Pork Belly Information


 

Joe P.

New member
I've done a search but could not find the information I was looking for. I've got some pork belly and since it will be my first time smoking it I am looking for advice on how to go about it. For example: skin side up, cook temperature, wrap or not, and anything in general as far as the process on an 18.5" WSM. I am going to do the whole slab and am not going to make burnt ends this time. Thank you in advance for your assistance.
 
lol. Learning to read should be a prerequisite to forum access. Thanks for helping him, Bob.
 
Thank you Bob for the welcome and the link. And here I thought that I searched pretty well! LOL
 
I have only smoked pork belly when making bacon so my experience is with "cured" pork belly. Based on that experience and my general experiences smoking I would do the following if it was me. Fat side up so the rendered fat would run down over the meat. If I wanted the smoked taste I would not wrap it. I would probably smoke it like pork steak and take it up to about 150 internal temperature. I always figure the first time smoking something new is an experiment and plan to learn from it for the next time.
 
I just did a 5 pound pork belly today but I smoke em for pork belly candy. That being said, my method doesn't stray much from any pork product. I cook around the 250 mark and I do fat side down but I really don't think it matters since the meat has a fair amount of fat in it. I don't trim the fat cap but will trim moderately once cooked if there is too much fat. I will run either apple or cherry and today added a little pecan and thought it was nice. I don't tend to wrap but see no reason why you couldn't. I cook to tender with a probe and focus less on internal temp.
 

 

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