salt pork has been held over for a separate video at a later date.