Have you ever looked up a recipe for suyuk — Korean boiled pork, sliced and eaten with a dipping sauce?
Doenjang, instant coffee, bay leaves, whole peppercorns. They all go in, and they’re all there for one reason: to cover the smell of pork.
Once you’re rounding up five things before you start, suyuk stops being a weeknight dish.
This version uses no water at all. One bottle of soju goes in, and you simmer until it’s gone.

At a glance

Ingredients

  • pork for suyuk (shoulder or belly or neck)
  • seasoning (salt, pepper)
  • vegetables to boil with (scallion or baby napa cabbage)
  • 1 bottle of soju
  • sauce (gochugaru 1, soy sauce 6, vinegar 1, sugar 1)
  • vegetables for the sauce (onion, chili, chives)

Prep

  • chop the sauce vegetables fine

Cooking

  • meat in, season it, add the vegetables and the soju
  • lid on, boil, flip it partway
  • medium-low until the soju cooks off

Ingredients (serves 4)

Main

  • pork shoulder 1 kg (2.2 lb), in one or two large pieces
  • pork belly or pork neck works too

Seasoning

  • salt and pepper — a two-finger pinch of each

For the pot

  • soju 1 bottle, 360 ml (12 oz) — Korean groceries and most liquor stores carry it
  • scallions 2 stalks, onion 1
  • baby napa cabbage can replace the scallions

Dipping sauce — numbers are tablespoons (1 tbsp = 15 ml)

  • gochugaru (Korean chili flakes) 1, soy sauce 6, vinegar 1, sugar 1
  • a little onion, chili, and chives
  • Gochugaru is at H Mart or online. Don’t swap in cayenne — it’s far hotter and much finer.

Prep

  • Chop the onion, chili, and chives for the sauce fine.
  • Stir them into the rest of the sauce ingredients and set aside.

Cooking

  • Put the pork in a pot and season it with salt and pepper.
  • Add the scallions and onion, then pour in the whole bottle of soju. No water.
  • Cover and bring to a boil over high heat.
  • Once it boils, drop to medium-low.
  • Flip the meat once partway through.
  • Simmer 30–40 minutes, until the soju has cooked off. The end point is when there’s almost no liquid left.
  • Lift the pork out, slice it, and serve with the dipping sauce.

Suyuk is eaten as ssam — a slice of pork, a dab of sauce, wrapped in a lettuce leaf or a piece of kimchi. Serve it with rice on the side.

Notes

Not one drop of water

You’re boiling meat, and there’s no water in the pot. A bottle of soju is the entire liquid.
The soju carries off the pork smell as it cooks away, and leaves a faint sweetness behind.
That’s the whole point — everything people normally add to mask that smell becomes unnecessary. This is why the recipe is short.

Cook it down to nothing

“Until the soju cooks off” doesn’t mean a little liquid left in the bottom. It means almost none.
Since you didn’t add water, there’s nothing else to reduce.
When the bottom of the pot starts showing through, it’s done.

For another pork dish, there’s Jeyuk-bokkeum.