Pork belly

For me - pork belly slices always get the long & low treatment...

An hour before cooking they get sprinkled copiously with dried sage (both sides). Popped in an ovenproof dish (stood vertically so the crackling is uppermost). Oven 160-180C for 30 mins. Take it out. Drain any liquid. Detach the crackling from the meat - remove as much fat as practical and put the meat back in the dish. Lay the crackling out over the top and back in for another 15. Then whack up the heat to 210-220 for 15.
 
Well, I think I will be avoiding sausage etc. after reading those articles Pjgh, and keeping pork to a minimum. I have found a source of nitrate free, free range bacon though, so hopefully that should be the healthiest way to get a pork fix.
I just grilled some of this in the end, skin side up, and it wasn't bad with moderately good crackling. But I will continue to hunt for a good chinese recipe; I've made red chinese pork before with varying degrees of success. Sometimes all the fat, including the skin just melts in the mouth, which is how it should be. Other times the skin remains a bit tough, so not sure what I'm doing wrong.
 
soapalchemist said:
I have found a source of nitrate free, free range bacon though, so hopefully that should be the healthiest way to get a pork fix.
Click to expand...

What's cookin Toots,

Best way for me making bacon is with a microwave oven. Right now I can't find the gizmo for that, but it's still fine using a plate with a paper towel liner. Figure about 1 minute per thick slice (how long is that in Limey time?), and don't worry if it's not quite done right then. It will be after sitting a little while. Makes a quick bunch of pieces at a time with very little clean up.

Not greasy at all, with a pleasant chewy texture.

Marbone
 
i do pork belly whole in a slow cooker, touch of salt and pepper, lay it skin side up on a bed of rosemary to stop it sticking to the bottom. lid on, cook it low for 4-5-6 hrs, long as you like really, longer you go, more tender it seems to get, then take it out, skin will be sort of jellyish, put it skin side down in a hot greased pan for 10 mins, crisps up like a cracker, enjoy!!
 
i should think it's pretty easy to infuse all sorts of flavours, i used rosemary because i've got a big bush of it in the garden, bit i'm keen to try star annis or cinnamon or maybe chippotle peppers.
 
As far as pork belly goes, "gypsy ham" is the way to do it. It takes some time, but it's fabulous.
You cut them in somehow big pieces, let's say longer than your palm, but as wide, and you use a lot of salt onto them. You really rub that salt into them, you cover the pieces up and leave them for 3 days.
Afterwards, you took them out and prepare a marinated sauce with salt (about 1 kg of salt for 5 liters of water), a teaspoon of sugar, some crushed garlic, pepper, and few crushed hot peppers. You keep in that sauce for 8 days, by turning them on the fourth day.
Then you took them out, you wash them, let the pieces dry and smoke them. I suggest finding a good smoker, and to smoke them right. It's important that you don't hurry up the process. Keep a low temperature, and use good wood. You will need to leave it to smoke easily, for 4-5 hours, until it will get an awesome reddish color.

It is an acquired taste. Not everyone enjoys raw fat, but I love it. It's smokey, soft, melts in your mouth.
 
why would you salt it for 3 days to remove the water then brine it for 8 days?, i would think you could do away with the 3 day process, other than that it's sweetcured bacon, what temp do you smoke it at?, if the fat is raw then so is the meat.
 
You also kill the bacteria with salt. I don't know why people do what they do. That's the recipe. :)
I don't know the temp, as I have an old-school smoker. The fat is raw in the sense that it's not "cooked", but it's more greasy and softer than the raw one. If you are trying to eat raw fat, you will see that you have pretty hard time in doing so. It's soft, but have a lot of hard stripes.

That's pretty much how it should look:
Slanina-afumata.jpg


Depends on the pieces. If they have more meat than fat, it might be good to boil them.
 
Flash back. Florida last winter. Looking at the vast variety of Bacons available saw one that was made from pork jowls. Looked fantastic, tasted fantastic, the two days of the 'runs' was also fantastic[emoji33]


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