Blowin' Smoke
Full Fledged Farker
- Joined
- Jul 24, 2017
- Location
- Biloxi, MS
After seeing some recent posts about pork belly burnt ends, I thought I’d give it a try. So I got my pork belly and set up my WSM with some hickory and apple chunks and let her go.
I rinsed the belly, cut it in half to roughly 4# each, and dried. There was no skin, but a pretty good layer of fat. I figured they’re supposed to be fatty, so no big deal. I seasoned with my bbq rub and threw on the smoker (two halves) at 235.
After three hours it was only at 145, so I figured it may speed up the process if I went ahead and cubed it all. Now I had read 1.5-2” cubes, and mine were on the 2” side. So I added more seasoning, and threw the cubes back on.
After two more hours the top and bottom was pretty solid bark but the sides were still not how I wanted them to be. Temps were 170-180 for the cubes. But it was 9:00 and I knew I still needed to sauce them, so I pulled them off and brought them inside.
I trayed, added SBR and a bit of honey, foiled and threw in the oven (don’t shoot) at 275. I pulled about 2 hours later and the temps were 200-206.
My thoughts:
The meat tasted great. It was porky, sweet, and just delicious. However, there was a lot of fat. A lot. And the sides didn’t really have any bark so the fat was even more noticeable. The melt in your mouth fat (think ribeye, or bacon) I can do. But this wasn’t that. It was noticeable to the point that I was scraping fat off.
Mistakes:
I think I should have trimmed the fat from the get go, I should have cubed at the beginning, and maybe used a binder? EVOO or mustard?
I’ll definitely do them again, just differently. Anyone have any thoughts or suggestions?
I rinsed the belly, cut it in half to roughly 4# each, and dried. There was no skin, but a pretty good layer of fat. I figured they’re supposed to be fatty, so no big deal. I seasoned with my bbq rub and threw on the smoker (two halves) at 235.
After three hours it was only at 145, so I figured it may speed up the process if I went ahead and cubed it all. Now I had read 1.5-2” cubes, and mine were on the 2” side. So I added more seasoning, and threw the cubes back on.
After two more hours the top and bottom was pretty solid bark but the sides were still not how I wanted them to be. Temps were 170-180 for the cubes. But it was 9:00 and I knew I still needed to sauce them, so I pulled them off and brought them inside.
I trayed, added SBR and a bit of honey, foiled and threw in the oven (don’t shoot) at 275. I pulled about 2 hours later and the temps were 200-206.
My thoughts:
The meat tasted great. It was porky, sweet, and just delicious. However, there was a lot of fat. A lot. And the sides didn’t really have any bark so the fat was even more noticeable. The melt in your mouth fat (think ribeye, or bacon) I can do. But this wasn’t that. It was noticeable to the point that I was scraping fat off.
Mistakes:
I think I should have trimmed the fat from the get go, I should have cubed at the beginning, and maybe used a binder? EVOO or mustard?
I’ll definitely do them again, just differently. Anyone have any thoughts or suggestions?