First let me thank Martin "DiggingDogFarm" for the guidance he provided for the cure time. I ended up traveling and needed to know how to handle the extended cure time.
While at a local Mexican Meat market, I asked if they happened to have any pork belly (fulling expecting a "no" reply) and they said "yes!" 14.275lbs at $2.69/lb later I arrived home to a wife with a confused look on her face . . . "you're going to do what?!?" That is consistently the reply I have received during the last few weeks when telling folks about my latest project.
I had the butcher cut up the belly into two pieces, which I halved again upon returning home. I then skinned two of the four pieces and left the skin on the other two. I also make pork rinds from the skin that puffed up perfectly and tasted great . . . but that is another story.
Cure included MTQ, Dark Brown Sugar, Granulated Garlic, and black pepper. Vacuum sealed and put the four pieces in the fridge turning daily for 13 days. Opened the packages and rinsed off the cure, test fried a piece (it was great) and returned the slabs to the fridge (un-covered) to dry out over night.
The next day, I was able to keep my smoker at 135F (that was the lowest) with charcoal and Pecan until the bellies came up to about 110F. I am ordering an A-Maze-N-Pellett-Smoker for future use as i would have liked to smoked colder for a longer period.
I Re-packed three of the four slabs and froze them for later use. Stuck the forth slab in the freezer for about 30 minutes so I could slice it easier. Free-hand sliced with a 250mm Japaneese Chef Knife from Chef Knives to Go (major plug for these awesome folks!!) check out the Moritaka 250 KS Gyuto . . . awesome piece of equipment! The slices turned out nice which was a concern since I do not have a meat slicer.
Now let's get to some Q-View . . .
Moritaka KS 250mm Gyuto from Chef Knives to Go http://www.chefknivestogo.com/moritakagyuto.html
While at a local Mexican Meat market, I asked if they happened to have any pork belly (fulling expecting a "no" reply) and they said "yes!" 14.275lbs at $2.69/lb later I arrived home to a wife with a confused look on her face . . . "you're going to do what?!?" That is consistently the reply I have received during the last few weeks when telling folks about my latest project.
I had the butcher cut up the belly into two pieces, which I halved again upon returning home. I then skinned two of the four pieces and left the skin on the other two. I also make pork rinds from the skin that puffed up perfectly and tasted great . . . but that is another story.
Cure included MTQ, Dark Brown Sugar, Granulated Garlic, and black pepper. Vacuum sealed and put the four pieces in the fridge turning daily for 13 days. Opened the packages and rinsed off the cure, test fried a piece (it was great) and returned the slabs to the fridge (un-covered) to dry out over night.
The next day, I was able to keep my smoker at 135F (that was the lowest) with charcoal and Pecan until the bellies came up to about 110F. I am ordering an A-Maze-N-Pellett-Smoker for future use as i would have liked to smoked colder for a longer period.
I Re-packed three of the four slabs and froze them for later use. Stuck the forth slab in the freezer for about 30 minutes so I could slice it easier. Free-hand sliced with a 250mm Japaneese Chef Knife from Chef Knives to Go (major plug for these awesome folks!!) check out the Moritaka 250 KS Gyuto . . . awesome piece of equipment! The slices turned out nice which was a concern since I do not have a meat slicer.
Now let's get to some Q-View . . .
Moritaka KS 250mm Gyuto from Chef Knives to Go http://www.chefknivestogo.com/moritakagyuto.html
