Belly is such a tricky thing to find sometimes! A new shop rite had opened up nearby with belly a stocking item, but when i was ready to get a whole one i was told they no longer stocked it. So months go by and i got used to the idea belly was now unobtainable again. Yeah i know i could go way out of my way to get some and pay exhorbatant prices at the same time, but it's not worth it when i have too many other food hobbies.
So then comes grocery day and i'm wandering down the meat aisle looking for the weeks meals and i spy something from the corner of my eye. Yup! that my friends was pieces of real pork belly glimmering like a star on the shelf. So i promptly grabbed a pack, for visual reference and ran (yeah i really ran!) to the meat counter and asked for a whole belly. Within minutes i had a nicely trimmed 9lb, skin on slab of honest to god pork belly and at an acceptable price of 2.99 a pound too.
I was so excited i turned it into this.....
Tossed each one into a ziplock and they're now curing for 10 days when i will cold smoke in my MES and try to hide a little of it from prying eyes and drooling mouths that appear out of the thin smoke escaping from the smoker!
So then comes grocery day and i'm wandering down the meat aisle looking for the weeks meals and i spy something from the corner of my eye. Yup! that my friends was pieces of real pork belly glimmering like a star on the shelf. So i promptly grabbed a pack, for visual reference and ran (yeah i really ran!) to the meat counter and asked for a whole belly. Within minutes i had a nicely trimmed 9lb, skin on slab of honest to god pork belly and at an acceptable price of 2.99 a pound too.
I was so excited i turned it into this.....
Tossed each one into a ziplock and they're now curing for 10 days when i will cold smoke in my MES and try to hide a little of it from prying eyes and drooling mouths that appear out of the thin smoke escaping from the smoker!