About this recipe
Pork ribs simmered in a peppery, garlicky broth until the meat falls from the bone, served with rice, dark soy for dipping and endless refills of the clear soup. The name means meat-bone tea, though no tea is in the bowl. The Teochew style widely served in Singapore is the pale, PEPPERY one — a clear broth built on white pepper and whole garlic — as distinct from the darker, herbal Hokkien style thick with medicinal herbs and dark soy. This recipe teaches the peppery Teochew form. It is a pork dish and is not halal.
Recipe facts
- Yield
- 4 servings
- Prep
- 20 minutes
- Cook
- 1 hour 45 minutes
- Total
- 125 minutes
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Spice
- Medium (from white pepper, not chilli)
Allergens Contains PORK and soy and wheat. Not halal and not eaten by Muslim Singaporeans. Not vegetarian.
Development draft. This is an untested development recipe from the cookbook project. It has not been kitchen-tested, and the quantities and timings are the author’s working draft rather than a verified result.
Ingredients
The soup
- 2 1/2 lb (1.1 kg) meaty pork ribs, cut into individual ribs
- 10 cups (2.4 L) water
- 2 whole heads garlic, left unpeeled and lightly crushed
- 2 tbsp (14 g) whole white peppercorns, lightly cracked
- 1 tbsp (7 g) whole black peppercorns, lightly cracked
- 3 tbsp (45 ml) light soy sauce
- 1 tbsp (15 ml) dark soy sauce
- 1 1/2 tsp (9 g) salt, or to taste
- 2 tsp (8 g) rock sugar
To serve
- Steamed rice
- Dark soy sauce, in small saucers
- 2 fresh red chillies, sliced, in the dark soy
- You tiao (fried dough sticks), cut into short lengths (optional)
- Fresh coriander
Equipment
- Large stockpot, 6 qt (5.7 L)
- Muslin or a spice bag
- Ladle
Method
- Blanch the ribs: put them in the stockpot, cover with cold water, bring to a boil, and boil 3 minutes. Drain, rinse the ribs and the pot, and discard the cloudy water.
- Return the ribs to the clean pot with the 10 cups fresh water. Tie the cracked white and black peppercorns in muslin and add the bag with the crushed garlic heads.
- Bring to a boil, skim any foam, then lower to a gentle simmer, cover partly, and cook 1 hour 30 minutes, until the meat is very tender and pulling from the bone.
- Add the light and dark soy sauces, salt and rock sugar. Simmer 10 minutes more. Taste: the broth should be clear, savoury and pronouncedly peppery, with a warmth that builds.
- Squeeze the softened garlic from a couple of the cloves into the broth if you want it stronger, and discard the peppercorn bag. Adjust salt.
- Ladle the ribs and plenty of broth into bowls.
- Serve with steamed rice, saucers of dark soy with sliced chilli for dipping the meat, you tiao for dropping into the soup, and coriander. Refill the soup as people eat.
- Offer the whole soft garlic cloves alongside for squeezing out and eating.
The Complete Edition
Bak Kut Teh sits in the Singapore chapter
The book carries this recipe in full alongside the rest of the Singapore chapter, the pastes and dips it is built on, and the twenty-seven pantry studies that open the collection.
In review with Amazon KDP
Both editions have been submitted to Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing and are currently in review. Submitted prices are $9.99 for the kindle edition and $49.99 for the paperback. Neither is on sale yet, and prices are as submitted rather than final.