Wifey bought pork belly by mistake - What to do with it?


 
M

Mark R-S

TVWBB Fan
I asked my wife to buy some ribs to smoke at the weekend, but she bought pork belly by mistake.
I'm going to go and get some babybacks tomorrow, but I wondered what to do with the belly. I've read about curing and making bacon, but I'm feeling too lazy at the moment to try that. The belly is extremely fatty, so I wondered if I could trim it and just smoke it as if it were ribs, along with the babybacks, or should I be more adventurous?

-Mark.
 
Mark... find a recipe for Chinese roast pork on the internet. I understand the Chinese make an excellent roast.
 
I've seen those big packs of pork belly and at first, I thought they were ribs, too!

Pork belly is really popular here. It is eaten grilled, wrapped in red lettuce along with rice, roasted sliced garlic, red pepper paste, sesame oil, salt and pepper. Yum! And don't forget the kimchee and soju!
Korean BBQ
 
<span class="ev_code_RED"> BACON </span>
I'm doing a batch of savory bacon right now.
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BaconSept302web.jpg


Once you've turned those pork bellies ordinaire into your own smoked bacon, you'll never go back to commercial stuff.
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And once your family and friends have tasted it, they'll never let you go back either.
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Just look at this situation as serendipity - a gift from the Pork God.

Do you have Alder trees in Finland? I've found that our local alder makes an excellent smoke-wood for bacon.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Pat McCreight:
Anyone have a recipe to make bacon from pork bellies? I'd like to give it a try. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Search for Bacon Dry Cure on this forum. You'll find lots of choices and tips for makin' bacon from pork bellies.
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Here's one source:
http://tvwbb.infopop.cc/eve/fo...340054605#7340054605
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">I've seen those big packs of pork belly and at first, I thought they were ribs, too!

Pork belly is really popular here. It is eaten grilled, wrapped in red lettuce along with rice, roasted sliced garlic, red pepper paste, sesame oil, salt and pepper. Yum! And don't forget the kimchee and soju!
Korean BBQ </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

The bellies were bought loose, from a butcher, so my wife must have just pointed and said 'I'll have those'. When I saw them I thought they looked a bit fatty, and when I felt them I wondered where the ribs were - Actually, there are rib bones at one end, so I suppose I'll have to trim them off before making bacon.


The Chinese and Korean ideas sound interesting, and quicker than bacon. I've got 4 bellies, so I'm tempted to try something different - I've travelled (and eaten) a lot, but I haven't tried Chinese roast, or Korean BBQ.

-Mark.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Dave from Denver:
Bacon from scratch is the only answer here. You'll never feel too lazy to do it again, once you try the result. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

If all I have to do this weekend is put the bellies to cure, and leave them for a week it looks like I still get to be lazy
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I just bought some salmon, because I was feeling too lazy to do a long smoke this weekend. The trouble with that is I'll put the fish in, and one hour later it'll be ready and I'll have to get up again and take it off, and I'll have hardly any time to drink beer.

-Mark.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Bruce McLeod:
<span class="ev_code_RED"> BACON </span>
I'm doing a batch of savory bacon right now.
icon_cool.gif


BaconSept302web.jpg


Once you've turned those pork bellies ordinaire into your own smoked bacon, you'll never go back to commercial stuff.
icon_biggrin.gif


And once your family and friends have tasted it, they'll never let you go back either.
icon_wink.gif
icon_wink.gif


Just look at this situation as serendipity - a gift from the Pork God.

Do you have Alder trees in Finland? I've found that our local alder makes an excellent smoke-wood for bacon. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I do like bacon, so this is very serendipitous. I know my familiy and friends will be impressed, and that's half the pleasure of doing all this.

We do have a lot of alder around here, but I've only ever used it for fish. A couple of weekends ago I used birch for a butt and it tasted really good. I think I'll try alder for the bacon - How much would you use? Do you also use it other things, like butt?

