First Time Doing Pork Belly Burnt Ends

[AllAces]

Tomorrow will be my first try at pork belly burnt ends. After looking over what others here have done (and with my mouth watering), I decided to take the leap. Here's the plan:
1. Start with fresh pork belly sliced in 1 inch wide strips with skin removed (the skin will also go in the smoker).
2. Two hours on the MES rack at 275F with SPOG. Smoke will be either hickory or a pro-mix of pellets.
3. Then slice the pork into roughly inch to inch and a half pieces, into a pan with butter, brown sugar and honey, covered and back in the MES for two hours.
4. Drain the pork belly pieces and sauce with Slim's Sweet & Sticky BBQ Sauce, back in the MES, uncovered for about 30 minutes.

That's the plan. This will be a small trial run to be served to a small group of fellow sportsman club members. If all goes well, a larger version of this will be done in November along with my usual batch of chili for our end of year meal.

Update: Sticking with the plan. Belly pieces are in the MES, smoking for two hours with a mix of hickory, apple and cherry.

 

[kruizer]

Sounds delicious.

 

[73saint]

I’m following this. Been making a ton of bacon, and froze several bellies that I didn’t have room in the cure fridge. I’d like to do something like this.

 

[SmokinVOLfan]

I’ll also be following! Hoping to go to Costco this weekend to get a belly myself. After seeing 73saints posts about bacon I have the itch to try it out! Might try the burnt ends first though. Heard nothing but amazing things. I mean who has ever heard one bad thing about a pork belly?

 

[drunkenmeatfist]

For overall convenience I would suggest just slicing them in to cubes to begin with. You will get rub on all sides from the start and you won't have to mess with trying to cut hot meat. These things are good and pretty hard to mess up so I am sure they will be a hit for you.

 

[SmokinAl]

The next belly I make bacon with, I'm definitely going to take a piece off for burnt ends.
I've read so many threads about them and they seem to be all the rage now!
Al

 

[AllAces]

Still following the plan. Burnt ends have been sauced Slim's Sweet & Sticky BBQ Sauce and are back in the MES for final stage. Just a taste of Slim's sauce is enough to tell me this is going to be good. Bacon candy!

 

[AllAces]

Burnt ends are out of the MES. First taste test tells me I will be making some changes to Slim's sauce. I will probably switch from OJ to lemon juice, but less. Also, the white vinegar will get swapped for Apple cider vinegar and the amount increased. The sauce needs a little more acid to balance the sweet. The raw dark amber desert honey comes through a bit too strong, so I will switch to clover honey and reduce the amount. The smoke flavor comes thru nicely and complements rather than overpower.

 

[RiversideSm0ker]

They sure look good. I keep seeing posts about this on the forum. I think this is something I need to try to make.

George

 

[gmc2003]

Those look really tasty to me. I've never used PB before only chuckie.

Point for sure.

Chris