Makin' Bacon!
The butcher man got me a fresh pork belly (skin on). I cut it into 4 equal pieces and removed the skin. Be sure to have a very sharp knife for cutting through the skin and removing it too.
One piece was prepared by a dry salt cured method to make pancetta. Salt, sugar and spices prepared as a dry rub and applied to the pork belly. Then into the fridge in a glass dish with another smaller glass dish on top of the pork to weight it down and sort of press out the juices. Every day I drained the juices and flipped the pork belly. After about a week I rinsed the dry rub off and patted the pork dry. Rubbed it with crushed black pepper and rolled it up tight into a cylinder and tied it up. Then I hung it up for two weeks in the closet in the spare bedroom with the window cracked open to keep the room cool. Refrigerate and pan fry slices ... but the result was very salty. Too salty. More sugar and less salt next time.
Two other pieces were prepared by a wet method. A marinade made from salt, sugar, spices, tomato paste, water, vinegar and rum. The pork belly marinated for a day or two in a glass dish in the fridge. I grilled one on the barbeque and roasted the other in the oven. Refrigerate and then pan fry slices. I made belly, lettuce and tomato between slices of a nutty cracked grain bread with homemade spicy mayo. Yummy.
The last piece is wrapped up tight in butcher paper and sealed in a freezer bag and will keep in the freezer until I can decide what to do with it. Maybe I will take it to a friend's and dry rub the pork and put it in his smoker for the day. Or maybe a pork belly prepared Korean style called toejigogi kui. Kind of like the wet method I described above but with an oriental twist.
Now the skin, also known as the rind, that has been removed from these pieces of pork belly has been kept for fried pork rinds, sometimes called scrunchions here in Canada, also known as cracklin' or scratchings . I cut the pork rind into chunks, rubbed them with salt and put them into a cast iron frying pan and used another smaller pan to weight them down. Fried until crispy. Not too bad but I fed most of them to my dog. Next time I try them I will use more salt and pepper.
One piece was prepared by a dry salt cured method to make pancetta. Salt, sugar and spices prepared as a dry rub and applied to the pork belly. Then into the fridge in a glass dish with another smaller glass dish on top of the pork to weight it down and sort of press out the juices. Every day I drained the juices and flipped the pork belly. After about a week I rinsed the dry rub off and patted the pork dry. Rubbed it with crushed black pepper and rolled it up tight into a cylinder and tied it up. Then I hung it up for two weeks in the closet in the spare bedroom with the window cracked open to keep the room cool. Refrigerate and pan fry slices ... but the result was very salty. Too salty. More sugar and less salt next time.
Two other pieces were prepared by a wet method. A marinade made from salt, sugar, spices, tomato paste, water, vinegar and rum. The pork belly marinated for a day or two in a glass dish in the fridge. I grilled one on the barbeque and roasted the other in the oven. Refrigerate and then pan fry slices. I made belly, lettuce and tomato between slices of a nutty cracked grain bread with homemade spicy mayo. Yummy.
The last piece is wrapped up tight in butcher paper and sealed in a freezer bag and will keep in the freezer until I can decide what to do with it. Maybe I will take it to a friend's and dry rub the pork and put it in his smoker for the day. Or maybe a pork belly prepared Korean style called toejigogi kui. Kind of like the wet method I described above but with an oriental twist.
Now the skin, also known as the rind, that has been removed from these pieces of pork belly has been kept for fried pork rinds, sometimes called scrunchions here in Canada, also known as cracklin' or scratchings . I cut the pork rind into chunks, rubbed them with salt and put them into a cast iron frying pan and used another smaller pan to weight them down. Fried until crispy. Not too bad but I fed most of them to my dog. Next time I try them I will use more salt and pepper.
posted by braverdave at 5:47 PM
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