Pork Belly Ideas Needed

Cafe Society
1

I was at Costco today and saw pork Belly in the meat case. Having watch Iron Chef, Chopped, and other cooking shows I had to buy a package. It’s sliced into pieces about 1 1/2" wide rather than one piece. There is no skin or rind attached.

So far all I’ve done is cut some into cubes and cook in a skillet until browned and cooked through. Package said to cook to 145°, but I went a little past that. Sprinkled a little salt and pepper on it and it was good. I did cut the cubes into pieces about 1/4" thick.

I still have plenty more so I’m looking for more ideas. The recepies I found so far assume it’s one big piece with the skin on.

Question: is what I have the same as uncured bacon other than the thickness? I’m thinking it is.

2

Yep.

One preparation I really like is something a local(ish) restaurant I go to does. They pan-fry a piece that’s maybe 1/2" on all sides it until it’s cooked through, then give the outside a good crisp (I think they drop it in a deep-fryer, but you can get it pretty crisp in a hot pan). Then they just serve the slab with a sprinkling of chives and maple syrup. “Pork belly french toast” is what they call it. It’s divine.

3

That’s kind of what I did today, slightly larger pieces though. Very tasty.

4

My favourite is twice-cooked pork, if you can find the ingredients.

5

The jujubee stuff might be an issue, but I’m friends with folks who own a Chinese restaurant, so maybe not. They have twice cooked pork on the menu, and I’ve had it many times, but it’s not made with pork belly. At least it didn’t look like belly.

6

If it were winter, I’d say braise it. I’m not sure you want to do that in summer, though.

7

I’d chop it up and use it to make chili con carne or Cuban black beans. Whether you brown it or not before throwing it into the pot is up to you!

There are a lot of websites telling how to cure pork belly. Here is just one:

8

Alton Brown did a show where he made bacon from scratch. It was set in a junkyard as I recall. He built a cold smoker too.

I hate to just chop it up, but it is an option. The pieces I fried in the skillet were good so I can always fall back on that.

9

Check out this overly verbose treatment here,

I thoroughly and completely endorse following the recipe found there to make Pork Belly Tacos. If there are gods, Pork Belly Tacos is what they eat.

10

Basically you cure it with salt and sugar (and a bit of #1 curing salt), and then smoke it for a while.

Great stuff; it’s typically firmer, denser and more flavorful than the commercial stuff, in that the curing process removes water instead of pumping it full of brine, and it’s actually smoked with an adequate amount of real wood, instead of either very minimally, or worse, with liquid smoke.

11

Still braise it, serve it with ice cubes? :smiley:

12

I had some last night at a beer-food pairing.

It was amazing. The pork belly/egg combo was like a new take on bacon and eggs. Plus, beer!

13

Too late to edit, but here is a picture.

And as I told the Bell’s rep, Uranus was delicious!

14

Thanks for the input folks. For now the belly, sans skin, is vacuum bagged and in the freezer. I made sous vide brisket overnight and that’s on the menu today.

15

You can put your pork bellies in a barrel and enact some tax and spend legislation. However, I prefer the other ideas above.

16

Chicharon. Mind, real chicharon has skin that’s popped like rinds, the meat is fully dry and the fat is rendered out. Common chicharones isn’t treated well enough.

17

I was telling my neighbor about the pork belly and asked if he’d ever eaten crackling. He said no. I then asked about chicharon and he said sure. I said it’s about the same thing.

18

If I had some pork belly, I’d boil it and put it in Vietnamese fresh spring rolls (goi cuon).

19

I made a BLT except with a nice thick slice of pork belly, nicely fried up in the pan, instead of the bacon. Round two, add a fried egg and make it a breakfast sandwich. Maybe tomorrow. Mmmmm.

Pork Belly hash. Someone suggested sweet potatoes, but I’m a traditionalist. Regular spuds for me. I’m sensing a breakfast theme.

You can oven roast it. There are several recipes online. Most seem to be variations on starting with high heat, then lowering it to cook. Goal to get the skin nice and crackling.