Pork belly

[Shotgun2]

Does all pork belly have them little bones or can I get them without?

 

[chilerelleno]

No, yes.

 

[Shotgun2]

What is the difference

 

[SonnyE]

Never had Pork Belly that had any bones in it.

Pork belly is a boneless cut of fatty meat[2] from the belly of a pig. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pork_belly

 

[Shotgun2]

The bone are ribs and if they are attached to the belly that can easily be separated with a couple strokes of a sharp knife. Ride the blade right down and around the curvature of the bones.

Buying bellies from the local grocer or butcher I have never gotten one with ribs attached. I did recently get a whole Kune Kune that from a co-worker that was quartered so the ribs were still connected to the belly.

The difference having the ribs attached or not all depends on what you are making out of the meat. In all the product I make I would not want the bones attached. But if the price was substantially lower I'd get bellies w/ the ribs and trim them myself. I'd trim and reserve the rib meat for grinding up at a later date when I had gotten enough trimming for sausage/kielbasa and the bones for making stock.

Did the belly look similar to this?

View attachment 386262

No they are more like cartilage

 

[chilerelleno]

What is the difference

No they are more like cartilage

The difference is in the work the butcher puts into them and/or what the customer wants.
You can have a good butcher custom cut a hog up anyway you desire it.

Bellies are usually sold,
Skin on/off
Whole or partial belly
Belly cut it into strips or rectangular sections ready for cooking in popular recipes.
Often a whole belly sans ribs comes with some of the tips of the ribs, soft cartilage, still attached.

I've seen the whole side of a hog cut with ribs on/off, rib section with skin on/off and ribs with belly attached.

But typically the latter are not seen in stores, you'd need to buy a half or whole hog and have it custom cut.

 

[SonnyE]

I buy my Bellies at Sam's Club, they typically run 4-5 lbs. Skin off. And rather uniform.
I'm curing one now that is 5.03 lbs
Since I've noticed the wife cuts my pretty long slices in half, I decided to just cut the 5 lb belly long ways.
So it's curing as shorties.
I'm looking forward to slicing it up. Might be fun packing it. Getting creative, but I don't want to confuse her when she goes to cooking it.
Sometimes she just doesn't appreciate my sense of Humor.