Beef belly

[DaveD]

Howdy folks, midday update. Looks like it's fixin' to stall, kettle pretty stable, and the color and bark are coming along quite nicely.


They don't look quite as different from one another as they first did...

Looking nominal AF.

[Henrik]

Looking forward to the end result!!

[DaveD]

Update time...

ITs reached the high 180sF/mid-80sC, although not probing very tender yet. Deployed the foil boats and transferred to the Pit Boss pellet smoker set to hold 225F/107C. Bark is looking really good, and it smells outrageous!

As usual, there's a temp drop upon transfer, but it's already started to turn around.



Anchors aweigh!



Meanwhile, my lovely bride put together some stuffed jalapeño poppers to go along with. She halved, cored, and deseeded the peppers, and filled them with a concoction of Mexican soft cheese, cream cheese, and some ground sausage. Then stuck the halves back together, wrapped in bacon and secured with mucho toothpicks. I'll add these to the smoker in a little while, they'll likely take a couple of hours.




I'll also be serving a steamed veg (broccoli or zucchini) and some of Them Taters, what we've been calling the Jess Pryles roasted tater recipe, which is absolutely to die for. For those, you peel and cut up some russets or yukon gold, soak in cold water about an hour, then turn on the heat, bring to a boil from cold, and boil ~10 min until there is a rind of soft tater that probes like the proverbial buttah. Then pour through a colander (pref metal) and swirl around to rough up those soft rinds. Bake at 450F/230C for 45-50 min in either EVOO (if you're being good) or beef tallow if you're not. I've got a portion of wagyu tallow that I put a few hours of smoke on that I'll be using, which makes these taters INSANELY DELICIOUS. That roughened rind bakes out crispy and crunchy, with creamy interiors. Tater nirvana.

More later!

[Bad Hat BBQ]

This is good stuff...appreciate this post
This is new to me

[DaveD]

Thanks for coming along for the ride!

[texastweeter]

Pastrami, burnt ends, or beef bacon is the way to go.

[DaveD]

OK, here's the outcome. It was really good, but I can't say great. Don't get me wrong, it was delicious, but I think I had my expectations unrealistically high, expecting something akin to how I felt after having pork belly the first time, which was pretty much an epiphany. No epiphany here, just some damn good BBQ. But no better than brisket point or even Prime chuck roasts I've done. Next time I will probably try it as beef bacon, it's clear it would really lend itself to that as many have posted. But I don't think I'd choose it again for a low and slow cook when my results from brisket & chuckies are consistently better (for less $ per pound too).

ITs finished in the low 200sF/low 90sC, and it was probing very tender in most places, but not everywhere... but it was time to eat. It got only about 45 minutes of rest, and drifted down to the low 180sF/low 80sC. Probably could have stood longer.

Hank's Bona Fide on the left, SPOG on the right.




Jalapeño poppers were a smash hit.


And Them Taters were off the hook as usual.

Plated! Not shown, the homegrown salad from my lovely bride's garden.


Again, I'm likely being overly picky, if someone put this plate of BBQ down in front of me I'd be stoked. Definitely learned some things!

[Jerod Broussard]

Was sorting through remaining connective tissue an issue?

[DaveD]

There were a couple of quite thick fat seams, but that was easy to deal with on the plate. I haven't sliced the rest of it up, going to vac seal the leftover pieces whole and decide what to use them in later. We'll see at that point if there is any difficulty.

[realdocBBQ]

Helluva cook, DaveD! Thanks for sharing, I'm definitely going to have to end up trying this at some point. I think the beef bacon is going to be the way to go - I'm with you, solid briskie or beef dino ribs are pretty hard to top in any way, I think. And I'm also not too much into the overly sweet, so...

Thanks again, that's an incredible looking cook, and I love the detailed play-by-play, the graphs with the Fireboard and everything! You rock, man!

[DaveD]

Aww thanks! Glad you found it worthwhile!

[fzxdoc]

What realdocBBQ said. This was a good topic to follow.

That unrendered fat would be a no-go in our house (especially the husband), which is why I also shy away from smoking pork belly except for bacon.

Thanks for letting us hitch a ride, Dave.

Kathryn