About a month or so ago I was at Sam's strolling through the meat department contemplating what I was going to smoke next. I wanted to do something I hadn't done before but also didn't really have any ideas.... that's when I stumbled across their pork belly. Now there was only two separate cuts out there, so of course you got to get the biggest one. I picked up a 4.5 lbs uncured pork belly for about $16 which wasn't too bad. Figured, if I messed this one up I was out less than $20, plus we could order pizza for dinner.
We had some unusually warm weather this last weekend in Nebraska, so I figured Saturday would be the day to bust out that pork belly. I consulted the videos of my go-to BBQ Youtuber, AllThingsBBQ, for some ideas on pork belly burnt ends. I really like this YouTube channel as he not only does BBQ but has some other interesting recipes. If anyone has any other suggestions of YouTube BBQers, please let me know. I basically followed this video
I cut up the pork belly into rather large cubes, since the fat will render out and they will dramatically reduce in size. I used grapeseed oil as my binder for my seasoning, and used my standard pork rub (turbinado sugar, salt, paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, cayenne). I made sure each one was seasoned very well before putting onto the rack.
However, I made somewhat of a crucial mistake when planning out this smoke. I didn't account for the fact that the sliced up pork belly, when spaced out on a rack, would take up more room. I put as many pieces as I could on one rack without overcrowding it, then put more onto a second rack. No big deal right? I'll just put both racks on the smoker. Unfortunately though, a 22 inch grill grate apparently can only hold one of the racks that I had, not both of them. So now I'm left with a decent number of pork belly pieces that can't go on the smoker, and I sure as hell wasn't going to throw away perfectly good pork belly. I decided that I could finish off the rest in the oven at 250 degrees and do a side by side comparison to see how much better the smoked ones would taste.
I got my UDS up to 225 degrees when I put the pork on, as I could see I was starting to get that really good light blue smoke. Even though I wasn't quite at the 250 degrees I wanted to be, I didn't feel like it would make too much of a difference if I put it on at that temp. I was utilizing lump charcoal, pecan wood and cherry wood for the smoke. My smoker stayed around 260 degrees nearly the entire cooking process so I got some really nice consistent temps. It did start dropping down to around 230 at the very end when I was pulled the burnt ends from the smoker.
I smoked the pork belly for about 3 hours, checked it after about an hour just to take a look. I'm glad I did as a couple pieces had toppled over during the cooking process and were touching. After the three hours I had a really good bark on them and some really nice color. I separated the oven burnt ends and the smoker burnt ends into foil packages. I was planning on doing two different types of burnt ends since I've had more pork belly than I could have wanted (more on that later).
One set of the burnt ends was wrapped with a little bit of apple juice and honey for a braising liquid. These burnt ends were going to be finished with Lillie's Q Hot Smoky BBQ sauce, which I recently discovered and has quickly become my favorite BBQ sauce. I have been finding any excuse I can to use this stuff. The other burnt ends I wrapped with a Chinese style sauce consisting of grapeseed oil, ginger, chili paste, honey, brown sugar, soy sauce and lemongrass paste. I reserved some more of this sauce to toss in at the end.
After wrapping all of these beautiful packages up as tight as I could, I threw them back on the smoker for about an hour before I removed them, opened up the packages, tossed them in their respective sauces then put back on the smoker for 30 minutes to set the sauce on them.
There are a number of things I would have done differently with smoke.
Now that I've got this long, drawn out, rambling post out of the way, let's get to the good stuff! The Q-View!!!
Seasoned and ready for the smoker
Some of the oven baked burnt ends prior ready to wrap
Smoker burnt ends ready to be wrapped
Ready to wrap
After braising, sauced and ready to be put back on to set the sauce.
Sauced and ready for smoker again
Sauced and ready for smoker again
Ready to eat
Ready to eat
Ready to eat
Oven baked, ready to eat
Oven baked, ready to eat.
Plated with fresh green beans and yukon gold potatoes.
