Pork Belly - target temperatur?

[vogler]

Good Morning,

my awesome wife gave me a new door for my WSM for Christmas, so that needs to be tested on the coming weekend.

My plan is to make some pulled pork (done it before) and while the thing is running I thought I could throw some pork belly on there I(love me some belly). Now I was looking for guidelines up to what temperature I should leave it in there, but for the belly I found basically everything between 140 and 195. Personally, thinking that bacon is supposed to be smoked until it hits 150 (right?), anything below that seems too low to me. So I thought I ask the experts: what is my target temp for a big chunk of belly?

Or should I just cut it up into cubes, make pork belly burnt ends (I just saw some pictures in a different thread, they look awesome), leave them in there for 5 hours and not care about the temperature?

As always, your advice is most welcome.


V

[Richtee]

I have not cooked much belly, and when I do it’s a Hungarian style bacon that’s simmered. But I’d think you need to cook it a while, and to a pretty high temp. Lotta fat to render there.

Now..the bacon comment. The best bacon, in my opinion never reaches 100 degrees in the smoking process. It should be cold smoked. I have done it both ways, and the cooler you smoke it the better it comes out.

There’s guys who cook belly here, I’m sure they’ll be along. Good luck!

[L20A]

I agree with Rich on the bacon cook temps. You are smoking it, not cooking it.
I do belly different ways. Usually I sear it in a C I pan and then either deep fry it or finish it in the oven until it is tender. I have foil wrapped it, too. Much of how I cook the belly is determined by the actual belly: is it lean or fatty? How much fat needs to render off to be edible? I have even butterfly cut it to remove a large layer of fat and then finished it in the oven. It always comes out yummy and pretty fatty but good. My next attempt will be with a pressure cooker: sear it all over very well and finish in the pressure cooker until tender. I like teriyaki on it and a little MHGP rub mixed in. YUM!!

[strength_and_power]

I did pork belly burnt ends not too long ago and they came out amazing. I looked to see if I recorded the temp I put the cubes into the pan and added the sauce but looks like the beer consumed made me forget that part. I’d say take it to a safe temp for pork, 146* and up, sample a piece, let them go after that until they are at your desired level of burnt and then put them in sauce and back on the smoker for a couple of hours after that.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[vogler]

What a success.

I made burnt ends following this general idea. I had 3 pounds of belly cut up into 10 cubes. I smoked them with about 5 pounds of pork shoulder. Shoulder was on the bottom rack, the belly on the top.

When I first checked the belly cubes, they were already at 170 F and pretty caramelized on the outside (a little more than I intended). I put them in sauce, covered tightly, and they went back into the smoker. Some of them ended up having some dry spots, I guess because I had them in too long in the beginning. But still... so succulent, sweet, fatty - just awesome. For the first try already a huge success, and I will definitely make that again.

The pork shoulder ended up being fantastic as well. I used the same (pretty sweet) rub on the shoulder. I had pulled pork for the whole week now.

One question about rubs: I had put the rub on the shoulder and belly cubes the night before. Both lost some liquid. Is that good (because less liquid that can cool down the meat by evaporating) or bad (because less liquid to keep the meat moist and help with the breakdown of collagen)? When do you put your rubs on - the day before or just before you start smoking?

I am sorry that the pictures did not quite come out... still, here we go:

1. Main reason for the belly / shoulder project was that I wanted to break in my new access door. Sorry for the dirt on the smoker, it had poured the night before. It is all back to shiny now :-)
2. Raw belly and shoulder after spending the night fully rubbed in the fridge.
3. Pork belly burnt ends.

[HawgHeaven]

Looks damn fine from here! Love that door... gotta get that jewel!

[DanMcG]

Burnt ends look mouth watering good!

[SmokinOutBack]

I've done several smoked bellies and honestly, never probed to see what the temp was. They all were smoked around 250 degrees for like 5-5 1/2 hours.