So, I tried a different, simpler recipe for Buta no Kakuni tonight. Instead of steaming for a couple hours under grated daikon, this time, the pork was quickly browned, then simmered in a half cup of sake, water to cover, green onions, and some ginger rinds.

After the initial 1.5 hour simmer, I took the meat out, and ran everything else through a gravy separator, to get rid of most of the fat that had come off the pork.

I made a mistake, just prior to this – that is, I’d added more water – the simmering liquid was getting really low, but I didn’t realize how close I was to the “next step” when I did so, and ended up with about four cups of liquid, where I should only have had about 2.5. As a result, once I added the sugar (4tbsp), mirin (2tbsp), sake (4tbsp), and soy sauce (4tbsp), I had too much pork broth, and the flavor of the final simmering liquid was too diluted. I cranked the heat up, and reduced it for a bit, which helped condense the flavors, but it was a mistake, and I wouldn’t do it again if I do this another time.

Anyway – after adding the flavorings, the pork simmered for another hours. At this point, it was quite tender. I added some daikon and potato at this point, waited another 30 minutes, added some carrot, and simmered another 15 minutes or so.

The end result was that the daikon and the potato were perfect, the small pieces of carrot were good, and the large pieces of carrot were slightly underdone.

All in all, not bad. The meat was really tender, and less sweet than yesterday’s recipe, but even though the simmering liquid had reduced quite a bit, the flavors were substantially less intense than they were in yesterday’s effort. More soy sauce, for sure, probably a touch more sake, and I should have tossed in a little of the remaining ginger during the final simmer.