In a medium cooking pot, fill with water and bring to boil. Add pork bones to the pot and cook over high heat for 10 minutes to get rid of impurities.
2 lb pork bones
Drain and wash pork bones with cold water. Set aside for later use.
Use the same pot and quickly blanch brisket, then drain and wash like pork bones. Let them cool down, set aside for later use.
2 lb brisket
In a cooking pan over medium heat, toast the spices over medium heat until everything is fully fragranced. Then tie cinnamon sticks and lemongrass using kitchen twine. Put the rest into a sachet.
1 piece ginger, 2 stalks lemongrass, 5 cloves garlic, 1 cinnamon stick, 5 each whole cloves
In a large cooking pot, bring 7qt of water to a boil, then add pork bones and brisket. Bring the whole pot back to boiling point, then lower the heat enough to simmer everything.
7 qt water
Then add spice sachet, lemongrass stalks, and cinnamon sticks to the pot.
Simmer the pot over medium-high heat for 45 minutes, and occasionally skim away the impurities that floated on the surface. Do not stir the pot to keep the broth as clear as possible.
After 45 minutes of simmering, add whole white onion to the pot and continue cooking the broth over medium-high heat for another 45 minutes.
1 large white onion