Pork Belly...

...what do you do with it?

We went to the supermarket today and noticed how cheap pork belly is as compared to other cuts of meat.  So we decided to buy it and stash it in the freezer for a rainy day, figuring we could think something up for it in the mean time.

I've looked up a few recipes and the theme seems to be slow-roasting.  Is that all you can really do with it?  Not that I wouldn't slow-roast it, but there's quite a bit of it so I thought we could try some different things if it's possible.

I don't eat much meat aside from chicken and fish, so I'm a bit of a novice to this!

We love pork belly strips. All I do is season them and throw them in the oven. You can do really whatever you want.

Pork belly is quite fatty which is why a lot of the recipes are slow roast, I absolutely love pork belly and it's so cheap! Awesomesauce.

You can braise pork belly, i do this one and it's yummy, but again it's a slow cook at 2.5 hours - http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/10090/chinese-braised-belly-pork-with-greens.

It's really good cooked with beans, so like haricot, chorizo and pork belly stew, it imparts amazing flavour into the beans.
It would be good in a slow baked stew as well like this pork and butter bean http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/porkandbutterbeanste_72960

I prefer pork butt/shoulder but I have made the below recipe with pork belly.  I will cook a lot of meat at once and make a variety of food from it.  You can do Mexican.  You can fry the meat a bit to crisp it up and use with pasta.  It is great on baguette for sandwiches the next day.  All kinds of stuff.... and with each day that passes, it gets better as the flavor intensifies.  I add a bit more of the seasons that is in the recipe below and sometimes I can't make it the 4 hours because it smells too good.  Trust me, it is good stuff and super easy!!!


Carnitas

One 4-5# bone-in pork butt
Kosher salt
3 C chix broth
1 yellow onion—cut in 6th
1 T dried oregano leaves
1 t cumin seed
1 t paprika

Have your butcher trim your pork butt (very well)

An hour before starting to cook, remove meat from the fridg, rinse, and pat dry
with paper towel. Sprinkle with salt

Preheat oven to 350

Place pork in 5-7quart Dutch oven and add the broth, onion, oregano, cumin,
and paprika. Add a generous pinch of salt. Place over high heat, cover and
bring to a boil; spoon some of the hot liquid over the top of the meat. Cover
and transfer to the oven. After 1st hour spoon liquid over top. After 2nd hour
turn meat over and turn down oven temp to 250. 3rd hour spoon more liquid
over top. Pull out of oven after 4th hours (when meat is literally falling off bone).
Transfer meat to bowl (save juices) and pull out bone. Pull apart pork removing
all fat you can find. Put pulled pork back in dutch oven and turn on stove and
heat on med-high stirring to break it up with a spoon, until liquid in pot has
almost entirely evaporated and meat begins to sizzle 5 to 10 min (the liquid have
never completely gone away)

Sometimes I just powder the whole thing like a baby's bottom with Chinese 5 spice, and stick it in the oven, other times I marinate it and slow roast it in the oven. Either way, its pretty much my favorite cut of pork in the whole entire world. Freaking love it.

Thanks for the great ideas guys!  It sounds like we made a good decision by getting it.  It's just so dang cheap!

I think my other reasoning was that American bacon usually comes from the belly instead of the back so I thought, well if it's anything like American bacon then this must be yummy.  It appears my suspicions will be confirmed! 

Have your butcher trim your pork butt

LOL  That made me chuckle.     Sounds so much easier than diet and exercise.

LOL  That made me chuckle.     Sounds so much easier than diet and exercise.

lol