Crackling pork belly skin

markopa

This seems to be an eternal question - how to make that skin perfectly crackling.

So, after few attempts at pork belly yesterday I gave it another try. That said, the day before I've punctuated the skin with a knife and rubbed it with salt. On the other (non skinny) side I've applied some rub. Put it into the fridge overnight.

So, I've setup at indirect 200°F dome temp. Put it on skin side up. During the cooking the skin was gradually turning dark, but I could never seen it crackling as should be. Later on the meat temp reached ~160°F, but the skin was kind of leather.

I've decided to remove the plate setter and to try to finish the skin directly. After doing that the skin started to become crispy, but I've burned it a bit. When I saw I will ruin it if I continue I pull it.

At the end the meat was very tender and ultra juicy. Nice smoke ring, great taste. But the skin ? Never as crackling as in the recipe videos.

What is your experience with pork belly and especially with the skin ?

M.

SGH

@markopa‌
There are a couple of tricks that will help you get crispy skin. First is scalding with boiling water. Let me clarify this. Do not boil the belly. Set it in your sink on a rack and slowly pour a pot of boiling water over the skin side. This will help a good bit. Next let it sit uncovered in the fridge for at least 12 hours. Preferably longer. When cooking monitor the temp very close and when you are about 25 degrees from your target temp crank the egg up to 450 degrees to finish cooking. These few minutes of high heat will not hurt the belly at all as long as you don't over shoot your target temp. The high heat will have a dramatic impact on the skin resulting in a much crispier skin than you are getting now. I hope this helps my friend.

markopa

markopa said:

So, I've setup at indirect 200°F dome temp. 

Really meant 400°F here... Sorry for that.