Pork Cuts: Canadian Meat terms in English and Chinese

Pork Cuts: Where they come from and how to cook them

Different parts of the world use different terms for meat. It can be confusing when you go to the store, or read a Canadian grocery store advertisement or weekly flyer for a cut of meat, research it on the internet and find conflicting terms. Even more conflicting is when you go to the Chinese grocery store and find the Chinese name that may or may not correlate with the English name. You can see these terms in the weekly Chinese grocery ads. Such is life living in Toronto, Canada, in a large Chinese community.

There are many pork cuts charts on the internet, and many are very complex. I just buy a specific type of pork, so don’t need all the fancy terms. This chart is just right in terms of complexity and details.

Pork Cuts: Where they come from and how to cook them

Pork butt/梅头肉 mei3tou2rou4: In the chart is called Boston style butt, but here in Toronto we don’t use the term Boston. We call it pork butt. Pork butt is not the buttocks of the pig, but the widest part of the pig, which is the shoulder. Pressure cook for 10-12 minutes. This meat is very flavourful, but needs a long time to cook. If you wish to do pulled pork then pressure cook for 20 minutes.

Pork Chop/猪扒 zhu1 ba1: Labelled as pork chop on the chart. Brine and then pan fry, but don’t over cook it.

Pork Picnic/不见天 bu2jian4 tian1 (never sees the sky): labelled picnic in the chart. Tasty but usually has skin and a large bone. This is the lower leg portion of the pork butt. This meat is very flavourful, but needs a long time to cook. Cook the same as pork butt. You can make crackling with the skin.

Pork Ribs/猪排 zhu1 pai2: spare ribs in the chart. These are tasty but tough. Salt and pepper, pressure cook for 20 minutes, then add sauce and bake in the oven for 12 mins/side

Pork Loin/Pork Eye of Round/猪眼 zhu1 yan3: Not specifically on the chart, but somewhere around the sirloin and tenderloin area. This cut has almost no fat and is super lean. It has very little taste, so I don’t usually buy this cut. Recently we’ve been buying this because it is cheaper, slicing it thinly, pounding it thinner and then frying it. It tastes like pork chop.

Pork Tenderloin/猪柳 zhu1 liu3: Pork tenderloin on the chart. Great for stir frying but not as tasty. More expensive, but convenient as you can pan fry it.

Ground Pork/猪肉碎 zhu1 rou2 sui4: This could be anything. It comes in regular, medium or lean/瘦 shou4 fat content. This is good for jiaozi, which we use regular. The fat content adds much flavour, so don’t go too lean.

Pork Belly/六花腩 liu6 hua1 nan3: I don’t know why there is the number 6 in the Chinese name. It looks pretty fatty, like bacon. I’ve never bought this cut before. Labeled bacon in the chart. This is a favourite for Cantonese people.

ham hock / 火腿蹄膀 huo3 tui3 ti2pang2 / 火腿前踭 huo3tui3 qian2 zheng3: I’ve never bought these. The Chinese store adverts seem to not use standard characters