eG Cook-Off #65: Pork Belly

[jayt90]

I'll be looking for a commercial pork belly with bone in, as meaty and fatty as possible.

I'll be using a pressure cooker, as it is the anti-sous vide and bears some similarity to slow roasting. The dry steam penetrates effectively at 225 F - 250 F, and there is no turbulence on the bottom as long as the steam release is quiet, not hissing. Since the vessel is sealed, moistness is retained while the collagen breaks down.

How long do you cook it for? Do you use a natural release? Do you then weight it down and refrigerate it before, say, searing it?

[ElsieD]

Thank you, Jay.

[Anna N]

Well I chose this http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Crispy-Roast-Pork-Siew-Yoke recipe for my contribution. However, something didn't work well and to add to my misery I deleted the photographs. The pork is tasty but nowhere near tender and succulent and the skin crisped only slightly at the very edges as it was blackening rather than crisping. I have cut up most of it and stuck it in the freezer. It will get used up eventually. I suspect it needed much longer in the oven and that lowering the oven shelf while broiling might have made a difference. Anxious to try again when I can find another belly.

[Shelby]

I posted on the wrong thread lol. Rather than repost the picture , here is what I'm working with this time:

http://forums.egullet.org/topic/20297-pork-belly/?p=1953664

It has a lot more meaty goodness on it than the last one that I did, SO, I decided to do Siu Yook again.

[rotuts]

would Siu Yook be similar to Siew Yoke ?

BTW :

that's a mighty fine looking belly. lucky you !

Edited February 16, 2014 by rotuts (log)

[Shelby]

would Siu Yook be similar to Siew Yoke ?

Yes it looks to be very similar. Here is the recipe I'm using:

http://forums.egullet.org/topic/108508-siu-yook-roast-pork-belly/page-4

[rotuts]

thank you . this one ?

http://forums.egullet.org/topic/128753-roast-crispy-pork-aka-chinese-siu-yook/

i have two vac packed bellies in the freezer uncooked. mine have the cartilage bits on one end.

Ive tried to figure out where on the pig these come from but can only think the median rib cage.

Ill try to bring them out and do something with them if the snow ever stops. Mine would need a visit at then end on the

Weber, currently buried deep.

[rotuts]

here they are:

they are a little over a kilo each. meaty-er than I recalled.

thanks for the inspiration.

[Shelby]

thank you . this one ?

http://forums.egullet.org/topic/128753-roast-crispy-pork-aka-chinese-siu-yook/

i have two vac packed bellies in the freezer uncooked. mine have the cartilage bits on one end.

Ive tried to figure out where on the pig these come from but can only think the median rib cage.

Ill try to bring them out and do something with them if the snow ever stops. Mine would need a visit at then end on the

Weber, currently buried deep.

Yes, that's the one

I have scored, salted, vodkad and marinated. Mr. Pork is now resting in the fridge. I let it rest for 48 hours last time and will probably do that again. We will visit Mr. P on Tuesday.

[Paul Bacino]

Finished Playing with My Sous Vide Pork Belly __ Sweet and Sour ( My way )

I used a little pork stock in my rice, small side salad with sesame dressing and fresh Pineapple

[rotuts]

Ooooooo ! Oooooooooooooooooo !

PB : you win !

please consider sharing that Rx for thew PaulB S&S PB:

times etc etc. if you will

I wont share it !

so delicious looking. love the 'crust'

Edited February 16, 2014 by rotuts (log)

[David Ross]

I've only been cooking with pork belly for a few years so recipe box is pretty limited right now. But the one pork belly recipe I've done many times is always a winner--Pork Belly Confit. It's based on a recipe from Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc at Home cookbook. I've used pieces of the finished pork belly in Banh Mi sandwiches, (at our Banh-Mi Cook-Off here http://forums.egullet.org/topic/143083-cook-off-60-banh-mi/page-3), but this rendition of pork belly is also delicious when cut into a larger cube then sauteed to crisp the skin and served with potato puree, pork jus and a huckleberry compote.

