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Meat from China

Bak kwa肉干

Sliced or minced pork is seasoned with sugar, salt, soy sauce and spices, spread thin, dried and then grilled over charcoal, gas or electric heat into sweet, glossy sheets. Bak kwa is not fermented; soy sauce is its only fermented ingredient. It is a sweet-cured, dried and grilled meat.

A short entry: the sources we found record only what is said here about Bak kwa itself.

Short entryMeat

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedNo fixed recipe; makers keep their own. The amounts in the standards are limits for the finished product, not a recipe.
Lean pork, sliced or minced[gbt31406]
Sugar, salt, soy sauce and spicesNo fixed amounts in the standards read; China's quality standard for the similar 肉脯 caps chloride at 3.5 g and total sugar at 28–35 g per 100 g of product[gbt31406][wp]
Start
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What changes: Sugar, salt, soy sauce and spices go into the sliced or minced pork

Step 1 of 3
Slice or mince and season the meat
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

Output: seasoned meat slices or paste.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Sliced or minced pork is seasoned with sugar, salt, soy sauce and spices, spread thin, dried and then grilled over charcoal, gas or electric heat into sweet, glossy sheets. Bak kwa is not fermented; soy sauce is its only fermented ingredient. It is a sweet-cured, dried and grilled meat.

What makes this one different

Bak kwa is sweet-cured, dried and then grilled, so it is a cooked meat and not a ferment. Unlike biltong or pastırma, it is finished over direct heat.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Minced bak kwa (肉糜脯 style)Minced meat made into sheets instead of sliced meat.

Safety

Grilling raises polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Hong Kong's food authority found thin grilled dried meat higher in these than barbecued pork cooked the same way, and advises makers to prefer electric grilling to gas.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

The technique came from China, and Chinese immigrants brought it to Singapore and Malaysia, where it became sweeter and gained local versions such as chilli bak kwa.

  1. [cfs2004] Food and Environmental Hygiene Department, Hong Kong SAR 2004, Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in barbecued meat, Risk Assessment Studies Report No. 14gov
  2. [gbt31406] Draft revision of GB/T 31406, 肉脯质量要求 (Quality requirements for dried meat slice), replacing GB/T 31406-2015 (consultation draft)spec
  3. [wp] Wikipedia, Bakkwa (outline only)wiki