11 replies to this topic

[thampik]

What is the latest thinking in terms of brining pork belly? Are there pros and cons re: dry vs wet brining? Does brining actually add a huge amount of flavour to pork belly?

Until fairly recently, I had never brined Pork Belly and cooked it conventionally at a fairly low temperature for about 3-4 hrs. But I have been reading with interest a fair amount of recipes that call for brining (such as Heston's 24-hr brine followed by 9+ hrs of cooking) pork belly followed by cooking at much lower temperatures for longer (not sous vide - just a low temperature oven).

Recently I dry brined 1.5 kg (skin off) Pork Belly and then cooked over 9 hrs - the end result was pretty good (but then, when is Pork Belly not good!), but I am not sure I noticed a huge amount of extra flavour. I was wondering whether wet brining would do something better? Quite a few of the recipes call for 12 hrs of dry brining vs. 24 hrs of wet brining...

[patrickamory]

Feels like bringing coals to Newcastle but what do I know!

[Baselerd]

Brining allegedly helps make the pork retain the moisture better after cooking. The result should be a more succulent cut of meat. Another secondary function of the brine is to help the meat maintain a bolder color (using instacure #1), otherwise the braised belly tends to turn a duller gray color. I've brined all of my pork bellies, but only because it seemed like the de facto thing to do. I have heard it's very delicious without brining as well...

[thampik]

Baselerd, I can testify first hand it is delicious without brining as well

I am not sure I would use brining solely for the purpose of helping it retain moisture as pork belly is not very likely to be dry. I read that chefs do it to get better flavour into the pork...and with that as the goal, I am wondering if anyone has views (or fact) regarding the pros and cons of dry vs wet brining.

[Dave Hatfield]

I personally don't think that brining either wet or dry adds much if anything to pork belly.

For me just a good long slow cook does the trick. I like to place my belly over halved onions so they pick up the flavor & end up nice & soft.

I also find that a slow cook with the skin on sets things up for making great crackling at the end.

[thampik]

Dave, one thing that worked really well for me was cooking the skin separately at about 90C for about 7 hrs and then cutting it into strips to cool. A last blast at about 220c for about 10-15 mins ended up with amazing crackling.

Perhaps it is possible to achieve similar results much quicker as well, but where's the fun with that :-)

[radtek]

You could dry salt it overnight instead of the full week. If one adds about 0.25% cure #1 (sodium nitrite&salt) to the salt mixture the belly will develop a nice pinkish color regardless of whether it is a dry cure or a brine cure. I think this brings a lot to the party and a quick and light cure really livens the belly up.

[thampik]

radtek, thanks - I'l definitely try that next time

[thampik]

The crackling method I used was from this really interesting article.

[thampik]

...and what made me ask the question to start with was this article that goes into the pros and cons of wet vs dry brining Turkey.

[annachan]

I've actually done both wet and dry brine side by side (for pork belly buns). Which one is better really depends on your taste. The wet brine produced a more moist, tender pork belly. The dry was more intense in flavor but was a little dry. So, it was kind of like texture versus flavor.

If I make roast pork belly, Chinese/Filipino style, I don't brine at all.

Edited by annachan, 04 December 2012 - 03:37 AM.

[thampik]

that's very useful, annachan - and along the lines of the article that I linked upthread.