Making Your Own Homemade Pork Floss

When cotton candy texture meets soy sauce braised pork, it creates a delicious topping/side dish/snack call pork floss. Better known in its country of origin, China, as “Rousong” (肉松) or “YeukSong” (肉鬆), this is a popular magical dusting that made the plainest of congee and loaves of bread taste amazing. This fluffy sweet meat can easily be found in any local Asian grocery stores, ready to eat straight out of the packet. My annual visits to China was my best way to satisfy my craving for fresh homemade pork floss. Unfortunately, due to Covid limiting my travel plans, I’ve had to dig deep into my memory and recreate the pork floss that my great grandmother use to make. Like always, I’ve added a bit more of a spice-filled twist to add more flavour.

HOW TO EAT PORK FLOSS

For as long as my memory goes back, there would always be a glass jar of pork floss on the second shelf of the lower kitchen cupboard next to the cellar door, which great-grandma keeps her rice and grains. Cleverly, she would hide the jar behind glass pots full of pickled garlic and ginger, so we can’t find it with our lack of height. The pork floss only came out on a few occasions. The most common is when we had congee as part of our meal. I’ve never been a fan of this gluey gloop of a Chinese rice dish, and the plain ones are tough to drum up any enthusiasm to consume. So to entice us to eat the entire bowl of congee, great-grandma would spoon two generous servings of pork floss.

As we got older and allowed free rein in an Asian bakery, I discovered the deliciousness of pork floss bread. As an adult food lover who sets out to try all sorts of weird and wonderful in my travels, I’ve come across pork floss used as a filling for sandwiches, sticky rice rolls, sushi, onigiri, steamed riced, egg rolls, pancakes, noodles, pasta, tofu and even pizza! The choices are limitless as long as you are willing to experiment. For me, I still have a preference for pairing it with simple plain rice dishes.

WHAT TYPE OF MEAT TO USE

Pork floss is, of course, made of pork meat, but the meat floss can alternatively be made with beef, chicken, turkey or fish. Always choose a lean cut of meat, so it shreds with ease. Also, lean meat will mean less natural oil can burn the meat during the dehydration process, resulting in tough jerky-like strings and the loss of that iconic cotton candy texture.

In lots of southern Chinese soup cooking and stock making, pork tenderloin and leaner meat cuts are used. The cooked meat from the soup is usually tough, tasteless and stringy to chew and overall unpleasant to eat. This meat will go to my eagerly awaiting dog most of the time, but many people will throw it away. This meat is perfect for turning into pork floss. Making meat floss is a great way to prevent meats like these and leftover roast turkey/chicken from going into the bin.

If starting fresh, for pork, the tenderloin cut is my go-to for making pork floss. Alternatively, you can use boneless skinless chicken/turkey breast, lean cuts of beef or boneless skinless grouper, sea bass, catfish, barramundi, cod or basa fillets. If fish is the choice of meat, I would advise adding three sticks of Chinese scallions knotted together and an adult palm sided knob of ginger sliced on top of the list of ingredients provided in this recipe when braising the fish meat to remove the fishy taste.

TIPS BEFORE YOU START

• Use a non-stick pan/wok. Always make sure that pan/wok is 100% non-stick, or you will end up with a clumpy burnt mess at the bottom of your pan/wok.
• It will take some time. Leave aside approximately 40-60 minutes for the braising process and another 40-60 minutes for the dehydration process.
• Keep things slow and low. The meat needs to be dehydrated slowly over low heat to allow the meat to fluff up. If too much heat is applied, the meat dries up too quickly, and the sugar will candy, which prevents the meat strands from becoming cotton-like. You will know the heat was too high because the meat will become strands of softish jerky instead (kind of like the texture of those Asian dried octopus strands you get at the snack section of your local Asian market).
• Keep calm and stir. It is super tempting to let things sit and dehydrate, then flip it over like a steak, but if you don’t keep going, the strands won’t dehydrate evenly and fluffy up. Be prepared to get some arm work out.
• Occasionally scoop and flip. This is an excellent way to air out the meat as well as ensure an even dehydration process. It also helps to identify any clumps forming so you can loosen them up before they get too stuck together.