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№ 606 · Korean ·New York

Bo Ssäm (Korean-Style Pork Shoulder for a Crowd)

Tempo

2h + overnight cure

Picante

Dificuldade

Médio

Rende

8porções

Ingredientes

The pork

whole bone-in pork shoulder (paleta de porco com osso), about 3-4 kg — ask the butcher for "paleta de porco inteira com osso e pele se possível"

1 cup

(200g) white sugar

1 cup

(240g) coarse salt (sal grosso)

7 tbsp

brown sugar (for the glaze, later)

1 tbsp

coarse salt (for the glaze)

Ginger-scallion sauce (mandatory)

250g spring onions (cebolinha), thinly sliced (whites and greens)

60g fresh ginger, peeled and finely minced

60ml neutral oil (canola or grapeseed)

1½ tsp

light soy sauce

1 tsp

sherry vinegar (or rice vinegar)

¾ tsp

salt

Mix all in a bowl. Let sit 15 minutes. Adjust salt — should taste sharp, hot from raw ginger and onion, savory. Keeps 2 days.

Ssamjang (Korean wrap sauce)

4 tbsp

doenjang (Korean fermented soybean paste — Liberdade, SP) OR substitute miso paste + 1 tsp Marmite

2 tbsp

gochujang (Korean chile paste — Liberdade) OR substitute 1 tbsp Cepera Sriracha + 1 tbsp tomato paste + 1 tsp brown sugar

1 tbsp

sesame oil

1 tbsp

toasted sesame seeds

garlic cloves, grated

spring onions, finely sliced

1 tbsp

brown sugar

1 tbsp

mirin (or 1 tsp sugar dissolved in 1 tbsp warm water)

Mix everything. Keeps a week.

Wraps and accompaniments

heads butter lettuce (alface americana / lisa) OR Korean lettuce / perilla leaves

head of cabbage (repolho), leaves separated and steamed 1 min until pliable

Steamed short-grain rice (japonica)

Kimchi (good Korean kimchi from Liberdade or Korean groceries — don't substitute Brazilian sauerkraut)

Sliced raw garlic (yes, for the brave)

Sliced fresh chiles

Optional: oysters on the half-shell (David Chang's signature — wildly extravagant)

Modo de preparo

01**Mix the cure.** Combine 1 cup sugar + 1 cup coarse salt.
02**Cure the pork.** Place pork shoulder in a deep dish or large container that fits in the fridge. Rub the cure all over the pork — sides, top, bottom. Pour any extra around the meat. Cover loosely. Refrigerate 8-12 hours, ideally overnight.
03**Discard liquid that pools.** Some liquid will drain from the pork; discard before cooking. Brush off most (not all) of the cure mixture from the surface. ### Cook day
04**Pressure cook.** Place pork shoulder in the pressure cooker with 250ml water (the pork will release more juice as it cooks). Lock lid, high pressure, **75 minutes**. Natural release fully (20 min).
05**Move to oven dish.** Preheat oven to 250°C / 500°F (highest setting). Carefully transfer the pork to a roasting pan or baking dish. (Reserve pressure-cooker juices for jus or future use; refrigerate; it'll set into a savory aspic — great in noodles.)
06**Make glaze and apply.** Mix 7 tbsp brown sugar + 1 tbsp salt. Pat the surface of the pork as dry as you can. Press the sugar-salt mixture all over the top and sides — it'll form a crust.
07**Roast hot.** Roast at 250°C / 500°F for **10-15 minutes**, watching carefully — the sugar should melt, bubble, darken to deep mahogany, and form a glassy lacquer. Do NOT walk away; sugar can go from caramel to burnt in 60 seconds. If the broiler in your oven runs hot, it might do this in 6-8 minutes.
08**Rest 10 minutes** before serving. The pork should be falling-apart tender — push a fork in; it should slide through with no resistance.

Bo Ssäm

David Chang's New York reinvention of a Korean classic. A whole pork shoulder, salt-and-sugar cured overnight, slow-roasted to spoon-tender, glazed with brown sugar and finished under high heat to caramelize. Served as a DIY ssäm: tear off pork, wrap in lettuce or cabbage with rice, kimchi, ginger-scallion sauce, ssamjang. The pressure cooker shortens the slow-cook stage; the final glaze and broil finish in the oven.

Heat: 1/5. Mild — heat is from the ssamjang and ginger-scallion sauce on the side, easily adjustable per diner.

Serving

Bring everything to the table:

The whole pork shoulder on a board with two forks
Big bowls of lettuce leaves and steamed cabbage
A bowl of rice
Bowls of kimchi, ginger-scallion sauce, ssamjang
Sliced raw garlic, fresh chiles, etc.

Each diner builds their own ssäm: take a lettuce or cabbage leaf, add a spoon of rice, pull a chunk of pork, top with ginger-scallion sauce + ssamjang + kimchi, fold and eat in 1-2 bites. Repeat. The pork demolishes itself within an hour.

Tame it

The pork itself is heat 0 — heat is added at table. To dial down ssamjang, halve the gochujang and add an extra tablespoon of doenjang or miso.

Sub: bottled chiles only

If no gochujang available: 2 tbsp Cepera Sriracha + 1 tbsp Cepera Mexicano + 2 tbsp tomato paste + 1 tbsp brown sugar mixed together gives a passable substitute for the ssamjang base.

Notes

The cure is the dish. Don't skip the overnight salt-sugar treatment. It seasons the meat to the bone and starts the texture transformation. Without it, you have roast pork, not bo ssäm.
Ginger-scallion sauce is the secret. Don't underestimate it; David Chang has called it "the greatest of all sauces." Make double; eat the rest on noodles all week.
Bone-in matters. Bone gives flavor and helps regulate cooking. Boneless pork shoulder works but loses something.
For a crowd. This dish is designed for a group of 6-10 sharing — that's the bo ssäm experience. For 4 people, halve the pork (use a half-shoulder ~2kg, pressure 55 min).
Leftovers are gold. Pulled pork next day in tacos, sandwiches, or fried rice.
Wine: an off-dry Riesling, a beer pilsner, or chilled Korean rice wine.
Common pitfall: burning the sugar glaze. Watch step 7 like a hawk — it transforms fast.
The David Chang oysters thing: the iconic Momofuku version serves a dozen oysters on the half-shell on the same platter, to be eaten with the pork. Excessive but unforgettable. Optional.