Glorious Pork

I don't think I've mentioned it yet, but we love pork.  We'd rather eat pork than beef most any time.  That's not to say we don't like a good steak time to time but most times I'll reach for pork.  Commercially produced pork is an excellent vehicle for carrying whatever flavors you want it to whether it be via a dry rub, a marinade, or a sauce.  Pasture raised and wild pork has a more distinct pork flavor that can over power some of the more subtle flavor profiles.  Unfortunately, pasture raised pork brings a high premium and is not readily available and I don't have access to wild pigs since we left TX.  So, I have to use commercially produced pork.

A few months ago, I was given access to Restaurant Depot by a member through one of their key ring tags.  As the name suggests, this is where restaurants shop.  Because of their clientele, they have many things that aren't available in regular stores.  Enter today's  topic, Pork Belly.

Pork Belly is a wonderful cut that lends itself to so many preparations.  I've done Pork Belly confit, Asian style fried Pork Belly,  Uncle T's fried Pork Belly, and so on.  The most recent belly I procured was made into 4 products.  One piece was cured, rolled and tied, then hung to age to become Pancetta.  Another piece was cured and smoked to make Pepper Bacon.  The skin was peeled off, boiled, dried, and then deep fried to make Pork Rinds.  The last  product was a couple of packages of trim that was cut up for stir fry or stew meat.

The Pancetta was cured following the directions in the book Charcuterie, by Ruhlman and Polcyn.  http://www.amazon.com/Charcuterie-Craft-Salting-Smoking-Curing/dp/0393058298  I do mine a bit different as far as holding the meat in the cure.  They have you put it in a zip lock bag in a pan to contain leakage and turn it and massage it each day.  I vacuum seal my meat.  That ensures the cure is held tight to the meat.  I turn it each day and after the 4th day I start squeezing the meat to determine if the cure has reached all the way through.  The Pancetta cured for 7 days before I took it out.

The Pepper Bacon basic recipe came from the same book.  I just heavily coat each side with coarse ground black pepper after the cure is rubbed on and vacuum seal it.  The Pepper Bacon cured for 10 days before pulling it out and smoking.  It smoked for 4.5 hours or so until it reached 150 degrees internal temperature.  It was smoked with apple wood.  The finished product yielded 8 packages for breakfast and 3 packages of ends and pieces to use with pasta dishes.

Pork Rinds are simple to make.  Cut the skin into strips.  Boil the strips until tender.  Cut any fat off the strips.  Let the boiled strips dry until hard.  Deep fry the strips and season while hot.  Enjoy!



See, I told you I loved pork.  I have some more flavor profiles I want to experiment on for different bacons so stay tuned.

Uncle T