Pork Belly

[smokinjimsbbq]

So today my wife went by the store to get a boneless pork butt for me to smoke tomorrow. When she got home the vacuum sealed bag said pork cushion, but after I pulled it out I noticed it might be a belly. So tomorrow I'm gonna try pulled pork belly. We paid $33 for a 17lb belly! I'm gonna send her shopping more often!

 

[chilerelleno]

Might be?
If it's a belly it should be pretty obvious.

Naw, don't try to Pull it if it's a pork belly.
It won't turn out too well, too much fat... But it's really succulent fat and fantastic.

Cook that sucker up as Burnt Ends, or if it is skin-on, maybe Cracklings with attached meat.

 

[smokinjimsbbq]

It's 2' long 16-18" wide and 3" thick. I'm gonna cut it in half tomorrow so it will fit on my egg. I know as soon as I cut it I will be able to tell the cut of meat.

 

[drunkenmeatfist]

Seems awfully cheap to be pork belly. Google revealed this:

This is a boneless piece cut from the large muscle of the Picnic Shoulder. As such it's a well excercised very lean cut with good flavor that's best wet cooked. It can vary some in shape depending on how it's cut.

 

[chilerelleno]

Does it look like a slab of uncured bacon or like stereotypical pork flesh?

 

[drunkenmeatfist]

Here is a quote from this very website on pork cushion.

 
The pork cushion is from the shoulder picnic:



it is merchandised into usually pork cube steaks for higher profit yield from the picnic, or chunked/cubed boneless pork when selling the picnic as whole, half or sliced.   Packers can sell it as a cased product by itself and is usually a 1 - 2 lb. piece of boneless pork.

You'd want to cook to an internal temp of minimum 145°, 155° - 160° would be more acceptable.  If you want to pull them you'd want to go to up to 205° or so.  Time would be variable based on the size of the pieces.  There is not a lot of internal fat, although some membrane tissue, so pulling may result in a drier product.  Again, cooking to temp not time is the way to go; keep accurate smoke logs of all your smokes to refer back to (there is a wiki with logs here to use).

 

[smokinjimsbbq]

It was a whole cushion. I cut it in two.

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• smokinjimsbbq
• Sep 24, 2017

 

[smokinjimsbbq]

5 hours in at 250.

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• smokinjimsbbq
• Sep 24, 2017

 

[chilerelleno]

Pork Cushion, never heard of it before, learn something new everyday.

 

[chilerelleno]

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• smokinjimsbbq
• Sep 24, 2017

Looking good, standing by for the finale.

 

[smokinjimsbbq]

7 hours in!

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• smokinjimsbbq
• Sep 24, 2017