Enter pork weight, pick marinade style, cut, and method. The card shows ingredients scaled to your pork weight plus roasting schedule.
Why this exists
Char siu recipes vary 3x in maltose content depending on whether you want Cantonese honey flavor or Hong Kong candy-crunch. Most online recipes ignore this and produce either a dull brown or a burnt-sugar mess. The second-glaze step is what gives restaurant char siu the glassy mirror shine.
Who this is for
Home cooks making char siu for the first time. Anyone whose char siu came out either dry or candy-hard. People trying to replicate a specific Cantonese BBQ shop.
How to read the result
Maltose is the secret. It caramelizes at a lower temperature than sugar and gives that brittle, glassy crust. Honey works in a pinch but burns faster. Red fermented tofu (hong fu ru) is the color source - not food coloring. The marination time of 4-24 h is essential; less than 4 h and the pork tastes like surface glaze, not flavor throughout.
Honest limitations
Oven behavior varies wildly. Convection runs 20% faster; please adjust. Restaurant char siu uses a vertical rotisserie oven that is hard to replicate at home.
Common questions
Frequently asked questions
What are the common mistakes when using Char Siu Glaze Calculator?
Most common mistakes come down to four habits: entering 20 when the field expects 0.2 because the field is a percentage; leaving a field blank and accepting the default without checking what it stands for; changing one input and reading a result that was calculated before the change; and quoting the output as an exact figure when the page describes it as a reference estimate. Press calculate again after any edit, and treat the number as a reference point rather than a final answer.
How do I read the result from Char Siu Glaze Calculator?
Read the final figure first, then come back to this section for the conditions behind it: Maltose is the secret. It caramelizes at a lower temperature than sugar and gives that brittle, glassy crust. Honey works in a pinch but burns faster. Red fermented tofu (hong fu ru) is the color source - not food coloring. The marination time of 4-24 h is ess Keep two things apart: the number itself, which comes from the values you typed, and the assumptions it depends on, which decide whether that number is meaningful. The page sets out what a higher or lower result means for your case, so check that direction as well as the magnitude.
Can I act on the Char Siu Glaze Calculator result directly?
Treat it as one reference sheet before you decide, rather than as the answer itself: Oven behavior varies wildly. Convection runs 20% faster; please adjust. Restaurant char siu uses a vertical rotisserie oven that is hard to replicate at home. The output describes a magnitude under the conditions you entered. It does not include what it actually costs to act, what might change while you act, or how the other side behaves. Before you commit, compare the result against reality and note which assumptions do not hold where you are.
What inputs does Char Siu Glaze Calculator need?
Char Siu Glaze Calculator takes 3 inputs: Pork weight (g)、Cut Pork belly (fattier) Pork shoulder (leaner) Tenderloin (leanest)、Method Oven (200 C) Air fryer (180 C) Outdoor grill. They are listed in the order they feed the calculation, so an earlier value can change a later one. Do not skip a field you do not recognise - work out what it means first, because a silently guessed value produces a number that looks reasonable and is not. Before typing anything, make sure every figure uses the same unit and the same time period.
Can I skip the maltose? Use 1.5x honey instead. Crust will be slightly less glassy.
Why is my char siu dry? Tenderloin dries fast. Use shoulder for forgiving results.
Why isn't it red enough? Skipped the red fermented tofu. That's the color source.