Omg! Pork belly!

(Retta Stephenson) #10

We have a local butcher shop that occasionally carries it. I call and if it’s in, they put my name on it and hold it. Buy it in about 10 to 12 lbs packs. I cut it into about thirds, and cook one and freeze the others for later. So… I’d suggest you call a local butcher shop and see when or if they have some, or can order you some. Yum! :heart_eyes:

(Jeff Henderson) #11

How is everyone cooking it anypictures? I’m ready to try to make some myself. I’ve only had it at restaurants and barbecue joints here in CT, so good.

(Edith) #12

The pork belly I found did not have a rind, just a layer of fat, probably not as thick as it could be.

I made a barbecue rub for it and rubbed it all over the pork. Then I put it in the frig for four hours. You can put it in the frig for up to 24 hours. I poured out the juices and baked it in a 450 degree F oven for 30 minutes and then a 250 degree F oven for 75 minutes.

I let it cool and wrapped it up and then put it back in the frig to chill. To serve it, I sliced it up into half inch thick slices and fried in a pan to soften up the fat.

It sounds like a lot of work, but it really isn’t. It does require a little planning ahead. I would take a picture, but we ate it. :yum:

Edit: the timing was for a three pound piece of meat.

(Alba Loren) #13

Thank you so much for the information!

(The amazing autoimmune 🦄) #14

Costco and Whole Foods here on the east coast carry them in my area.

(Banting & Yudkin & Atkins & Eadeses & Cordain & Taubes & Volek & Naiman & Bikman ) #15

Have a 1.2 lbs chunk of acorn fed, pastured pig pork belly that I scored the rind in a diamond pattern, brined in Redmond real salt and Sweve for an hour or two, and then vac sealed and processed Sous Vide at 154x24 hours. It got shocked in ice water, then put in the fridge. The final process will be rubbing with something like pepper/paprika/cinnamon/nutmeg/aleppo pepper flakes/lime peel, or brushed with a red chili adobo I have in my fridge. Smoked for half an hour or so at a low temp, and then roasted hot in the oven to turn those diamonds into crispy diamonds.

Here’s one I smoked last year… salt/pepper/cinnamon/clove/paprika

image
676F7EE6-DA18-4E2D-ACAF-7CA0AC3E8E0D.jpeg3023×3580 3.01 MB
image
5216E3D5-D7CD-4DC5-A487-8E4EE7ECDBF5.jpeg3024×4032 2.3 MB
image
48BE879F-F99D-4450-9880-2AE81F75754C.jpeg3024×4032 2.58 MB

Best cuts of beef for the price?
(Retta Stephenson) #16

The pork belly I bought from Costco was “okay”, but not nearly as exquisite as the ones from the butcher. The Costco had the skin removed, had less of a fat layer and a thicker meat layer. Fine, if that’s what you are looking for. But I wanted a more Keto version, with a smaller meat layer and the skin layer that, after cooking, turns deliciously crispy. Just personal preferences I guess. :pig2:

Oh, and one of my personal favorites as far as spices is Redmond salt and GaramMasala. Score the skin side, rub in spices, and cook very similar to Edith. Wowzer, that’s good.

#17

Any Aussies. Do yourself a favour and try the Crackling Pork Belly at The Bavarian chain of restaurants. The best pork belly I have ever tasted in my life.

#18

I’ll be in The Gong soon - will see what I can do :yum:

Thanks for the heads up.

(Starfox Rose) #19

I may need to prepare myself mentally for pork belly… But this article makes my want to nibble it.

(Banting & Yudkin & Atkins & Eadeses & Cordain & Taubes & Volek & Naiman & Bikman ) #20

If I really want a lot of pork belly, I go to the meat wholesaler and get a whole side for maybe $2/lbs. make five lbs of bacon, smoke a big piece, Sous Vide some. It’s an amazingly rich cut that is used in so many cuisines globally. It loves low and slow cooking. Braise, smoke, sous vide. It takes curing, brining, nearly any rub, marinade, seasoning, baste… and the skin.

Don’t buy without the skin. It can be the most amazing part when properly blistered under high heat.

(Pete A) #21

Kroger and it"s excellent

P_20190204_081004_vHDR_Auto
P_20190204_081004_vHDR_Auto.jpg2716×5089 2.34 MB

#22

We don’t have a Kroger but we do have a good Filipino population so can easily get pork belly even in this little village :smile::yum:

(Chris Ward) #23

I made Maria Emmrich’s instant pot pork belly. It was the first time I cooked it that I liked it.

(Bob M) #24

I haven’t been able to figure out how to cook pork belly well. And to be honest, it’s too fatty for me. I know that’s heresy, but there you go.

I personally would rather have ham, even though it’s low in fat, and keep pork belly for those times I want to be overwhelmed with fat. Went to Costco this weekend, bought beef brisket (relatively low fat), shrimp (very low fat), ham (low fat), crab (very low fat), some beef sausages (high fat), and never thought once about pork belly. In fact, the shrimp and crab are to counteract the fattiness of the beef sausages, and are for my lunches.

(Todd Batitis) #25

Welcome to the club. I talk about this in my thread about things you would never eat pre-keto. :smile:

I always hated fat. Trimmed it off my pork chops, ham and steaks. Bacon had to be cooked so the fat was more crisp than rubbery. I couldn’t IMAGINE pork belly. Seriously? You would have to cook it so long to make the fat not gross.

I kept hearing about it on the 2KD podcast though. I kept reading about it being a big thing on Keto. So we picked up a pack at Costco and the wife cooked some. She cubed it up, marinated it in soy sauce and Worcestershire, coated it in Montreal Seasoning Mix and threw it in the toaster oven for 40 minutes at 400F then turned it over and hit another 10 minutes. I came home to a new love! :slight_smile:

We have tried doing it in a crock pot with a little saurkraut we had left over but THAT texture I couldn’t deal with… but take it out and crisp it up in a pan… yum!

I haven’t had any in about a month now but I think it will be time on our next Costco run. And since I have one pack left in the freezer… maybe I know what I am going to eat when the wife is out at her mom’s mid-week :).

(Todd Batitis) #26

If you have a Costco membership you can usually find it there as well. I haven’t looked for it in full slab form but at our Costco’s out here in Seattle we have it where it comes packaged as 8-10 strips for around $25 per package. Think bacon that is roughly 1"x1" in cross section. It doesn’t have that wonderful skin I see on so many full slabs though so I might have to look into finding that and doing one on the grill. :slight_smile:

Can someone help me translate this? It seems to be a language I can’t decipher. :slight_smile:

(Todd Batitis) #27

When I first decided to give it a go we had seen that they had some similar to that at Costco but it was pre-smoked and such but I wasn’t crazy that it was more of a BBQ version. It came pre-packaged as you see below and we tried it. It was basically flavorful bacon that was very thick but still only around 1/2" thick. The big problem for me was that for a serving, 91g, it was 5g of carbs due to the 4g of sugar in the cure. It tasted fine but it was nothing more than bacon with too much sugar used to make it something I would want often.

image
image.jpg1080×1080 634 KB

(Bunny) #28

That looks so good! Mmmm!

A true LeCheffre!

I have a endless supply of that exact cut of pork belly around the corner at my local farmers market butcher shop along with chicken feets, hearts, livers, kidneys and any other part of an organ meat you can think of…lol

My favorite is tri-tips!

#29

You’ve gotta try the skin :yum: