July 14, 20187 yr I picked one up at RD to smoke next week up at the lake. No, drunk guy is not invited. I've never done one before. S&P and cook until ?? Other suggestions? Make some kind of crazy Vietnamese sandwich out of it, serve with garnish and tell everyone I invented it? Halp.
July 14, 20187 yr I've done a couple of belly's recently as I was getting bored (blasphemy, I know!) with brisket. Take off the skin and make cracklings. Treat the rest of the belly just like you would a brisket. For me, that means cracked pepper and kosher salt over smoke. I usually wrap in butcher paper after 3 or 4 hours and finish in a low oven until everything is rendered. Rest (or even better, let it cool overnight in refrigerator) before you cut (against the grain!) and re-heat before serving. Enjoy! Edited July 15, 20187 yr by DalTxHornFan
July 14, 20187 yr thomas keller's pork belly confit is the most laborious version of it i've done. also the most rewarding. http://ladyandpups.com/2013/05/20/creme-brulee-d-pork-belly-confit-eng/ most of the time, i do a philipino adobo, which more or less is braising the thing in soy sauce and vinegar. good to add a shelled egg to it as well to make it like chinese claypot style. in lazier times i just boil the motherfucker until it turns pale. which is really quickly. then slice and serve by itself or with your choice of sauce (sriracha, whatever). i think thats done in vietnamese cooking. if you want the classic crispy skin roast version, you almost dont have to prep it at all. unless you get a slab (rather than strips), then you want to score the fat so it doesnt curl. then roast it for longer than you think. its sorta like a brisket - it gets done first, and then the fat renders and makes it more tender. if you take it out of oven too soon its just touch and chewy.
July 15, 20187 yr Author On 7/14/2018 at 5:14 PM, 52-80 said: if you want the classic crispy skin roast version, you almost dont have to prep it at all. unless you get a slab (rather than strips), then you want to score the fat so it doesnt curl. then roast it for longer than you think. its sorta like a brisket - it gets done first, and then the fat renders and makes it more tender. if you take it out of oven too soon its just touch and chewy. Yeah I'm just going to be putting it on the smoker. Nothing too complicated. Pic below. I think it's 1 piece - a slab. It's 12.35 lbs. So leave the skin on or no?
July 15, 20187 yr Never tried smoking it. Since it's lower heat I suppose curling is not a worry. Looks yummy
July 16, 20187 yr 1 hour ago, Baboontyme said: So leave the skin on or no? Take off the skin. Make cracklings. Slice the skin into strips around a quarter-inch wide or so. Toss them into some boiling salted water for a minute or so. Remove, strain and rinse them off in cold water. Pat them dry and season with kosher salt and optional: garlic powder, black pepper and/or red pepper flakes. Roast them on a wire rack in a 425 degree oven (shake or stir them to make sure everybody is getting crispy) for 30 minutes or so until crispy. Let them cool on a paper towel and try to save some for the other people you plan to serve. Edited July 16, 20187 yr by DalTxHornFan
July 16, 20187 yr Author 42 minutes ago, DalTxHornFan said: Take off the skin. Make cracklings. Slice the skin into strips around a quarter-inch wide or so. Toss them into some boiling salted water for a minute or so. Remove, strain and rinse them off in cold water. Pat them dry and season with kosher salt and optional: garlic powder, black pepper and/or red pepper flakes. Roast them on a wire rack in a 425 degree oven (shake or stir them to make sure everybody is getting crispy) for 30 minutes or so until crispy. Let them cool on a paper towel and try to save some for the other people you plan to serve. Thanks. If I'm not sure I want to make cracklings do I still need to take the skin off for the sake of the end product? I am also making sausage up there and figure I could use the skin/fat cap to fatten up the links if need be.
July 16, 20187 yr IDK, but I've never left the skin on. I always trim my brisket, so it just seemed normal to trim a pork belly, as well. Easy to freeze the skin and use it later for something else. Good luck!
July 16, 20187 yr Author Thanks DTHF. I like to leave a decent fat cap on my burrrsket. @ChampKind get your lazy ass back from Chicago and advise. @luke duke I'm also disappointed you haven't chimed in with a snarky one liner.
July 16, 20187 yr I love me some pork belly burnt ends. Yes, you need to remove ALL of the skin as it is tough and won't rendered down or get crispy on the smoker.Here's a video on pork belly burnt ends.
July 18, 20187 yr Are you sure it's skin on? I'm old and can't tell from the pic if that's skin or a fat cap. All the ones I've seen at RD are skin-off. So check the label and see what it says. As mentioned above, you'll want to remove the skin if its a skin-on slab. I cut slabs into three portions because they cook faster that way. Light salt and pepper, put on pit, cook until probe tender. That's typically 202-206 for me but it will depend largely on how thick the slab is. Sliced pork belly is soooo fucking good when it is properly rendered.
July 18, 20187 yr Author Thanks champ. I don't know what skin is, I'm pretty sure it's just fat cap. That's why I was asking.... Didn't seem right to cut all of that off.
July 18, 20187 yr On 7/15/2018 at 6:16 PM, Baboontyme said: Yeah I'm just going to be putting it on the smoker. Nothing too complicated. Pic below. I think it's 1 piece - a slab. It's 12.35 lbs. So leave the skin on or no? That would be skin. Cut that stuff off.