We had some unusually warm weather this last weekend in Nebraska, so I figured Saturday would be the day to bust out that pork belly. I consulted the videos of my go-to BBQ Youtuber, AllThingsBBQ, for some ideas on pork belly burnt ends. I really like this YouTube channel as he not only does BBQ but has some other interesting recipes. If anyone has any other suggestions of YouTube BBQers, please let me know. I basically followed this video
I cut up the pork belly into rather large cubes, since the fat will render out and they will dramatically reduce in size. I used grapeseed oil as my binder for my seasoning, and used my standard pork rub (turbinado sugar, salt, paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, cayenne). I made sure each one was seasoned very well before putting onto the rack.
However, I made somewhat of a crucial mistake when planning out this smoke. I didn't account for the fact that the sliced up pork belly, when spaced out on a rack, would take up more room. I put as many pieces as I could on one rack without overcrowding it, then put more onto a second rack. No big deal right? I'll just put both racks on the smoker. Unfortunately though, a 22 inch grill grate apparently can only hold one of the racks that I had, not both of them. So now I'm left with a decent number of pork belly pieces that can't go on the smoker, and I sure as hell wasn't going to throw away perfectly good pork belly. I decided that I could finish off the rest in the oven at 250 degrees and do a side by side comparison to see how much better the smoked ones would taste.
I got my UDS up to 225 degrees when I put the pork on, as I could see I was starting to get that really good light blue smoke. Even though I wasn't quite at the 250 degrees I wanted to be, I didn't feel like it would make too much of a difference if I put it on at that temp. I was utilizing lump charcoal, pecan wood and cherry wood for the smoke. My smoker stayed around 260 degrees nearly the entire cooking process so I got some really nice consistent temps. It did start dropping down to around 230 at the very end when I was pulled the burnt ends from the smoker.
I smoked the pork belly for about 3 hours, checked it after about an hour just to take a look. I'm glad I did as a couple pieces had toppled over during the cooking process and were touching. After the three hours I had a really good bark on them and some really nice color. I separated the oven burnt ends and the smoker burnt ends into foil packages. I was planning on doing two different types of burnt ends since I've had more pork belly than I could have wanted (more on that later).
One set of the burnt ends was wrapped with a little bit of apple juice and honey for a braising liquid. These burnt ends were going to be finished with Lillie's Q Hot Smoky BBQ sauce, which I recently discovered and has quickly become my favorite BBQ sauce. I have been finding any excuse I can to use this stuff. The other burnt ends I wrapped with a Chinese style sauce consisting of grapeseed oil, ginger, chili paste, honey, brown sugar, soy sauce and lemongrass paste. I reserved some more of this sauce to toss in at the end.
After wrapping all of these beautiful packages up as tight as I could, I threw them back on the smoker for about an hour before I removed them, opened up the packages, tossed them in their respective sauces then put back on the smoker for 30 minutes to set the sauce on them.
There are a number of things I would have done differently with smoke.
- I would not have used the entire slab of pork belly. I should have cut it in half and only smoked half of it, then vacuumed sealed and frozen the other half.
- I would either use more sauce next time or not put them back on for as long, maybe 15 minutes instead of 30. Unfortunately with the smoked burnt ends I couldn't really tell the difference between the Chinese style sauce and the BBQ sauce.
- I would eat something during the day rather than going hungry most of the day and gorging on burnt ends. I believe that due to the high fat content of pork belly combined with the fact I was incredibly hungry and the burnt ends tasting incredibly delicious, I over ate. When I say I over ate, I really mean it. I got sick to my stomach I ate so much. I started counting how many I had later and I believe it was around 15 or so. That was NOT smart, but I just couldn't stop.....
Now that I've got this long, drawn out, rambling post out of the way, let's get to the good stuff! The Q-View!!!
Seasoned and ready for the smoker
Smoker burnt ends ready to be wrapped
Ready to wrap
Oven baked, ready to eat.
