How to Choose Pork Leg Outside: Color, Grain, and Sinew

What this article answers

What good pork leg outside looks like

Deep pink with a sheen. Grain clearly visible and running one way, little white fat, little drip

How to tell outside from inside

Outside is deeper pink, with firmer grain, and cheaper. Pick inside for tenderness, outside for value and bite

When to check for thick sinew

When buying a block. Roasts, ham, and thin-slice stir-fries need none. Stews can take some

What to buy for each dish

Stew: 2–3 cm cubes. Stir-fry: 3–5 mm slices. Ham or roast pork: a block of 500 g or more

Pork leg outside comes from the outer side of the pig’s hind leg. It may also be labeled outside leg, bottom round, or silverside. The muscle on the inner side is the leg inside.

Choosing it starts with the checks you’d use for any meat and for pork in general. On top of those, look at three things: how deep the color of the lean is, how firm the grain is, and whether thick sinew runs through it.

The outside has little fat and firm grain. So choose it by matching those traits to the dish.

What good pork leg outside looks like

Point	Good	Watch out
Color	Deep pink, with a sheen	Grayish, dull
Grain	Firm, running one way	Running every which way
Fat	Little; white to milky white	Yellowish, or bunched in one place
Thick sinew	Little	Thick sinew running through the center
Drip	Little	A lot, running in the package

A little deeper pink than the inside

Pork leg outside is normally a little deeper pink than the inside of the leg. The outer side of the hind leg works harder, so it holds a bit more myoglobin, the red pigment of muscle.

Color	What it means
Deep pink, with a sheen	Ideal
Fairly deep pink	Typical
Grayish	Possibly losing freshness
Brown	Metmyoglobin has formed; old

A deep color is normal. But if it is extremely deep, close to red, suspect an older animal or a loss of freshness.

Grain you can see clearly

The outside has firm grain. On a cut face, you should see the fibers clearly.

Grain	What it means
Clearly visible, running one way	Ideal
A little hard to see	Typical, or a boundary between muscles
Blurred or breaking apart	Losing freshness, or frozen and thawed

As with the inside, cut across the grain, at a right angle to it, to keep the texture pleasant.

Check the block for thick sinew

With the outside, the thing to watch most closely is thick sinew (connective tissue).

• No sinew: best for roasts, ham, and thin-slice stir-fries
• Small bits of sinew: fine for stews and ground meat
• Thick sinew running through it: trim it out, or keep the piece for stews. Cooked briefly, it eats tough and stringy

Pre-sliced packs hide sinew, so check for it when you buy a block. With slices, look at each one for sinew.

What to buy for each dish

For stews and curries

• Cubes 2–3 cm (¾–1¼ in), or a block
• Sinew is fine; it softens as it stews
• Keep the fat on the low side

For thin-slice stir-fries

This includes Japanese-style twice-cooked pork, a home stir-fry of thin pork slices with cabbage.

• Slices 3–5 mm (⅛–³⁄₁₆ in) thick
• Check each slice for sinew
• Grain running one way

For ground pork

• Sold as lean ground pork
• No gray mixed in
• Decide whether to add fat based on the dish

For homemade ham and chashu

Chashu is the Japanese braised or roasted pork sliced onto ramen.

• A large block (500 g or more)
• Even in shape
• No thick sinew

For pork and miso soup

This is tonjiru, a Japanese miso soup with thin-sliced pork and root vegetables.

• Thin slices
• Slices that separate easily and are not stuck together
• A little sinew does not matter

What to check in the package

• Chilled: how much drip is in the package, how clearly the grain shows, the color
• Frozen and thawed before sale: expect the lean to cook up drier
• Vacuum-packed: after opening, check that it blooms (turns redder in the air) within 5–30 minutes

Telling the outside from the inside

When a butcher offers both the inside and the outside, tell them apart by how deep the color is.

	Inside	Outside
Color	Fairly deep pink	Deep pink
Grain	Finer	Firm
Fat	A thin layer on the surface	Thin and patchy
Price	A little higher	Reasonable

If you can’t decide, choose the inside when tenderness comes first, and the outside when cost and a firmer bite come first.

Three things to check

1. Color: deep pink, with a sheen
2. Grain: firm, running one way
3. Sinew: an amount that suits the dish