You could start by brining the pork belly, but I don't think it adds much flavor and by using a "confit" style cooking method the brine won't make the pork any more tender. The tenderness comes from the slow cooking in the fat.

Here's a fairly good pork belly to start, thick, meaty and a good layer of fat-

I leave the rind, (outer skin), on and then submerge the pork belly in melted lard. Into a 200 oven to slowly cook for 6 hours-

Here's porky after the fat bath-

Then into a heavy casserole dish, strained fat poured over, then covered and chilled in the fridge for about 4 or 5 days-

Then slowly melt the fat again, remove the pork belly and carefully cut off the outer rind. I found that if I left the rind on it was as tough as that shoe leather Charlie Chaplin tried to eat-

Then into a hot saute pan to warm up the pork and crisp the skin-

It wasn't technically a traditional Banh Mi the way I treated and cut the pork belly, but it sure was good--a good French roll, mayonnaise, cilantro, radish, cucumber, carrot, pork pate and pork belly. I won't stop at Banh Mi with this method of cooking pork belly. Really moist and yet crispy.

[Paul Bacino]

Ooooooo !  Oooooooooooooooooo !

 

PB  : you win !

 

please consider sharing that Rx for thew PaulB S&S PB:

 

times etc etc. if you will

 

I wont share it !

 

so delicious looking.   love the 'crust'

RT...falling back to the serious eats..sous vide pork belly.

The belly is sous vide..170 for 10 hrs. Cool in bag and defatted the next day

In prep #1--I removed the belly and just pan seared

In prep #2-- I roasted the belly with the liquid, reserved from sous vide, @375F for about an hr...this I never basted..cuz I didn't want a soy bomb...but just the heat created this exterior glazed. Wasn't to salty..nice sweetness with the pineapple.

[huiray]

Chanko-nabe miso-aji.

Patterned after the recipe here. (scroll down to the bottom) I adjusted some of the quantities (e.g. much more sake, more daikon, etc). I also made dashi from katsuobushi (shaved bonito) before adding in the dashi stock ("flakes"). Also simmered the pork belly slices for longer than in the recipe.

Pork belly, sliced up. Half skin-on, half skin-off.

The katsuobushi I used. This went into the 10 cups of simmering water, (whole package), the mixture stirred & brought back to a fast simmer; then all the solids fished out with a fine-meshed large sieve.

The dashi stock (a little less than in the recipe) then went in; followed by the pork belly slices, then the sake (I used ryori-shu) and mirin (I used mirin-fuu). More ryori-shu (and a bit more mirin) than in the recipe; adjusted to my taste.

The mirin-fuu (on the left) and ryori-shu (on the right) I used.

The dashi stock I used.

Aka miso (red miso) and (mutenka) shiro miso (white miso) was slurried w/ some water and added in to the pot, adjusted somewhat to taste.

The miso pastes I used.

The veggies and some other stuff:

Left to right: daikon (peeled), fresh shiitake mushrooms, fresh thick-cap Chinese-type far-koo mushrooms, enoki mushrooms, bunapi-shimeji mushrooms (white beech), nira (Chinese garlic chives).

At bottom: a pack of abura-age.

Stuff after being cut up; plus large cubes of drained firm tofu.

Potatoes (Red Pontiac), carrots, an onion.

Carrots, potatoes, daikon, onion (all sliced up) in the simmering soup.

The rest of the stuff, plus cut-up washed Napa cabbage (not pictured above) added in.

A bowl of the completed chanko-nabe miso-aji.

Edited February 18, 2014 by huiray (log)

[David Ross]

That looks delicious. Thanks for the great tutuorial.

[David Ross]

This is my Pork Belly Banh Mi-

[David Ross]

Anyone have any experience with making fried pork rinds from the belly? I was watching a segment on "The Best Thing I Ever Ate" on Cooking Channel and I was pretty much salivating over the fried pork rinds they served at Publican in Chicago. They did show the process but not in enough detail that I could duplicate the recipe.