July 18, 20187 yr 17 minutes ago, Baboontyme said: Thanks champ. I don't know what skin is, I'm pretty sure it's just fat cap. That's why I was asking.... Didn't seem right to cut all of that off.
July 18, 20187 yr 1 hour ago, DalTxHornFan said: That would be skin. Cut that stuff off. Yeah that looks like skin, the bottom we can’t see is likely skin and that one piece is folded over.
July 23, 20187 yr Author Thanks all. I read some conflicting things about the skin. What it boiled down to was that I only had 5 mouths to feed, we were pretty well fed by that point in the night anyway, so I chopped the thing into two equal slabs and left the skin on one, and took the skin off of the other. And actually we only even tried to eat the one with the skin off so I don't know how that goes with the skin on. The skin was a bitch to cut off pre-cook on the one slab. It was very good, though. Good weekend, as per usual. One of the best of the year.
July 25, 20187 yr Was at Costco tonight and usually poke around while I'm there. My local one usually doesn't have pork belly but I came across these packages of skinless, already cut into strips pork belly. Picked up a couple of them and will look forward to throwing them on the smoker soon.
July 1, 20223 yr Just bought one to smoke with a brisket Monday so I figured I’d bump this. I see a lot of recipes online call for cubing it before you smoke? To me smoking it whole makes more sense.
July 1, 20223 yr 1 hour ago, Hook1997 said: Just bought one to smoke with a brisket Monday so I figured I’d bump this. I see a lot of recipes online call for cubing it before you smoke? To me smoking it whole makes more sense. I do deep cuts on them, just like I do with a pork shoulder. My theory is that it gets more of the rub and smoke flavor into the meat. Who knows? But I damn sure don't want a bunch of meat falling through the grill!
July 1, 20223 yr 33 minutes ago, DalTxHornFan said: I do deep cuts on them, just like I do with a pork shoulder. My theory is that it gets more of the rub and smoke flavor into the meat. Who knows? But I damn sure don't want a bunch of meat falling through the grill! Never done it with pork shoulder, but the videos on pork belly typically show deep cuts across the PB in a grid pattern an inch or two per square.
July 2, 20223 yr 1 hour ago, dcbc said: Never done it with pork shoulder, but the videos on pork belly typically show deep cuts across the PB in a grid pattern an inch or two per square. I do that kind of grid deep cut on most any big meats (phrasing!) that I cook. Leg of lamb, prime rib, cabrito, whole hams, pork shoulders and such. It gives some additional texture and flavor to the meat, I think.
July 2, 20223 yr If your goal is meat candy, cut before smoking gets you smoke on all sides, and lets you season all sides.
July 2, 20223 yr 10 hours ago, DalTxHornFan said: I do deep cuts on them, just like I do with a pork shoulder. My theory is that it gets more of the rub and smoke flavor into the meat. Who knows? But I damn sure don't want a bunch of meat falling through the grill! By deep cuts do you mean that you score the top of the pork belly? The purpose of that is usually to draw out some moisture, which helps render the fat and make a crisper crackling but you might need a bit of high heat at the end.
July 2, 20223 yr 10 hours ago, Sam Lin said: If your goal is meat candy, cut before smoking gets you smoke on all sides, and lets you season all sides. This if you are making burnt ends, cube them, place on a rack with a little space in between, season and smoke. Finish in liquid - butter, brown sugar, honey. I've seen pork belly tacos with sliced strips. In that case, cook whole with deep cuts for smoke flavor and rubs.
July 2, 20223 yr I do burnt ends so I cube them and do like Jerry says above. Might need to do some tomorrow not that we are talking about it.
July 4, 20223 yr Looking good so far only three hours in on the brisket and one or so on the pork belly.
July 4, 20223 yr i cure mine in apple cider, salt, bay leafs, peppercorn, thyme, star anise and brown sugar for 48 hours before patting dry, scoring the fat side, seasoning it and throwing it on the offset. game changer. occasionally i’ll take it off at the 1:30 mark, cube it and finish it as PB burnt ends…light coating of flake salt and tossed in jalapeño jelly.
July 5, 20223 yr Pork belly turned out good, smoked for like four hour then wrapped for two and back on the pit for thirty minutes or so. Brisket being only a 5.5 pound point ended up taking longer then I thought…. So I upped the temp to 300 when wrapped to finish it on time and dried it out a bit, tasted good still.
July 5, 20223 yr On 7/1/2022 at 3:39 PM, Hook1997 said: Just bought one to smoke with a brisket Monday so I figured I’d bump this. I see a lot of recipes online call for cubing it before you smoke? To me smoking it whole makes more sense. First time I saw the "cubed before smoked" method I thought the same, makes the most sense that you'd have a better chance of it not drying out etc... but honestly, there's so much fat in a pork belly you really don't need to worry about it. Plus, it's a way for all of us bark-whores to get full bark coverage. BUTTTT... if I'm being honest, I do mine in strips, then cube for the sauce sauna. Edited July 5, 20223 yr by UncleBuck
September 14, 20223 yr This popped up in my twitter feed - not surprisingly a heavily barbecue centered twitter feed. Pork belly burnt ends, banana, and peanut butter sandwich. I would eat that without shame. Now I'm thinking of other possibilities, including - pork belly, lettuce, and tomato.
September 14, 20223 yr 23 hours ago, SurlyBDR said: Dumbass shit I just saw on FB: I saw that yesterday too. I especially enjoyed the picture where he's laid it directly on the wood rail of his porch.
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.