My first try at pork belly burnt ends

njl

I could have sworn the pork bellies at Costco weren't this big last time I looked at them.  I went actually looking for one today, and they were all 8.5-10lbs.  So, I found a 8.6lb one that looked good.  Had to stop for a meeting on the way home, so I took a cooler and ice with me to Costco.

Meeting lasted longer than I'd imagined it would, so I got off to a much later start.  I'd loaded fuel in the egg last night, so as soon as I got home, I lit it, and then got to work prepping the belly.  Going from memory, I think I cut it bigger than I should have...I did strips about 2.5" wide, and then cut those into squares.  I'm only cooking a bit more than half of it today, sealed and froze the rest in strip form.

I'm nearly 2h in, at 280F dome, 250F probe.  I stuck my Carbon Lite in the biggest chunk.  I think I'm actually seeing the stall, that I've not seen with my past couple of briskets.  IT hit about 168F about 45min ago, and has stopped rising.  I'm expecting IT to be a bit higher (and for that to take about 3h) before I transfer to half steam trays and either sauce or brown sugar and honey them.  I'm thinking about doing some one way, some the other.

lousubcap

FYI - next time ask one of the employees in the meat department to take one of the larger bellies and half it for you.  I do it all the time. 

njl

I had no idea Costco would do that.

GrateEggspectations

On a similar note, when I was at Costco last weekend, they only had belly that was cut into 2-3” wide hunks. I asked them for a whole belly, and they promptly fetched me one from the back. 

Please keep us us posted on your cook. I’ve never made these but would love to hear your review and see the finished product. 

njl

At 2:45 into the cook, dome 280F / probe 250F the whole time, IT of the biggest one, 180F, I moved them to half steam trays.  I'm a little worried from their look that I dried them out.  I made a foil "cup" for one of the steam trays and put Rufus Teague sauce on half of that tray, Sticky Fingers Memphis (never tried it before) on the other.  The other steam tray got just a drizzle of honey on each and some brown sugar.  I had to stack those on the lower cooking grid to get them both to fit.  I figure in about an hour, they're done...and I see if that's dinner or we need to make alternate plans.

njl

When I moved these to the pans, I bumped up the temperature a bit.  It's at 320F dome.  I just checked under the foil, and there's liquid in the pans...so I guess I couldn't have dried them out too much.  I figure they have another 20min or so before I call them done and check for edibility

njl

Tastes pretty much like spare ribs, just no bones or gristle to worry about.

GrateEggspectations

Pics?!?!

njl

I'm not sure why this is displaying so distorted...the pans are actually longer in the horizontal direction.  Front pan is the honey and brown sugar one.  Some of the smaller/thinner pieces did get a little dried out and tough.  Overall, not bad though. Also, everyone agreed, the brown sugar and honey ones were better than either of the sauced ones.

njl

When I do this again, and I guess I will, since I still have about 4lbs of belly in the freezer, I'll probably cut them to 1/4 this size, and either spritz them occasionally (as one of the recipes said to) with apple juice or just boat them earlier (like as soon as they hit the stall)...and not bother with any bbq sauce.

lousubcap

Here's a link to a forum favorite belly recipe:

http://howtobbqright.com/2017/04/17/pork-belly-burnt-ends/ 

BTW- there are several mods to this which you can find via the forum search function.

Those look great.  Glad you are gonna give 'em another go. 

Webass

Unless I'm cooking for a bunch, which isn't often.  I halve a whole belly, vac seal and freeze the extra half.  That said,  there's just 3 of us and when I've asked Costco butchers if they would package 3 steaks or repackage 4 to 3, they've always said they can't do it. 

njl

I assume burnt ends should be small enough that you can just poke one with a fork and stick it in your mouth.  These have to be quartered to do that.  At least for normal sized mouths.

Toxarch

I keep mine at appetizer with a toothpick size.