Looks like they use the actual outer rind from the belly, then dehydrate it and then fry it. I really liked the garnish of malt vinegar powder. Any ideas on a source for the powder?

[Tri2Cook]

Modernist Pantry carries malt, white and balsamic vinegar powders.

[Paul_C]

I made this a few weeks ago.

Braised in cider and chicken stock with a few aromats and then deep fried. Tender meat and the crackling was like shards of glass. Hmmm.

The intention was to sous vide it rather than braise but I was too impatient to wait the 2 days. When you want pork, you want pork now!

Seeing as though I had the fryer on the go I did a black pudding and apple croquette with it as well.

[jayt90]

Braised in cider and chicken stock with a few aromats and then deep fried. Tender meat and the crackling was like shards of glass. Hmmm.

The intention was to sous vide it rather than braise but I was too impatient to wait the 2 days. When you want pork, you want pork now!

A not too large pork belly like yours should respond well to pressure cooking 1 hour or less. The collagen, fat, and skin will soften and the meat will not overcook, as it is subjected to 240 F steam heat similar to enclosed oven heat for an hour.

Finishing by deep frying should crisp the skin. (I rarely deep fry).

[huiray]

I was thinking about what to make for lunch and thought of babi assam with pork belly - then remembered that I had posted about it before on eG. :-) Have a look here, scroll down to the fourth "sub-entry".

Here's another picture focusing on that dish:

The ingredients comprised pork belly (skin on), green chillies, salted soy beans, tamarind, oil, salt, sugar, water, candlenuts, shallots, shrimp paste (belacan).

p.s. This is considered to be another Peranakan (a.k.a. Nyonya) dish, as I indicated when I referred to it in my post from the dinner thread.

Edited December 21, 2015 by huiray
Updated link (log)

[Paul_C]

Braised in cider and chicken stock with a few aromats and then deep fried. Tender meat and the crackling was like shards of glass. Hmmm.

The intention was to sous vide it rather than braise but I was too impatient to wait the 2 days. When you want pork, you want pork now!

A not too large pork belly like yours should respond well to pressure cooking 1 hour or less. The collagen, fat, and skin will soften and the meat will not overcook, as it is subjected to 240 F steam heat similar to enclosed oven heat for an hour.

Finishing by deep frying should crisp the skin. (I rarely deep fry).

Noted, thanks.

[Shelby]

Pork belly

After scoring, salt and vodka

After resting for 2 days in the fridge

Right before I'm getting ready to have a huge piece

OMG this one was better. Lots more meat.

I'm ready for another pork belly!

Oh and the last pic is after rubbing the hoisin mixture on

Edited February 19, 2014 by Shelby (log)

[rotuts]

I decided today to use one of the 2 PB's pic'd above. After all, this was No Snow Day !

I had moderate low expectations. Why ? some time ago, before the internet and eG' I did PB's on my weber, low and slow with a

'rub' same as i did Pork ribs. it was outstanding and delicious. but too fatty for me.

....

I decided to learn from this so used what I had around: I scored the top :

and used a Sauer's Pork Rub, as I had it:

https://www.cfsauer.com/

then I roasted it for 30 min in the BV-XL at 400 ( no particular reason ) to get some color:

then turned the BV down to 220 for 2 hours ( you have to reset ) and checked the temp and added

one more hour : TermaPen at 175:

tried the skin: not so good, so took it off.

added some Maesri Sweet Chili sauce, under the broiler, about three times:

getting there :

saving the rest for a Sandwich w/wo soup tomorrow.

Ill do this again, and work a bit harder on the skin and make a rub/glaze just for this

delicious not too greasy.

Ill also add time on the 'bake' to get the ThermoPen to 185 or so

Edited February 20, 2014 by rotuts (log)

[Shelby]

Looks delicious!!! Melt in your mouth goodness!

I bet if you torched the skin on top for a bit or broiled it, you would have liked it. To me (and I've very new at this so you might not want to listen lol) the skin doesn't look done enough to be crunchy.