Pork Belly Help.

[Ryan Chester]

My local butcher has some 4-5 lb. pieces of pork belly. Since I have never cooked one, I figured it is time. I don't have time to smoke it so I figured I would got hot and fast indirect in my Weber Kettle at 350-400. I don't have a thermo on it so the temp is what it is.

How long do you guys think it will take to cook that slab?

[SmokinAussie]

About 2 to 2.5 hours at that rate, I'm thinking.

Skin on or skin off?

Last time I did one, I brined it for 4 hours (can't remember the exact brine ingredients though). While the pork was resting, I cut the skin off and made excellent crackling under the oven grill.

That was a meal worth waiting for!

Bill

[buccaneer]

Ryan it is going to take at least 2.5 hrs.
It is such a fatty cut brining has a limited affect IMO.

[10_Bears]

Have done pork belly many different ways, as much as I love it, it can be too fatty. This my preferred option, for taste and dealing with the fat.

Cut the belly into 1 inch thick strips.
Place in a pot of cold water and bring to the boil.
Simmer for 20 minutes.
Remove from pot/water and let cool.
Place in marinade and refrigerate overnight.
Then cook on your BBQ and keep basting with the left over marinade.

The boiling process gets rid of quite a lot of the fat and the meat is so tender. I usually leave the skin on as when cooked it is extremely tender, not chewy at all and very tasty. I have been meaning to try removing the skin and cooking in the oven so I can have crackle with it. The only problem is, my method of leaving it on is soooooooo goooooooooood.

[Crazy Harry]

make some bacon

[CarolinaQue]

I agree^^^

Brine it for 3 to 4 days in a sweet/salty brine and smoke it until it hits about 155* to 160*. Then take the skin off and let it cool in the fridge for an hour or 2 and then wrap and into the freezer until almost frozen. Then slice, vac seal and freeze or wrap in plastic wrap and freeze in freezer bags in serving size portions.

[thirdeye]

If you want to roast it, my current favorite method was in a post last year by Woodoggies on a couple of other forums I visit. It involves scoring the belly 1/4" to 3/8" wide on the fat side, through the fat but just barely into the meat.

It is seasoned with salt, pepper and thyme on the surface and into the cuts. He uses an indirect set-up with a plate setter and a baking dish with a bed of onions and roasts the belly on top of the onions at 450° for 30 minutes, then ramps his BGE down to 350° cooking for 2 to 2-1/2 hours. (I used a metal pan, blocked up on my ceramic plate setter... maybe you could use a pizza stone for a heat deflector.)

Anyways, the skin is crispy, the meat will rendered tender and the flavor is killer.

PS - check your PM.

[landarc]

Okay, here is how I do it, ends up similar to sieu yuk.

1. take a pork belly section, using a pasty docker or shard fork, dock the fat side of the belly. Seruiously go for it. Then rub it with a salt heavy rub.

2. The back side (lean side) should be scored about halfway through the thickness of the belly. Well. 1/2 to 3/4 of the way through. Rub this with a paste of seasonings, no added oil please. I use a mixture of hoisin, fish sauce, sugar, herbs, fine white pepper and a little vinegar.

3. After sitting overnight, brush the fat side with vinegar (I use cider vinegar) and allow to sit until tacky.

4. Place in hot indirect cooker and let run for 2 hours.

5. Take fat side and place over direct heat, being careful not to let burn, the fat should immedieately puff. The fat in the meat side should be tender and almost melting.

[landarc]

Ryan, I normally do not send folks to links off this site, at least for cooking info, but, here is a post fo...never mind, I copied it all here...

While perusing the Japanese food market for ingredients for my Osechi Ryori meals, I checked out the meat area, looking for high quality pork, and I was not disappointed. I found some nice chunks of Duroc Hog pork belly, perfectly sized for doing something with. I love hitting the Japanese market for pork, as the quality and variety of pork is almost always of a very high quality. This pork had glistening white fat, a nice deep pink flesh and when unwrapped, a nice clean smell.

