Pork Belly (Pig Magic)

[BriggsBBQ]

So I have decided to cook at an Eggfest in Oct. I have decided to do pork belly burnt ends. I have looked at a couple of recipes to get a baseline of what I am going to do. So first I divided my pork portions into 3 groups that will start 3 different ways.

1. Cold smoked 3 hours below 60F
2. Cured with he regular AR bacon recipe
3. Sous Vide for 8 hours at 140F

Out of these three groups I plan to look as follows

1. 275 F for 4 hours
2. 375 F for 2 hours maybe less will see
3. 425-450 For 1 hour maybe less will see might be hard to do in a kettle.

I want to grade each by
1. Moisture
2. Tenderness
3. Texture

I know flavor should be here but I want to break that into another section of sauces that I plan to experiment with that I will do something similar but will be in the sauce section. Whatever the winning method is I will do the sauces as a glaze for each sauce.

Today when I get home I will have the Sous Vide and Cold Smoked items doing 275F. Probably the 375F tomorrow and 400+ on Friday. Once done cooking will repeat for the cured batch. Hoping the gaps in time do not affect my judging. Going to bring in the wife too so that will help some too.

[Donw]

Looking forward to hear your results.

[Potkettleblack]

8x140 won’t really accomplish much. The protein will cook, but the collagen won’t breakdown much.

Id think the bacon cure would toughen the bite up a bit. Might not be bad.

[Potkettleblack]

140x36 or so. 155x16 maybe.
Fat won't render at these temperatures, so that's not a concern.

[BriggsBBQ]

Thanks for the information. I did not realize it needed to go that long. I need to get a covered Sous Vid container. Just haven't yet because I have never done it that long.

[Potkettleblack]

Joule has a large silicon cover called a Flip Top. I like mine. Wouldn’t work with a larger stick, though.

[BriggsBBQ]

Sous Vide finished and I got to busy to fire up the grill. I did take a couple chunks off and fry it up in a skillet then put a cherry sauce on it. Was really good but does not move this project forward.

[Ahumadora]

I like to cut off and fry up a bit of pastrami or bacon first before cooking it to check the salt content. If too salty for my taste I toss it in some water for an hour to desalinate.

[Ricardo]

I’ve enjoyed pork belly prepared sois vide with my trusted Joule; however, for a tried and true way of fixing them... I would go with Malcom Reed’s recipe. Video link here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nL82hlORY-k
Cheers,
Ricardo

[JGo37]

And get these for the long bath:

https://www.amazon.com/Sous-Vide-Water-Ball-Kit/dp/B0735VWVR7/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?ie=UTF8&qid=1538117032&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=sous+vide+balls&psc=1

[EdF]

In action:

[Potkettleblack]

Here’s the FlipTop which I think has some upside over ping pong balls (ease of pick up, and multi function... it’s a huge silicon trivet).

https://shop.chefsteps.com/products/chefsteps-flip-top

[EdF]

Which is great - if you have a Joule.

[Ricardo]

Very cool. Thanks for sharing this. I’ll have to get one for our Joule.

[Spinaker]

I have been on a huge pork belly kick, as of late. I have done them Sous Vide, but personally, I prefer to go full time on the smoker. There is just so much purge in that bag when it is done cooking, I find it hard for the rub to stick to the meat. Also, I feel like I get more flavor when I am cooking full time on the smoker.

[BriggsBBQ]

Ok so I have an updated.

Grill temp - 425-500F Vents wide open on a SNS with Kingsford blue and two mesquite chunks. Temp measurement via XR50. Both samples rested for about 5 min. One side did cook faster and I think it was because one side of the grill was hotter. The cold smoked sample was cold smoked for 2 hours below 60F with Hickory wood. All samples were seasoned with salt and pepper.

Sous Vid - 10 min Internal temp 195 - 16 min Internal temp of 201, 25 min Internal temp 214

Cold Smoked -10 min Internal temp 155, 16 min Internal temp of 200, 25 min Internal temp 214

Tasting notes, cold smoke did definitely carry more of a smoke flavor was very similar to bacon. Also I pulled one sample of each off at 201 and 214 to see the taste difference. The 214 was a little more dry. Both samples had the same level of toughness...not much just a slight tug.

[Potkettleblack]

For the ultimate: cold smoke, sous vide long, as described above, then hot and fast to temp after chilling. No need to take to 214 or 202 or even 195. You've achieved the collagen breakdown in sous vide with the long cook.

[BriggsBBQ]

I really like that idea for eggfest. Because I can have everything prepared ahead of time and just quick finish at the end. I am going to try this out.

[BriggsBBQ]

I think my new large capacity Sous Vide container is a Mega Pot from Northern Brewer. 10 gallon capacity thick stainless. I have made a few batches of beer with it. Do need to look into a lid for it.

[BriggsBBQ]

Life got busy and I did not have time to do the thorough research I wanted. Ended up doing overnight sous vide at 160 for about 8 hours. Was enough to break it down. I then had it in the fridge for about 1 hour and then a cooler about 2 hours before I could get a Bge going at the competition. People showed up early so I ended up with some bites that were not charred like I wanted. Still good taste. I had a pot that I would work with the glaze for 30 min or so then put them on the grill grating for about another 30 min. Forgot a drip pan so had the occasional grease fire but it was fine just had to work it. Did rain like crazy at times but still had a good steady crowd. In fact I nearly ran out of meat.....two complete pork belly's

People give you tickets and they counted up all the tickets at the end.

I ended up 2nd place w a 300 dollar gift card.

Was really cool what some of my competitors were doing with the egg. Making cobblers and such. I have heard of people doing this but seeing it in action was a game changer. I might try something similar on a grill now. Also some cold smoked deviled eggs. The guy next to me cranked out 10 racks of ribs. Was incredible with only one egg and no double rack.

I have very limited competition experience. I have done a formal smoking comp and that was pretty straight forward but you know how meat goes sometimes it just doesn't want to get perfect in time. Plus if you were trying to enter all categories you really needed a cooker for each.

On the Eggfest that was a big change because I had to work in batches. 1st batch I needed food out before it was done to get tickets. Then at the end charcoal ran out just as I needed a little blast to finish off the last batch. So had to reload the egg and try to get it going fast. I would say both timing to get the best quality product you can make is a real challenge.

[Spinaker]

Congrats on 2nd place! That is great! I really want to get to one of these.

[BriggsBBQ]

I would definitely do another one. Being my first one I do not feel I enjoyed it as much. Now that I know more about how it works and lessons learned on what to bring I think it can be even more fun. Ironic to place and I do not have a BGE anymore.