What do I do with it?
I’m pretty excited that my half share this time around, the farmer threw in a pork belly. I marinated overnight, baked in the oven for an hour or so, but now what? It’s so fatty… what do you guys do with it?

I would have made bacon with it

Bacon, of course.

Personally, I usually do Burnt Ends. Cut it into 1" cubes, smoke for 4 hours, put the cubes into a pan(s) with BBQ Sauce of choice or lime juice & peppers. Kick the heat up to 300 and let it go another hour.

It's always a hit.

Since you already cooked for an hour I’m not sure the best thing. Burnt ends is the best idea after bacon. But you could deep fry until crispy outside. Get fat close to rendered so it melts in your mouth. Delicious

Chinese Style Hong Shao Rou

or

dwaejigogi bokkeum

or pancetta

or bacon

you really dropped the ball cooking that already

Thai fried rice

Dang it. I followed an online recipe, then thought: “what would the guys do?” My bad. I’ll try to work with it, though. More ideas welcome.

I buy it from Costco now & then, pre-sliced in place of "bacon". I prefer to season it with a variety of dry rub, such as large grained salt, coarse pepper or something such as "Ya Momma" cajun salt.

I bake it around 400 for maybe up to 20 mins per side, which renders much of the fat out & onto the cookie sheet. The remaining slices are moderately addictive.

I'll have to try some of the other suggestions listed above.

Check out the BBQ thread.
My favorite it to make it into Burnt Ends ~ made it this weekend in fact - DELICIOUS.
It takes more than an hour to cook Pork Belly.
Sliders or sandwiches are a great use as well.
Plenty of YouTube Vids on all of this.
It is great!

quote:

Originally posted by irreverent:
Dang it. I followed an online recipe, then thought: “what would the guys do?” My bad. I’ll try to work with it, though. More ideas welcome.

Bacon.

It might take 3 or 4 tries to get the flavor you want. That's not a down side either.

If you already cooked it your options are probably limited- but pork belly burn ends. Cut into inch and a half cubes, coat with your choice of pork rub, and smoke for a few hours (until they get tender and start to build bark.) After that, braise them in jelly/ juice/ honey/ butter for another hour or two until they get fall apart tender. Take them out, dry them off, toss them in BBQ sauce, and serve. What I do is pretty close to Malcolm Reed's method- feel free to google him for a whole world of recipes and videos that show you how he creates all kinds of addictively delicious things.

Of all the things I've ever smoked, these have been the biggest hit. I don't do it very often because pork belly is expensive around here if you don't get it on sale, but for special occasions these will make everyone happy.

quote:

Malcolm Reed's method

Yep ^^^

Man, forget the range. I would travel to a SF Pork Belly fest.

Asian style braised, or Burnt Ends, is what I prefer.

quote:

Originally posted by Twist:
Bacon, of course.

Personally, I usually do Burnt Ends. Cut it into 1" cubes, smoke for 4 hours, put the cubes into a pan(s) with BBQ Sauce of choice or lime juice & peppers. Kick the heat up to 300 and let it go another hour.

It's always a hit.

This!! I get my pork belly from costco, smoke it on my weber smokey mountain 22". Family loves it!!

Ok so I have never had pork belly in my life until last weekend. Texas Monthly magazine released their Top 50 BBQ joints in Texas just recently. They do it every four years. Well #2 on the list is right in my backyard so I decided to try it. I bought some of everything. The most expensive but best reviewed item was the pork belly. I got some and it was fantastic! Unfortunately since you pay by the weight you are paying for lots of fat that in my case I won’t eat, but the meat between the fat was so damn good! So get it, marinate it, and smoke it!

You got me started. I have pork belly inbound. Will be making maple/peppered bacon.

quote:

Originally posted by DJ_Boston:
Chinese Style Hong Shao Rou

This right here. It's one of my favorite, simple "WOW" dishes! I'm tickled to see someone else mention it!!

Gah. You guys are killing me. I’ve feel I’ve wasted this beautiful piece of meat (but yet in the am, I get a couple more slices and brown them in my cast iron to nibble on while I think this through). Maybe I’ll add bbq and give it a whirl. The bummer is my farmer just sold out so this may be the last share I get.

Pork bellies are traded on the commodities market and have become very popular in the US for making bacon (curing, smoking). A really good pork belly might be 50-60% fat, run of the mill is probably closer to 75% fat. Other than the consistent market demand for bacon there really is no way to explain the prices being charged for pork bellies or bacon; compared to lean pork loins or roasts it is pure garbage food.

Spent some time in England 30-odd years ago and experienced what the Brits call bacon. Nice lean pork loins, cured and smoked, sliced fairly thick. Absolutely delicious! Totally ruined me for American "bacon".

About the only use I have for American-style bacon (pork belly) is for flavoring a pot of beans.

Of course, the Brits don't have a lock on eating. They still eat something called "clinkers", pork sausages with a fairly heavy content of sawdust as filler. Explained to me as a holdover from the WW2 era as a means for expanding the meat supplies during heavy rationing. Still moderately popular, but not what I would prefer.