Pork burnt ends from leftover pork belly?

dstearn

This will be my first time smoking a pork belly. I have a 4 lb belly which will be more than enough for two. My thought was to smoke it whole and then cube the leftovers for burnt ends later this week. Would that work or would the ends be over cooked?

lousubcap

I would cut off what you don't expect to use on the first cook and then go with this for the burnt ends:
http://howtobbqright.com/2017/04/17/pork-belly-burnt-ends/  The end result is meat candy for sure.  

dstearn

I think I will do both at the same time. Good plan

Biggreenpharmacist

I have tried cooking them whole then slicing. Its just not for me. But the burnt ends are awesome. I'd cube the whole thing and do all burnt ends. But thats me. 

dstearn

My wife wants a less sweet and saucy alternative so I will cube up half and smoke the rest. That way we can sample both methods. Fat cap up or down or does it matter?

lousubcap

As with all fat cap discussions, I doubt it matters but I run cap down for the additional heat protection.  BTW- with the cubed belly for the ends, I pay no attention to how they land on the grate.  FWIW-

Biggreenpharmacist

The cubed ones doesnt matter. As far as the burnt ends, even if you only do half, I would further divide the cube portions in half and do half without all the sweet stuff. Just braise them in butter and maybe a little stock and then re-apply some rub and crisp them at the end while the others are glazing. They just seem to render better as cubes than whole. I did fatcap UP. It looked wonderful, but was really fatty. 

Biggreenpharmacist

Heres the one I did few months back