Mmmm, Poooorrrkkkk

It made sense to do something with the smoker, then again, I really like Siew Yuk, the crispy skin pork belly becoming so popular these days. What I decided to do was go for something inbetween. I prepared a marinade of various Asian-ish ingredients and let the pork belly marinade in it. I did not score the meat, as I would have for siew yuk, I will probably go ahead and score it next time. I marinaded overnight and in the morning, removed it, scored the fat and let it air dry on a rack.

30 minutes into drying

I heavily docked the fat with a small sharp skewer. Then wiped the fat clean to make sure there was no moisture and sprinkled equal amount of kosher salt and medium grained turbinado sugar onto the fat side. This was a light covering. I also prayed a little cider vinegar onto the fat. This all sat for 2 hours under a fan. I wanted to dry the surface as much as possible. I was already running the UDS at smoking temperature, somewhere around 235F or so,which would never do, so I fired up the kettle and got a nice small hot fire going. I took the belly pieces and put them fat side down over the hot fire for a couple of minutes, just to start the caramelization of the fat. It took very little time for each piece to become golden colored, I then put them into the UDS. It smoked for 3 hours over hickory. I pulled when the fat seemed to be fairly rendered.

Off the smoker

I believe it would have turned out better if I had scored the flesh, although, after the 3 hours in the smoker, the fat was almost confit like and the meat was very tender. The top of the fat got nice and crispy and it had the flavor of a light hickory smoke. The close up...

Note texture and crisp top

I hope this photo shows that the fat has rendered and the fat cap has fully caramelized, with the darker parts offering a slightly bitter counterpoint to the earthy hickory smoke and sweet pork. I served two of the pork belly chunks by simply chopping them up and dusting them with a coarse textured turbinado sugar (what? you don't keep multiple sized grains of 3 or 4 types of sugar in your house?) and putting them out on a plate. This would have been really good with some plum sauce.

I also braised some pork belly, I need to see if I have any info on what I did with that.

Asian-ish marinade

1/8 cup shoyu
2 tablespoons Hoisin sauce
2 tablespoons or so of white port, sherry or whiskey (I used white port)
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil (untoasted, expeller pressed)
1 large pinch Phu Quoc black pepper, fine grind (fresh ground)
1 star anise piece (whole, use a good large one)
1/4 teaspoon each cinnamon, clove, allspice, nutmeg (untoasted, fresh ground if possible)

Blend all ingredients in marinading vessel (plastic bag for me) and add meat. Shake and turn bag at least 2 times during a marinde time of 4 to 6 hours. Opp, found it, I added the pork belly, along with some bamboo shoot, shiitake mushrooms, chicken stock, bonito stock and some green onions to a brasier and let it braise in the oven for 2 hgours. This is an umami and fat bomb of a dish. I find all of this post to be too much for me nowadays, but, it seems many can still eat more than a couple of chunks or a spoonful. Here is that braised dish.

[SmokinAussie]

^^^^ Bob, that's pretty awesome... thanks for sharing.

Reminds me of a belly I did in the style of Char Siew way back when I first got my Small Offset Smoker. I did a quick search for photo's but that was before I started taking much pron

Originally Posted by buccaneer

Ryan it is going to take at least 2.5 hrs.
It is such a fatty cut brining has a limited affect IMO.

Hey Buccs.. you back from the sticks, or still out there???

That belly I brined was part of a small one... maybe 2 pounds at most, so the brine did OK. Fat rendered out nicely... a very good result with crispy crackling. Yes, a whole belly, you'd want a lot more brining time but still worth doing IMO.

Cheers!

Bill

[Big George's BBQ]

Bob that looks really Good Thanks

[jaestar]

I have heard that pork belly cut into cubes and deep fried in lard is amazing.

[Ryan Chester]

Thanks for all the advise. I will take a crack at it soon!

[Ryan Chester]

Its on tonight folks!!!

[landarc]

Oh no, you bought a pork butt by accident