Lean Pork Paste – Symbol of traditional Vietnamese cuisine

In the atmosphere of Tet, the family feast not only shows respect to ancestors and gods but is also an important moment connecting people. A traditional Tet feast cannot be without 10 dishes, including 5 bowls and 5 plates, typically vermicelli, meatballs, bamboo shoots, meatballs, mushrooms for the bowls and boiled chicken, ham, sausage, stir-fried dishes and salads for the plates. For more luxurious feasts, people add fish balls, pickled fish, fish head, and some other rare seafood. Wealthy families often arrange the feast with the arrangement of “bowls below, plates above”, known as a tiered feast, in which ham is always an indispensable dish.

Giò lụa, with its diversity in variations, is always a dish that attracts people during the festival, and is considered an inseparable part of Vietnamese culinary culture. However, few people know about the long-standing origin and special position of ham in Vietnamese cuisine.

As the writer Nguyen Tuan wrote in his essay “Giò Lụa” in 1973, making giò lụa from pork is not only an art but also a manifestation of a profound national culture, which only the Vietnamese can create.

Giò Lụa, a specialty of the North, has a history dating back to the 18th century, specifically recorded in “Thuc phat tat khao tuong ky luc” in Nom script by a eunuch of the Le Trinh dynasty, and later explained clearly by scholar Hoang Xuan Han in his work on Vietnamese cuisine. The process of making giò lụa is not complicated but requires meticulousness, and small mistakes also affect the quality.

Giò Lụa, with the main ingredient of pork, after being ground and tightly wrapped, will be boiled. The smoothness of the giò not only shows the sophistication of Vietnamese cuisine but also contains the spirit of nature and health. Factors such as meat quality, fat content, skin, good fish sauce and wrapping in banana leaves all determine the flavor and quality of the pork roll.

According to “The Record of Plants and Animals”: “Choose the loin meat that has no smell, twist it with your hands to make it supple. Avoid buying meat that is too old or too young. The pork skin should be chosen from young pigs, ensuring it is white, good and thin. The skin after purchase needs to be bleached with salt. The banana leaves are boiled until soft, then washed. Prepare the banana leaves before wrapping. After the loin meat is processed, pound it finely. When pounding the meat, add about three dong of fat (equivalent to 1/10 tael, about 39gr), then mix well and pound together. Adjust the taste with enough fish sauce, wrap tightly and cook. Cook the ham similar to boiling eggs, when cooked, take it out, press and prick to drain the water.” For the ham to be of high quality, the selected pork must be hot, elastic and sticky. The meat needs to be pounded by hand to achieve smoothness and suppleness, pounded quickly to avoid the meat from decomposing, affecting the quality of the ham. The ham only needs fish sauce seasoning to create a rich flavor and must be wrapped in fresh banana leaves to enhance the natural aroma.

“The traditional ham made without adding spices such as onions, garlic, sugar, MSG is still especially delicious, with a sweet, fragrant, smooth flavor that melts in your mouth,” said Professor Tran Van Khe at a discussion on preserving the identity and value of traditional Vietnamese cuisine, held at the memorial house of the late photographer Pham Van Mui on December 21, 2012. The ancients cherished what is pure and natural.

Nowadays, the production of ham for business makes it difficult to find fresh meat sources, and due to mass production, the quality of ham is not as good as before. The use of additives such as borax to preserve the ham does not make the ham soft or broken, but raises concerns about food safety. On the other hand, some places that produce ham add too much fat or skin.

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