Quick response please my friends!

[CabanaBoy]

Have 9.5 # pork belly , brined for a week for bacon. It doesn’t smell bad but the brine became almost gelatinous. Washed it off , color and smell are fine. Smoking it now but it seems to be leaching lots more liquid than I’m used to. Puddles forming on the meat. Never had this happen before. In the past I haven’t done such a large piece. Is there something wrong?

[hoovarmin]

What did you use to brine it?

[STEbbq]

Not sure there is much you can do at this point other than finish cooking it and doing a sample test to make sure you don't need cook it further.

[Red Man]

Is it possible your fridge temp is slightly below freezing?

[CabanaBoy]

I used the basic brine from this site as I have for years. I usually cut the slab into thirds or so. This time I did it whole. Smoking it with charcoal, apple, and cherry in my masterbuilt gravity smoker. Method is the same as usual. Still pulling lots of liquid out of the meat and not really coloring up as I would expect. Strang happenings.

[CabanaBoy]

I used the basic brine from this site as I have for years. I usually cut the slab into thirds or so. This time I did it whole. Smoking it with charcoal, apple, and cherry in my masterbuilt gravity smoker. Method is the same as usual. Still pulling lots of liquid out of the meat and not really coloring up as I would expect. Strange happenings.

[holehogg]

Did you go longer than the recommended time in the brine. I have noticed some "gelatinous" at times when removing from brine but that's mostly on the belly itself.
When I do large slabs I always get liquid pooling in some crevices. I don't think you expelling more liquid than usual just seeing it because of the pooling and the size of the slab. I usually just shake the mess off during the cook.
By now it must be done, how did it turn out?

[Texas Larry]

Wondering if the belly itself had been soaked/injected with something.

[CabanaBoy]

Thanks for all the feedback. It turned out, but really lacked the flavor of previous cooks. I ended up cubing most of it and making a version of burnt ends. I think that I will stick to cutting the whole belly into smaller pieces.

[ecowper]

Interesting ..... thanks for trying this and taking the bullet for the rest of us ;-)

[jfmorris]

I buy 9-10 pound pork bellies and cut them in half of curing for bacon, just so they fit my 2 gallon zip lock bags, and have never had what you describe happen. I've done pork chops before that had that white stuff ooze out of them during cooking. That can happen, and is related to water and protein that has separated in the meat.

The fact you had that happen, PLUS had some weird gelatinous thing going on in the cure, plus say it lacked flavor, tells me something was different about that piece of meat. Or your cure.

[texastweeter]

I dry brine bacon, but wet brine hams. On hams the fat will often get all sloppy loose and gelatinous.