Ruoc Thit Cha Bong: Vietnamese Pork Pemmican

Earlier this week, my mom made Ruoc Thit Cha Bong, or Vietnamese pork pemmican in English. Vietnamese pork pemmican is shredded pork jerky. This makes it extremely puffy and the end result is Vietnamese pork pemmican, which resembles brown-tan colored cotton candy, except more rough. This pemmican can be stored in dry, room temperature conditions for around a month, and is portable and can also be sent through mail. You would eat pemmican by taking a little bit and sprinkling it on top of your rice, and since it is extremely fine, it would spread through your rice as you were eating, and would be a more efficient way to eat rice and meat. Plus, since it is extremely dried up of all juices, you make less of a mess.

Some pemmican, but slightly deflated

You can buy pemmican at most Vietnamese shops and stores, but you can make it by yourself too. First, you would cook the pork, or mostly any other type of meat would work, and then add fish oil and boil it in a pan, and keep on doing this until the meat has entirely absorbed the sauce, this will make the pemmican more tastier. After there is no more sauce, you must begin to tear and essentially destroy the meat, and grind it until there are only stringy remains, this step tends to take a long time since you want the meat to be really stringy and thin. Finally, after you have your meat remains, you must try to get the meat as dry as possible, by using a heated pan and repeatedly flipping it, until there is absolutely no more liquids or juices remaining, finally, you let it cool off, and now you have your pemmican. Since making your own pemmican is extremely hard and complicated, most inexperienced or busy people prefer to buy it themselves.

Vietnamese pork pemmican is an extremely tasty and light, Asian, meat snack that can be eaten with rice, or even by itself.

Photo Credit to me

Have fun snacking :D

-Chocolate Rabbit