Home Made Sausage, Cured, and Smoked Meats

[Piobaire]

 

[Wallcloud]

Bought an 8 1/2 pound pork belly. Going to get it curing over the weekend. This will be my first time attempting this process. I specifically want to make small pieces of crispy pork belly to serve with pastas. Is there a book or a recipe you guys would suggest? I am looking at you Pio.

 

[Piobaire]

Originally Posted by Wallcloud

Bought an 8 1/2 pound pork belly. Going to get it curing over the weekend. This will be my first time attempting this process. I specifically want to make small pieces of crispy pork belly to serve with pastas. Is there a book or a recipe you guys would suggest? I am looking at you Pio.

That is a huge belly! THE book is Charcuterie. Here's the Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/Charcuterie-Cr...4402530&sr=1-1

You might want to cut that into smaller pieces. I cure 3'ish # ones in the gallon ziplock bags. Search this thread and I'm sure I put up the basic cure recipe.

 

[Wallcloud]

Cool, thanks. I am very excited about giving it a go. I think I will cut it in half and try a couple methods.

 

[kwilkinson]

Brine.
Braise.
Portion.
Sear.

 

[Piobaire]

Yeah, braised pork belly is nine kinds of heaven.

 

[itsstillmatt]

I have 2 2 pound belly pieces brining right now.

 

[kwilkinson]

Going full out 36 hours?

 

[itsstillmatt]

Originally Posted by kwilkinson

Going full out 36 hours?
Trying something new...

 

[kwilkinson]

Originally Posted by iammatt

Trying something new...

PM?

 

[Piobaire]

Originally Posted by iammatt

Trying something new...

I have a 2.5# belly in the freezer. I'm thinking I need to braise it next weekend...and make my duck confit.

 

[ektaylor]

Have you guys ever done pork belly with the skin on? I picked up 4lbs of skin-on pork belly four days ago and found the texture to be incredible with the tenderness of the belly.

I brined it for about 30 hours in a simple sugar/salt solution. Then, broiled it at 500F for 5-10 minutes to get the lightly scored skin crisp. I let it rest at room temperature for 20-30 minutes before braising it with sage, garlic and white wine for 4 hours. The skin seemed to stay intact while imparting a bit of those mallard flavors into the braising liquid. After the braise was finished, I pressed it with a weighted pan in the fridge for around 4 hours. Finally, the set belly was cut into individual pieces, quickly fried in rendered out pork fat from the night before, and finished in a 450 oven for ~8 minutes to serve.

I'm not sure broiling it first was the best idea. Maybe it would have been best to get an initial sear in oil/pork fat before braising while simply finishing it off in the oven? The skin was great, but I think it could have been more 'crackly' if it spent more time in the oven at the end rather than in oil. A creme brulee torch would have been great here.

If you guys have ever dealt with skin like this, I'd be curious to know what you experienced.

 

[poly800rock]

anyone ever try pork cheek? They use it in certain ramen, but I can't for the life of me find it anywhere.

 

[Wallcloud]

Finally got around to working on my pork belly. Drohmans Pork Confit recipe: Just out of the oven sitting in clear duck fat. I wish you could smell this.

Same recipe after chilling for a night.

Also makin bacon! Going to smoke the bacon on my green egg.

 

[Piobaire]

Noice! Great work.