Help! Somebody skinned my pork belly.


 
S

S. Fink

TVWBB Fan
With my eye on a bacon smoke next weekend, I picked up a 6lb piece of pork belly . . . only to find when I got home that the butcher had removed the skin already.

Having only cured/smoked previously w/ the skin on, I'm wondering if I can still get good bacon out of this belly. I normally do a 7 day cure and slow, hot smoke.

If it's salvageable, are there any adjustments I should make? Thanks in advance for any advice.
 
I always smoke my bacon with the skin removed. I usually do a 7-day cure, but don't do a very hot smoke - I usually keep the dome temp of the smoker under 200, so that the fat doesn't render.

I always get good bacon without the skin on.
 
Bacon will be fine. I almost always remove after curing but before the smoke. No adjustments. Proceed as usual!
 
As mentioned before, bacon will be fine. Or you could grab the opportunity and make yourself some panchetta if you have a place to let it dry under the right conditions.
 
Hi S Fink,

Sorry to go off topic here, but I see you are in Stratford. Did you get the belly locally? I'm in Fairfield but don't know of any places nearby where whole belly is sold. I was down in Flushing yesterday and saw pork belly for $2.49 / lb but there was bone in it so I took a pass.
 
Hey Brian-
I too have had trouble tracking down pork belly. I've bought it a couple of times at the shop-rite off of Exit 14 in Norwalk, but haven't really been impressed w/ the quality. I have a friend who gets it at a Korean grocery in Astoria.

I asked at Whole Foods in Darien on a whim last week and was pleasantly surprised that they had as much as I wanted. It wasn't in the case, but they went in the back and pulled out a really nice slab. Very pricey at $4.50 a lb. . .. but that's Whole Foods.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by S. Fink:
Very pricey at $4.50 a lb. . .. but that's Whole Foods. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

A.K.A. Whole Paycheck. That's what it takes to shop there!
icon_biggrin.gif
 
Yeah it's $4.50+ at a specialty butcher around here too. I can't countenance that. The part that's really annoying is that is $4.50 for normal commercial commodity pork, you can rest assured that if it was berkshire the WF meat department would be shouting it from the rooftops.

I recently got some wholesale for $1.90/lb but I had to buy 45 lbs and split with two other guys.

I've heard that you can find better prices at asian or latin markets if you can negotiate the language barrier.
 
The whole foods in my area have belly but they are cut kind of small and priced high.

Local asian market has belly fresh, appears they slaughter 3-4 hogs a day and offer fat back, and then have Berkshire pork in the display case too.

I also have a local butcher that has bellies. He doesn't place them in the case you have to ask for it.

Look up butchers in your area and give them a call, or better yet go to the store and ask. Also check into the asian markets, the place were locals buy. They cater to their tastes and have decent quality at a low price.
 
S. Fink-

On the slicing..... My best results come when I let the bacon refrigerate overnight, then I use my 12" granton meat slicer. As long as I pay attention, I can get even slices that are about the same as the "thick" sliced bacon that I buy at CostCo (when I buy it.) My slicer looks like this:

sg140-12ge-cp_1.jpg


....or you could look into an electric slicer. My preference is hand cut "artisan" bacon.

Your looks GREAT by the way!

Rich
 
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