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1
Fill a large bowl with a 3% cold-water brine (to make a 3% brine, dissolve 3g salt per 100g water, which is about 3 tablespoons Diamond Crystal kosher salt per one quart of water). Add cabbage leaves to brine and set a plate on top to keep them submerged. Let soak until cabbage leaves have softened, at least 3 and up to 8 hours. Drain and set aside.
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2
Wash pork belly well under cold running water. Fill a pot large enough to hold the slab of pork belly with enough rice-rinsing water or plain water to fully submerge it and bring to a rolling boil. Add pork belly, return to a boil, and cook for 5 minutes. Drain.
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3
Rinse out pot, then add a similar amount of fresh water. Add doenjang (it helps to thin it first with some water so that it dissolves well), onion, scallions, apple, ginger, cinnamon, garlic, peppercorns, and bay leaf. Bring to a boil over high heat.
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4
Add pork, cover pot, and boil for 20 minutes. Reduce heat to medium-low, uncover pot, and add soju. Continue to cook until pork is easily pierced with a fork, about 40 minutes longer.
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5
Fill a large bowl with ice water. Carefully remove pork from cooking liquid and run under cold running water, then transfer to ice water just long enough to chill exterior of the pork (this helps firm it up and will make slicing easier). Let rest 5 minutes.
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6
In a very small bowl, mix together saewoo jeot with soju. If desired, add a pinch each of gochugaru, crushed roasted sesame seeds, and/or minced green chili.
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7
In a small bowl, mix together doenjang, gochujang, crushed roasted sesame seeds, minced garlic, and sesame oil.
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8
Thinly slice the pork. Set out a platter with the slice pork, drained cabbage leaves, and mu malaengi muchim. Set out dishes of the ssamjang and saewoo jeot, as well as the sliced garlic and green chilies.
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9
To eat, each person should dip a piece of pork in the saewoo jeot, then set it on a cabbage leaf. Add a sliver of garlic, a dab of ssamjang, and a few pieces of the mu malaengi; if you like, add a slice of green chili too. Wrap the cabbae around it all and eat it in one big delicious bite.
