butabara ni hi o toosu.

I cook the pork belly through.

Breakdown of butabara ni hi o toosu.

• に: indirect object particle
• 豚ぶたバラ: pork belly
• 火ひ を 通とおす: to cook through

Questions & Answers about butabara ni hi o toosu.

What does 豚バラ mean exactly?

豚バラ means pork belly.

More literally:

• 豚 = pig / pork
• バラ = belly / side meat

In cooking, 豚バラ often refers to pork belly slices, and in recipes it can be short for 豚バラ肉. Japanese recipes often shorten ingredient names when the meaning is clear.

How do you read 豚バラ?

It is read ぶたバラ.

• 豚 = ぶた
• バラ is written in katakana because this meat cut is commonly written that way in recipes and supermarkets.

So the full sentence is read:

ぶたバラ に ひ を とおす。

What does 火を通す mean? It doesn’t seem literal.

火を通す is a very common cooking expression meaning:

• to cook through
• to heat thoroughly
• to make sure it is no longer raw

Literally, it is something like to pass heat/fire through, but in natural English that becomes cook through.

So 豚バラに火を通す means cook the pork belly until the heat goes through it, meaning it is properly cooked.

Why is the particle に used after 豚バラ?