I have a 4lb pork belly that I was going to make bacon out of and decided to do burnt ends. Cubed and seasoned it last night, I'll smoke it this afternoon.
I've become a big fan of smoked and grilled fresh pineapple. I was thinking about smoking and mixing one together with the burnt ends.
What do you guys think?
Update and pix below.
Last edited by dsohmer; March 30, 2019, 02:19 PM.
Reason: Updated
> Weber Genesis EP-330
> Grilla Grills Original Grilla (OG) pellet smoker with Alpha/Connect
> Pit Barrel Cooker (gone to a new home)
> WeberQ 2000 (on "loan" to a relative (I'll never see it again))
> Old Smokey Electric (for chickens mostly - when it's too nasty out
to fiddle with a more capable cooker)
> Luhr Jensen Little Chief Electric - Top Loader circa 1990 (smoked fish & jerky)
> Thermoworks Smoke
> 3 Thermoworks Chef Alarms
> Thermoworks Thermapen One
> Thermoworks Thermapen Classic
> Thermoworks Thermopop
> Thermoworks IR-GUN-S
> Anova sous vide circulator
> Searzall torch
> BBQ Guru Rib Ring
> WÜSTHOF, Dalstrong, and Buck knives
> Paprika App on Mac and iOS
You can stick the burnt ends on skewers so they are easier to manuver in the pit. Leave the pineapple until the end of the cook as it is a tenderizer and you will end up with a gooey mess.
I think some pineapple would be amazing I think I'll try that the next time I make these (maybe lacto-ferment the pineapple first). I would also add some spice - diced jalapeno or similar pepper to the braise.
> Weber Genesis EP-330
> Grilla Grills Original Grilla (OG) pellet smoker with Alpha/Connect
> Pit Barrel Cooker (gone to a new home)
> WeberQ 2000 (on "loan" to a relative (I'll never see it again))
> Old Smokey Electric (for chickens mostly - when it's too nasty out
to fiddle with a more capable cooker)
> Luhr Jensen Little Chief Electric - Top Loader circa 1990 (smoked fish & jerky)
> Thermoworks Smoke
> 3 Thermoworks Chef Alarms
> Thermoworks Thermapen One
> Thermoworks Thermapen Classic
> Thermoworks Thermopop
> Thermoworks IR-GUN-S
> Anova sous vide circulator
> Searzall torch
> BBQ Guru Rib Ring
> WÜSTHOF, Dalstrong, and Buck knives
> Paprika App on Mac and iOS
As Ahumadora said, be really careful when mixing pineapple and/or pineapple juice with any meat. It is a powerful tenderizer and it can turn the meat to mush very quickly.
I'm with the smoke and serve separately group. One of my favorite flavors is smoked pineapple and teriyaki. You might consider that to take things up a notch.
As usual, lots of great comments and suggestions. Here's what I ended up doing:
Diced the pork belly and cut the pineapple into chunks.
Coated the belly with Killer Hogs BBQ Rub, Hot BBQ Rub, AP Rub. Left pineapple nekkid.
Put on racks and smoked at 250 for 2 hrs. Pineapple on top rack. It really dried out after 2 hours.
Put most of the belly in a foil pan and coated with honey, brown sugar and butter. Put the remainder of the belly in a CI pot with chunks of pineapple, honey, butter and brown sugar. Covered and back on smoker at 250 for 90 mins.
Uncovered and coated both pans with bbq sauce made from Rufus Teague's Honey Sweet, Texas Pete and finely diced pineapple. Reduced it down a little to cook the pineapple through.
Back on smoker,uncovered, for 90 mins at 250. It caramelized nicely.
Pork is tender but could've used a hit of something really spicy (as suggested above). There's just a hint of pineapple from the big pan and, as expected, a competing pineapple flavor in the small pan.
Comment