-Mark.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Mark R-S:
I asked my wife to buy some ribs to smoke at the weekend, but she bought pork belly by mistake.
-Mark. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
Your wife knows a good thing when she sees one. It's fate. The powers are telling you to get off your keester and make some bacon.
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<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Mark R-S
I do like bacon, so this is very serendipitous. I know my familiy and friends will be impressed, and that's half the pleasure of doing all this.
We do have a lot of alder around here, but I've only ever used it for fish. A couple of weekends ago I used birch for a butt and it tasted really good. I think I'll try alder for the bacon - How much would you use? Do you also use it other things, like butt?
-Mark. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

With alder, you're in luck.

Wow! Salmon and Bacon
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I just used some alder last weekend to smoke a 9lb wild coho salmon, using Cardogs process. I did omit the finishing rub and didn't use foil, but dipped the skin side in oil before placing the pieces on the WSM grates.
I cooked it to 135?F (internal) and kept the dome temp ~225?F. Took just over 1 hr.
For that I used about 6 pieces of 5cm x 5cm alder. We currently have several house guests from Germany and they were blown away by the flavour and texture of the salmon. I felt relieved.... and honoured (realizing that my success can largely be attributed to the great advice from many members of this forum).

For the Bacon, last time I used a very small Minion method (about 6 coals lit initially) and placed two pieces alder right right against the lit coals. I also scattered another 4 pieces around that so they would ignite later during the smoke. I kept the dome temp ~165?-175?F and after ~4.5 hours, the internal temp of the bacon reached 155?F so I pulled it off, zip-lok bagged it and plunged it into ice water to cool.
Mmmmmmmmmm......lots of compliments from all who tried it. So that's what I'll be doing with this batch as well.

FWIW, the local First Nations/Indians along the B.C. coast have traditionally used alder to smoke salmon, herring and other fish.

Inspired by Clark Deutscher, this weekend I'll be using alder to smoke some tomatoes.
 
I talked to my local butcher yesterday about buying belly to make bacon. He said that everything he gets is frozen and that I would need fresh belly to make bacon. Has anyone ever made bacon from frozen pork belly?
 
Alder is real nice. I go through a lot of it as well. You'll love it on those tomato's Bruce!

Joe feel free to use the bellies and thaw them, it will work perfect. I've done it many times!

Clark
 
I wish my lady would come home with a bunch of accidental pork belly!
In my neck of the suburbs, it's actually proving difficult to track down decent pork belly. The local butchers don't stock it because it doesn't sell, the Safeway guys look at me as if to say, "What the **** would you do with that?!?" Even the Mexican mercados don't have it.
I've got all this strange pink salt just sitting around with no meat to cure.
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Never been to Santa Cruz so no idea if this is even a possiblity but if there is a China town I would be willing to be they would have it for you. Pretty much all Asian markets that I have been to carry it!

Clark
 
After all the votes in favor of me making bacon with the belly which my wife bought by mistake, my appetite was wetted and I was really looking forward to making some. I'm living in Finland at the moment, and I looked everywhere for curing salt but couldn't find any - I even went to a sausage factory so see if they would have any (perhaps some of the resident Finns could say if they know where to get it). I know I could have used normal salt, but I wanted to do it properly. In the end I asked my mum to send me some, and it arrived a week ago, and now I have almost a lifetime's supply.
Since then I've had some bacon sitting in the fridge curing, and now it's in the WSM smoking with a mixture of alder any hickory. It's been there an hour so far, so I'll be eating bacon tonight!

-Mark.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Mosef:
In my neck of the suburbs, it's actually proving difficult to track down decent pork belly.
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</div></BLOCKQUOTE>

If you can make the hike over the hill, there's a few Asian supermarkets (e.g. 99 Ranch Market, http://www.99ranch.com/) in Cupertino/South SJ area w/ pork belly. Did Chinese 5-spice w/ pork belly a couple of weekends ago.
 
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