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I have been put off from doing bacon lately by the fact that the local butcher, the only guy I knew to carry pork belly, was charging $11 a pound. I was driving through a nearby town the other day and saw a large Asian market, and I know they eat a lot of pork belly, at least in the areas I have been to. I went inside and near the large cases of fish and squid I saw the pork case, and it had everything from the trotters to the ears (I have seen some interesting ear recipes, but that is for another day). Their bellies are $3.25 so I bought a few pounds. As is generally the case in this area, the Asian market was mostly staffed by Mexicans, the one who served me said 'mmmmm chicharronns' which made me think that I really don't know much about this stuff at all, i've only done bacon. Time to change that!
I read many recipes, articles and watched video of many recipes but I only liked a couple, and even those had problems. I may learn that I can't have it the way I want it, but almost all of the methods dealt with boiling, and I don't want to do that. I couldn't find many smoker recipes either, the ones I did see had pretty severe issues with the skin behaving. I think I want a crispy skin, but more like pork rind than thick and crispy, but I'm not sure. Hopefully I will know soon! The other method I like is like is to capture the rendered fat, then use that fat to finish it in the fryer.
I cut the belly into 4 sort of equal pieces and decided on 4 tests:
It took me a bit to slice the first one as I was trying to cut like it was veggies, I put my finger on top for pressure and to guide, cut pretty deep at the top and it ran down cleanly just using the tip.
I read of people having trouble skinning, I guess I have cut up enough butts because it wasn't difficult at all.
Skin off, good layer of fat that I hope will protect and not harden the top.
Here is a pic of my 4 test conditions, salted and waiting.
As you can see at the bottom I rolled up a few of the pieces of skin, I may fry one up tomorrow when I finish the recipes that require that unless you guys have any ideas to try with them.
I will let you know how they do, will put them on in about 3 hours. Kenji says put baking soda on the skin, I might try that.
I have been put off from doing bacon lately by the fact that the local butcher, the only guy I knew to carry pork belly, was charging $11 a pound. I was driving through a nearby town the other day and saw a large Asian market, and I know they eat a lot of pork belly, at least in the areas I have been to. I went inside and near the large cases of fish and squid I saw the pork case, and it had everything from the trotters to the ears (I have seen some interesting ear recipes, but that is for another day). Their bellies are $3.25 so I bought a few pounds. As is generally the case in this area, the Asian market was mostly staffed by Mexicans, the one who served me said 'mmmmm chicharronns' which made me think that I really don't know much about this stuff at all, i've only done bacon. Time to change that!
I read many recipes, articles and watched video of many recipes but I only liked a couple, and even those had problems. I may learn that I can't have it the way I want it, but almost all of the methods dealt with boiling, and I don't want to do that. I couldn't find many smoker recipes either, the ones I did see had pretty severe issues with the skin behaving. I think I want a crispy skin, but more like pork rind than thick and crispy, but I'm not sure. Hopefully I will know soon! The other method I like is like is to capture the rendered fat, then use that fat to finish it in the fryer.
I cut the belly into 4 sort of equal pieces and decided on 4 tests:
- Basting-Skin on, basting the skin with oil every half hour or so. Most recipes the skin seems to just turn into a hard layer, I am going to try to counteract that and get something more fried. Pork rinds are fried skin, so maybe I can get closer to that.
- Wrap and Fry-Skin off, this is a Food Wishes inspired idea, smoke it for a bit for flavor, then wrap. Let cook and refrigerate without opening. Next day open and peel off all of the fat that melted then re-hardened and use it for frying itself.
- Wrap and Sear-Skin on, same as the Basting idea but hoping the skin will soften if wrapped (skin is protein, hoping it will tenderize a bit) if it does work try and sear it at the end, if it doesn't, wrap it up and treat like method 2 but new and improved with skin for chicharrones.
- Steak-No skin, not really 100% on this one, want something as a baseline with no skin to see what it's like.
It took me a bit to slice the first one as I was trying to cut like it was veggies, I put my finger on top for pressure and to guide, cut pretty deep at the top and it ran down cleanly just using the tip.
I read of people having trouble skinning, I guess I have cut up enough butts because it wasn't difficult at all.
Skin off, good layer of fat that I hope will protect and not harden the top.
Here is a pic of my 4 test conditions, salted and waiting.
As you can see at the bottom I rolled up a few of the pieces of skin, I may fry one up tomorrow when I finish the recipes that require that unless you guys have any ideas to try with them.
I will let you know how they do, will put them on in about 3 hours. Kenji says put baking soda on the skin, I might try that.
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