Plain-Sliced Pork (Bai Pian Rou)

Ingredients

• 1 whole domestic pig

Instructions

1. Select a pig that you have raised yourself. After slaughtering, place it in a pot and cook until eight-tenths done. Remove and immerse in the cooking liquid for one hour. Once cooled, slice thinly the portions of the pig that moved in life — the more tender, active muscles. Serve at warm temperature, neither hot nor cold.
2. For the slicing: use a small sharp blade and cut so that fat and lean are intermingled, with the cuts running at varied angles and appearing scattered — this is far better than uniform slices. This contradicts the ancient sage's rule that "meat not cut properly should not be eaten."
3. When selecting which cut to use, note that Manchu "dancing meat" (跳神肉 — the muscle that trembles when the animal moves) is the finest choice available.