Hello and welcome back to The Stone Soup Cook–so glad you’re here!
Today, I’m continuing my experimentation with smoking meats on my Big Green Egg. This last weekend, I tackled smoked pork belly. Pork belly is just that: the belly of the pig and the cut that, once cured, gives us bacon. But it can also be smoked, braised, roasted and even steamed. It has a thick fat cap that when rendered down will flavor, tenderize and keep the thick layer of meat from drying out during the long cooking process. Pork belly needs to be cooked slowly with moderately low heat. It can be tender, juicy and to die for when cooked properly; or it can be dry, tough as a boot and to die from, if not cooked properly.
For my first time making pork belly, I will say that I was quite pleased with the results, though, as I have remarked in other smoked meat experiments, my inclination is to under-season. This is better than over seasoning, but both can make or break a dish. Unless there is a scientific reason to not cook with salt (beans, for example–their skin will get tough if you cook them with salt, and it will also inhibit the cooking process) you should always be cooking your foods with salt. IT IS A MYTH that you can add the salt at the end and get the same flavor profile as you can by cooking with salt. Adding salt after you’ve cooked the dish will never taste as good as when you cook with the salt–and actually, you will use more salt when you salt afterwards than you would if you cooked with it. Using salt during the cooking process will allow the food to be infused throughout rather than adding an uneven layer of salt on top of the food after it’s cooked.
Anyway…now that that’s off my chest, onward and upward.
I have a tendency to under season, and an even worse tendency to not measure. All I can say is to not be afraid to be aggressive with the seasoning. The pork belly can take it.
This recipe for smoked pork belly is dead simple and results in a nice, tender, flavorful and juicy product.
There are a couple of pieces of wisdom I will give you: when selecting your cut of meat, go for a generously thick piece of pork belly that’s 3-4 pounds total. Mine was about 1 3/4 inches thick, with a ratio of fat to meat of about 50-50 in most places. A thicker cut will allow it smoke for a longer period of time and the ratio of fat to meat will keep the meat tender and juicy during the long cook time by allowing that fat cap to slowly render and melt though the meat layer.
The meat will smoke for 4-5 hours, give or take, and you will need to have the ability to keep your smoker at a constant temperature for that long. I use a contraption that Mr. Stone Soup gave me for my birthday this year from Thermoworks: the RFX wireless probe set and the Billows BBQ control temperature set. This worked very well, and once we worked out a couple of kinks, the temperature in the Egg stayed pretty much nailed on the 275* needed for its entire cook. [We’re still working to smooth out our mastery of these tools, but I plan to collaborate with Mr. Stone Soup on a product review at a later time.] Also, the Egg is a very efficient smoker and allowed us to keep the temperature constant for almost 5 hours without needing to feed it more fuel. This is important because remember: if you’re looking, you’re not cooking.
The thing that I learned about pork belly is, though, that it’s not a meat that I want to dive into a big plate of. It was undeniably tasty, but all that fat was off-putting as a main dish meat. The meat itself was terrific and when eaten with a little fat was delicious, but I found that I left most of the fat layer on my plate to be tossed at the end of the meal. I have decided that it is better utilized much like I would bacon–as a flavor additive, or for use when I need a flavorful fat for, say, stir frying, soups, stews or even for roasting. So–I’ll be using my leftovers as a flavor additive and keeping that in mind for future smokes. It also freezes beautifully and so my inner squirrel is bristling with excitement as I write this post!
Join me later in the week when I make a pot of beans and use the leftover smoked pork belly as accompaniment.
Until then,
Peace, love and good food!
Keri
