Anything from braising, curing, frying, etc.
I don't think you want to braise a pork belly. It's basically bacon. Thick slice the pork belly Marinate in a mixture of equal parts of soy sauce, honey and apple cider vinegar. For some heat add some red pepper flakes to the marinade. Grill on high heat or in a cast iron pan until done. You could cure and smoke it, but a cold smoker works best for this method.
Au contraire, mon frère! The Chinese make a succulent braised pork belly that literally melts in your mouth. Mrs. El Wayne leaves for China in a few days and she has been ordered not to return without the recipe for this dish from her grandmother, who is a master pork belly braiser! This tasty stuff looks like a solid, gelatinous blob, but that's all part of the illusion. When prepared properly, the fat completely liquifies the moment it hits your mouth. You end up with a mouthful of tender, beautifully-seasoned pork accompanied by a blast of juicy liquid pork fat goodness! Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
So am I understanding this correctly... that's a dish that's essentially a gooey mass of broiled pig fat?? I'm all for some crispy bacon, but that dish sounds and looks absolutely NASTY. What am I missing? Jedi
A little pricy but all the Allen Bros. steaks I have bought have been excellent. http://www.allenbrothers.com/allen-brothers-berkshire-porkbelly.html Image Unavailable, Please Login
ah pork belly, one of my most favorite things! Chinese braised pb is indeed magical. Japanese yakitori (skewed chunks glazed with mirin, soy sc, little sugar then grilled directly over hot coals) is also fantasic. I buy meaty, loverly PB from a local asian butcher around $2.5/lb, and have been very happy with the results on my smoker . Both times I rubbed them with 'Mama Sitas' Korean style spices (mostly cane sugar), smoked with oak/hickory for 3-4 hours, then chunked and dipped in "Koon Chun" bbq sauce. I call it bacon candy Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
And meat, and skin. Not that there's ANYTHING wrong with pure pig fat Some people don't understand schmaltz either
:O a little pricy? I can buy fresh, heirloom Hereford hog PB from local butcher and have a dozen experiments for that price. But I'm a cheapskate BTW - if you have a local artisanal meat place nearby, most give classes on butchering that is very interesting. Last fall I did one at Bolzano's here in Milwaukee and it was worth every penny of the $100. I see now they've raised the price to $150 :/ The 6 students drew names from a hat at the end to see what parts you got. I picked the shoulder, loin, and liver. My bud got the ham (it's been hanging in his basement and should be perfect in a few weeks), belly and a few chops.
Upper right of photo: what PB looks like after about 4 hours smoking @ 225ish. It has the wonderful flavor of bacon but is more succulent since it isn't cured. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Damn. That looks amazing. I may have to start experimenting with the sous vide and some pork belly from the local asian market.
I have a great recipe: Fresh Pork belly top layer of heavy fat lightly trimmed,- you want fresh white / tan fat 3 cloves of Garlic. crushed, but leave cloves whole. Sea salt Black pepper coarse grind dijon mustard White wine - reisling maple syrup. Take the dijon & maple syrup and combine into a past. slather on TOP of the pork belly. then making slits in the fat & meat stud the garlic cloves all over the pork belly. save some garlic, and dijon mixture. Salt & pepper the pork well. in a large roasting pan on top of the oven sear the pork belly in little olive oil, / peanut oil combo, you will render a lot of fat, so you dont need a lot of oil. you want a nice crisp golden brown on all sides. when you have the golden brown add the rest of the garlic cloves - dont burn them! lightly brown, then deglaze with the white wine... bring up to the side of the pork belly. and brase in a 375F oven for 1.5 - 2 hours. when its done, drain the liquid, but keep it, place in the firdge over night. place the pork belly in foil, and fold it tight like a brick, and place in the fridge... over night. ( what you want is a tight neat square. ) Put the liquid in the fridge as well, the next day, as all the fat will collect at the top, - take that out and disgard... save the liquid, put it back on the stove- mash in the garlic cloves and reduce to a nice syrup consistency. If you want to be really fancy, strain the sauce and make it a glace consistency - season with salt & pepper... maybe some fresh thyme. mean while cut the brick of belly into square portions, in a very hot smoking griswald or saute pan saute the pork belly squares unitl golden brown and crispy. serve with a fruty pinot... I think you'll like. crispy on the outside, gooey in the middle... the fat layers just melt and it has tons of flavor. I serve the pork belly with mashed potatoes and drizzle the sauce over the top.
Due to all of this thread's inspiration. I have ordered a 6-10lb Birckshire Belly from my burcher. Going to pick it up tomorrow morning. Whatever will I do with all of it! Probably turn half into bacon and play around with the other half.
To give a little update, just scored myself my first pork belly. 7+ lbs. Decided I'm turning half of it into bacon and then the other half I'm brining and then braising, roasting, etc. On the belly itself, super easy to work with thus far. However, they had already taken the skin off without me evening telling them to do so. In the process they took a good amount of the fat with it. It's pretty lean as you can see. Next time, i'll tell them to keep the fat on and then probably tell them to leave some of the loin on there as well. To be continued.... Image Unavailable, Please Login
No nitrates. I thought about it and did some research but I figured I can control the cleanliness of the process a little better than your commercial application and also I'm not dry aging or need it to last thaaaat long I figured I'd be ok. I know a lot of home curers use it to be on the safe side but I'm going au natural. I took 1/4 of it and am doing some maple bacon, the other 1/4 of the belly I'm reserving for bacon I did a cure of kosher salt, sugar, pepper corns, fennel seed, caraway seed, thyme, rosemary, bay, and garlic. recipe here: saveur.com/article/Recipes/Home-Cured-Bacon. more to come
...and I hate to say it but I think I'm sick of Pork Belly for awhile. I've gone through about 3lbs of bacon and another 2 or 3lbs in different variations of braise/grill combos with different glazes. I made a similar recipe to the one previously in this thread and WOWSA, it was un real. I even took some of the left overs and had it with breakfast this morning in addition to some eggs and cheese over some english muffins. Tomorrow I think I need a salad.
lol od'ing on bacon, you better put some Bacos on that salad to ease the withdrawl. Sorta like pork methadone Tonight in Tsurumi (near Yokohama) I ate pig's feet for the first time. They were done Okinawa-style, which as it turns out is very similar to the chinese braised pork belly mentioned earlier. There isn't much meat in a pig's foot but the fat and skin absolutely melted into a sweet, sticky, gelatinous liquid that made my eyes roll back in my head. We ate a ton of awesome stuff (hamachi kama (cheeks), horse shashimi, yakitori, horuman hotpot, crispy deep fried chicken cartilage, more I forget) but the trotters topped them all. Image Unavailable, Please Login