Pork belly, not an easy thing to find around this neighbourhood. you can either go to a real butcher, and there aren’t that many out there that would sell this, so do your research before wasting your time. you can also get it online, but that isnt as exciting. You wanna know what’s even more exciting? Starting your DIY bacon project right now.
Making bacon is a 2 step process, first you have to “wet” cure it, and then you have to slow cook it (smoke it) to dry it even further and develop more flavor. I didn’t smoke mine. I will try that later, I dont have a smoker and smoking in my oven… not ready for that yet!
1 lb of pork belly (You can easily scale up this recipe)
Dry Cure:
12g sea salt
9g brown sugar
3g pink curing salt
0.5g black pepper corns.
0.5g coriander seeds, toasted, ground.
2 cloves crushed.
3 juniper berries, crushed.
Herbs I like:
8 marjoram springs
or
2 tbsp minced rosemary
2 tbsp minced parsley
So how much pink salt is good enough… which isn’t a bad question since pink salt needs to be handled with caution. Well, I’ve based my percentages on a recipe that appears on the Modernist Cuisine Kitchen Manual, page 107.
For every 100g of meat: use 0.6g of pink salt.
For every 100g of meat: use 2.5g of salt.
One more note: Insta Cure #1 and D.Q. Curing pink salt are the same thing, same concentration.
Insta Cure #2 contains nitrates and is ONLY used for dry curing over long periods of time.
Ok, pink curing salt is a blend of about 94% table salt and 6% sodium nitrite which although not a healthy thing to eat at high concentrations, the concentration in this brine is so low that is virtually harmless and what it does is inhibiting the growth of bacteria (botulism) which is the purpose of curing to begin with.
now mix all the ingredients and rub away. I used a food processor to mix everything up. then I threw the pork belly in a ziplock bag and with my hand rub the paste all over it. minimal mess.
this pork belly piece is ready to be sealed. I partially submerged the bag in a pot filled with cold water to get most of the air out of the bag and I zipped the bag. it will be 7 days before this is cured. every day, turn the bag over, to ensure even curing.
7 days and after many turns this is what I ended up with. By the way, I didn’t use the ziplock bag, instead I wrapped the belly in cheesecloth with seem to have worked amazingly well. This thing smells so good. Now we have to clean it up and get it ready for the oven.
Here it is after cleanup, really good color and scent. I should have removed the rind… or not…
Here it is after 3 hours at 200f in the oven, a bit toasty on the outside, very nice and pink in the inside, ready.
after vacuum sealing:
done.
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![Another one of those recipes that almost got left behind. I took the photos weeks ago and I even uploaded them to my site but never got around to write about it which is weird.. guess was distracted by trying not to destroy my blog while making changes to it. It's happened. I love pork chops but they can go wrong pretty easily. They overcook really quick. And you know what that's like.. yeah... rubber soles. Totally unattractive. If you have the time and the equipment go sous vide. No doubt about that. If you don't then sear them in a really hot pan a couple of minutes per side. Obviously we're dealing with pork and we need to make sure it is safe to eat. Trichinosis is a concern and pork should be cooked throughly. Cooking meat throughly doesn't mean overcooking it though. The parasite in question actually dies at fairly low temperatures which is great news. This excerpt from a USDA document is interesting: Cooking - Commercial preparation of pork products by cooking requires that meat be heated to internal temperatures which have been shown to inactivate trichinae. For example, Trichinella spiralis is killed in 47 minutes at 52° C (125.6° F), in 6 minutes at 55° C (131° F), and in < 1 minute at 60° C (140° F). It should be noted that these times and temperatures apply only when the product reaches and maintains temperatures evenly distributed throughout the meat. Alternative methods of heating, particularly the use of microwaves, have been shown to give different results, with parasites not completely inactivated when product was heated to reach a prescribed end-point temperature. The U.S. Code of Federal Regulations for processed pork products reflects experimental data, and requires pork to be cooked for 2 hours at 52.2° C (126° F), for 15 minutes at 55.6° C (132° F), and for 1 minute at 60° C (140° F). But how can one translate this into a recipe? If you're cooking the meat sous vide... it's a no brainer. Set the water bath to 125.6F and cook the meat until the core has spent 47 minutes at this temperature for example. Of course. bare in mind that depending on the thickness of the chop, the total cooking time will need to be calculated. It's usually a few hours for individual chops just like the paragraph above suggests. Now, if you're cooking the chops in a skillet... things get a bit trickier and experience plays a big role in getting the meat cooked through but not overcooked. The thicker the chop, the trickier it gets. The leaner the chop, the quicker it cooks... all these catches. I personally observe a few things while pan searing pork chops at home: Thickness... I stay at about a inch or less other wise, sous vide, grill or roast. I bring the meat to room temperature. I salt the meat way ahead of time. If I have time I brine the chops instead I use a thermometer. I sear the chops in a really hot skillet a couple of minutes per side. I check internal temperature at various points. I finish in the oven if needed otherwise... I cover the pan with a lid and remove from the heat until cooked through. This might take several minutes so I check with a thermometer periodically. Sounds like a pain in the ass and it is but some repetition helps. Done a few times it becomes second nature. To my advantage it's really hard not to kill this parasite. If I work above 130F for the internal temperature it's pretty safe and the chop should be pretty juicy still. Anyways, don't take my word for it. I'm not an expert in the field that's the sort of thing I keep in mind when I'm cooking pork. Same with game meats. So moving on! Here is the recipe: [yumprint-recipe id='9'] enjoy!](https://thatothercookingblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/img_6621-1200x1200.jpg)
6 comments
Reblogged this on that other cooking blog and commented:
I’ve updated this posting with more precise information on the cure mix itself. enjoy!
Nice! Pork belly is very easy to buy around here. I would be interested to make my own pancetta, but that means dry curing and that is hard to do. This looks great though, thanks for sharing!
Yeah, dry curing is a a trickier business. I’ve been toying with the idea of making my own curing “chamber”, modifying a wine cooler to control temp and humidity. Would love to make cured hams like serrano. Thanks for checking in Stefan!