Just bought a pork belly....

ckillian

I just bought a pork belly at my local grocery.  It was vacuum sealed.  When I opened it up, I pulled it out, expecting it to be one solid piece.  Instead it was three separate flatter pieces stacked on top of each other.  

Is this normal or did I get a defective belly?  

I just stacked them back together in an aluminum pan with some rub and a little beer in the pan and they're currently on the Egg.  I'm sure they'll be just fine, but for next time, should I ask the butcher for a "single chunk" of pork belly?

dldawes1

Curious !!!!

I've never bought any yet.....wanting to though.

Greeno55

Do you have a picture? My guess is it's just trimmed and cut.

theyolksonyou

I've only bought one. It was frozen, but it was all one piece.

marysvilleegger

What was the weight ? Pics?

Greeno55

For sake of comparison, this is the full slab I bought last week.

Cookinbob

I just stacked them back together in an aluminum pan with some rub and a little beer in the pan and they're currently on the Egg.  I'm sure they'll be just fine, but for next time, should I ask the butcher for a "single chunk" of pork belly?

How are you preparing them? Never heard of cooking a belly like this

Greeno55

I've only ever used belly to make bacon. I just watched a video about cooking them low and slow, and it looked pretty good. I may try something else, but for now, it's just 16 pounds of glorious glorious bacon.

Sea2Ski

It sounds like the butcher buys them this way - precut and frozen in 16-18" lengths. I found another place yesterday that has them this way. He did not have any out on display, but I still asked for about 5-6 lbs. What I described, is what he bought out. It was a whole case of them packed and stacked separately - I think there were 8-10 to a case.

DIAD

I plan to try Lynne's breakfast bacon that someone posted on here recently. Where do you buy the belly? Do I have to go to a specialty butcher or will Walmart, Safeway etc have them?

ckillian

I wish I'd taken a picture before the cook.

The best I can describe it is the package was about 7" X 7" and about 2 inches deep.

When I opened it up it was in three separate pieces, all of them square and on top of each other.  Each of them roughly 1/2" to 1" thick.

I went on the theory that the three pieces stacked on top of each other would cook as if it was a single 2" thick piece of meat.  Sort of like pushing two 5lb pork butts will make it cook like a 10 pounder.

I put very little effort into cooking this thing.  I didn't marinate it.  All I did was score the top piece (the one with the fat cap).  Drizzled with olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper and a store bought rub.  I placed it in an aluminum pie pan and poured about an inch of beer in the pan.  Cooked it indirect at about 400.  Took it off about 3 1/2 hours later.  Internal temp was about 175.  The top piece had pulled away from the rest of the meat and was charred pretty badly.  The bottom two pieces seemed to have fused together, but they were perfect.  I was able to cut away the charred parts of the top chunk and got a fair amount of edible meat.

But, holy crap, was the bottom chunk good.  Leftovers were even better.  Browned them up in a pan with some olive oil this morning.  Put a nice crispy finish on the outside.  Made some banh mi sandwiches.  

I'll definitely make it again, but I'll put some more effort into it.

theyolksonyou

DIAD said:

I plan to try Lynne's breakfast bacon that someone posted on here recently. Where do you buy the belly? Do I have to go to a specialty butcher or will Walmart, Safeway etc have them?

I haven't been able to find it in the groceries around here, Kroger, Food Lion, and admittedly have not looked at Walmart. I found it at a local butcher in the freezer. Also, Whole Foods carries it up the road about 45 min, but not worth the drive for me when I can drive 5.