I have done Pork Belly Burnt Ends many times but one of my favorite ways to fix it is to season it like I would a pork butt or ribs and then smoke it similar to a butt. When it is done I would pull it like a butt. This is the best pulled pork I have ever had. Imagine the "bacon" meat from a pork butt that is laced in the fat cap, except this is even better.
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Here's the belly for tomorrow's cook. Because my SnS kettle is still cooling down from the steak cook I did tonight, I'm going to run this in the Pit Boss pellet smoker, which is ready to go.
Now that it's thawed, it's clear that this is a fairly meaty belly, seems to me...
Hit it with some kosher salt, and it'll go on first thing in the morning. We're having unseasonably nice weather here lately, it was about 50F/10C today with lots of sunshine, and tomorrow is forecast to be even a few degrees warmer, albeit with more clouds. But for late January? Yes please!
See ya tomorrow...Comment
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Goooooood morning to the Pit! An absolutely glorious, springlike day here in northern Virginia, with near-cloudless sunshine and temps only a little above freezing at sunup, on the way to highs around 56F/13C. It's been a much warmer January than usual, today's forecast high is fully 10F above the average for this date, and from what I read this morning, only one day in January thus far had a high temp below that date's average. Snow-lovers are gnashing their teeth...
Got ol' Uncle Slayton fired up, and the still air lets the smoke waft all over the neighborhood... sorry/not sorry, neighbors!
Also took a page from Rob whatever and cut the piece in half (or, for klflowers, I cleft it in twain) to gain additional surface area for bark, and so I could do a different rub on each one. Plus it gave me the cross section to see whether my hunch was correct that it's a fairly meaty piece. Boy, was I! How d'ya like them apples?
The one on the left got Jenni In A Bottle and the one on the right got Central BBQ rib rub. I *thought* I had picked up my jar of Memphis Dust, but I simply grabbed the wrong one and didn't realize it until I was pouring the remaining rub back into the jar from my shaker. D'oh! Oh well, Central's is still sweeter than JIAB, and that's the contrast I was after. I'm sure it'll be great (but this oughta learn me to get a cup of coffee in me before doing these things!)
Uncle Slayton is running on the low-T "smoke" setting, holding between 90 and 100F (32-37C), and the Central-rubbed belly is clearly still frozen in the center, it hasn't moved from 30F/-1C in the hour they've been in there, whereas the Jenni-rubbed belly has begun to climb, at 37F/3C. I'll bump the set point up to 225F/107C in another half hour or so.
Edit: the Jenni-rubbed half is on the right side now, Central BBQ on the left.
Stay tuned...Last edited by DaveD; January 28, 2023, 12:44 PM.Comment
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OK, you convinced me to grab a belly from the freezer. The ones the store around here sells are the opposite of yours: mostly fat or 50/50. They usually weigh around 5 lbs. I have one Berkshire 3 3/4 lb belly from Wild Fork so I'm going to cook that one and see if it is better than the commodity bellies I source around here.
I've cooked whole bellies before, I cook to 200o or so (and I will this time too) but I think cooking to 165o would be better for tacos and such, I'll have to try that next time.Comment
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Belly update! All systems nominal, cruising right along. I had to bump the set point up to 250F/120C to get the grate at 225F/107C, ol' Uncle Slayton is running a little cool today. Once the Central belly thawed out, it caught right up to the Jenni belly, and they're now damn near identical temps. Here's the story so far:
(That little trough on the JIAB curve is a brief data dropout.)
Here they are after 90 minutes on the "Smoke" setting.
Next 90 minutes with the SP=225, the grate was reading only about 200, bumped it up after this pic.
One more hour in for 3.5 hours total. Needed to top up the water pan, so might as well get a photo.
Keeeeeeep goooooiiiiiinnnnnggggggggg....Comment
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I'm using my SnS Kamado. It is really windy and the kamado is running a bit cool but I'm going with it: 225o but I want to cook at 275o - should get lots of good smokey bark with a long low 'n slow cook. Red oak for smoke plus I'll add a hickory chunk or two and applewood throughout the cook. I seasoned with Oakridge BBQ's Secret Weapon. For a side I'm going to make the jalapeno scalloped potatoes that RichieB posted.Last edited by 58limited; January 28, 2023, 12:46 PM.Comment
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My next check discovered that the Central BBQ belly had gone SPROING. Temps were about 155F/68C.
Figured this was a good time to deploy the foil boats, so aluminum aweigh!
Couldn't countenance that big chasm of unseasoned meat on the Central belly, so doused it with some more rub. And for parity, did the same on the Jenni belly.
Temp profile shows two big drops in the grate temp: first one was when I discovered Pork Canyon there on the Central belly, the second when I came back with the boats. I repositioned the probes in both cuts, so their profiles look nuts too. But after all that brouhaha, the temps are steadily climbing again and on track for dinnertime.
These things smell AMAZING!!! Back later...
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Your bellies are looking great! I just pulled mine. The kamado finally got to 280o for the last hour or so. IT was 200o at which point I pulled it and wrapped in foil to rest. Now the jalapeno scalloped potatoes are on to finish and get some smoke.Comment
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Alrighty friends, here's the after-action. I now fully understand this Homeric principle:
This was astounding, amazing, best pork I've ever made hands down. Just crazy delicious, I mean where-have-you-been-all-my-life delicious. The barks generated by the two different rubs were distinctive but both extra delicious. Jenni In A Bottle has a nice bit of heat in comparison to the Central BBQ rub, which is also sweeter, so there was a good contrast. But we absolutely loved both of them.
Our home stretch was not without adventure, however. The Central belly was lagging behind the Jenni belly by a full 20F, and when I opened up to probe around with the instant read to verify (it did), that just flattened the temp profiles. After a while, with time passing and nothing changing, finally decided to wrap the boats on top with another layer of foil and block that heat escape. Damn good thing I did, because the temps immediately zipped up to target.
The two last drops in grate temp are, first, when I opened up to probe, after which you can see the dead flat profiles; and then second, when I put the foil caps on, after which the temps rapidly closed on target. Then the drops after I pulled them out of the smoker.
Before and after closing them up:
Sides were Wegmans frozen onion rings and some steamed broccoli. I let the bellies rest for about 20 minutes on the counter while those were finishing up. Hard to see in these shots, but there was a LOT of liquid in both foil boats.
They were very jiggly when I pulled them onto the cutting board for slicing...
Aaaaaand scene.
Last edited by DaveD; January 28, 2023, 07:44 PM.Comment
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Dave, you’ve nailed another stellar cook. I always enjoy reading your humorous yet scientifically-based documentaries of your cooks. Keep it up, brother.Comment
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Yep, I did dry brine it in the end. And here is the full temperature history in these two diagrams - for some reason, the Fireboard session spontaneously terminated itself and started a new one, so I don't have one full plot.Originally posted by Clawbear57 View Post
I ran it for about an hour on the "smoke" setting, which yielded a temp of about 100F/38C, then to a set point of 225F/107C. Had a couple adventures with probe placement (note craziness in the middle of the lower diagram), then foil-boated and bumped it up to 250F/120C the rest of the way. Then covered the top of the boats with foil there at the last deep trough, after which the ITs of the two pieces just zeeked up to target. Rested it about half an hour before slicing. SO good.Comment
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