This study was carried out to suggest an effective cooking method for pork bellies to decrease intake of animal fat. The physico-chemical characteristics of pork bellies cooked by different methods (boiling, steaming, baking and frying) were investigated. The moisture contents of cooked meats decreased but crude lipid contents increased. The cooking losses, moisture drain rates, and lipid drain rates were high after frying and boiling. The pH values increased markedly with boiling and both the acid value and the refraction index of the fat significantly increased with frying. The hardness, gumminess, and chewiness of the meat increased considerably with boiling, but decreased notably after frying. The springiness decreased very much with boiling and cohesiveness greatly increased with steaming. The CIE $L^*$ (lightness) value increased notably with steaming but decreased markedly with frying. The CIE $a^*$ (redness) value decreased markedly with all cooking methods, especially boiling, and the CIE $b^*$ (yellowness) value decreased with both boiling and steaming but increased with both baking and frying. The fatty acids of fat from the raw pork bellies were primarily oleic acid (42.4%), palmitic acid (23.9%), and linoleic acid (16.1%). The ratio of total monounsaturated fatty acids to total saturated fatty acids was 1.190 and the ratio of total polyunsaturated fatty acids to total saturated fatty acids was 0.446. In addition, the composition of fatty acids was not significantly changed with any cooking method except frying. Therefore, boiling is the effective cooking method for pork bellies to decrease intake of animal fats.