homemade char siu

cooking for my dad is like cooking for a petulant child.  his palate is specific, stubborn, and moody.  he likes pickles with his fried rice, he eats meunster cheese and bananas, sundays are bagel days, and doesn't eat leftovers.  he doesn't like any sweetness in savory dishes and yet he's addicted to condensed milk in his coffee.  fried foods are always good, but if u put fried chicken over fried rice, he'd pick around the protein and just eat the carbs.   and oddly enough, he'll crave his bi weekly solo outing of branzino or chicken marsala.  by now, he's spent more time in the states than in asia, so he craves pastrami, ate white castle last week, and i find his chinese palate peculiar and dated.   and therein marks the start of my housewife rant.  #domesticgoddess

so last week i picked up a boneless pork shoulder rib from costco just to try out a different cut of meat.  after some online research, i went for the homemade 叉燒 adventure...

pretty simple marinade...

Ingredients:

Pork Shoulder Butt: 2.25 lb or 1 kg 
Soy Sauce: 3/8 cup (6 tbsp) or 90 mL 
Sugar: 3/5 cup sugar or 130 g
Mei Kuei Lu Chew: 1/6 cup or 40 mL
Oyster Sauce: 1 tbsp
Hoisin Sauce: 1 tbsp
Ground Bean Sauce: 1 tbsp
Shallot: 1/5 cup or 47 g minced 
Salt: 1 tsp
White Pepper: 1 tsp
Five Spice: 1.5 tsp
Ginger Powder: 1 tbsp
Garlic Powder: 1 tbsp
Dark Soy Sauce: 1 tsp
Sesame Oil: 1 tbsp

Glaze:
Maltose: 350g
Brown Sugar: 1/2 cup
Water: 1/2 cup

   

i felt like my first go around was spot on.  even the crispy charred hoisin/oyster sauce/honey glaze.  i was using a very lean pork cut so benny complained about the meat being tough.  so we went for the immersion circulator....8 hours 65C.

 after 22 hours 

comparison

after 8 hours, the pork is still tough.  at 24 hours, it becomes that melty type protein texture that people pay a ton of money for at michelin restaurants.  I'm not that fond of this style of cooking with lean pork.  i feel like it loses that meat mouthfeel and becomes an odd soft consistency.  however, i can see beef and lamb being more ideal for the sous vide as the muscle fibers are much tougher and maintain that meat bite when broken down for hours...

i can't find my torch.