Pork Belly Confit - Tacos

It's been a while since I made bacon, but I've also been dreaming about Pork Belly Confit. This recipe (Jim Drohman's Pork Belly Confit) comes from the book Charcuterie by Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn. I purchased this book and have been working through and around it. It is the basis of Charcutepalooza, which I have been involved in.

Pork belly confit..... hmmm porkbelly, cured then poached in pork fat until tender.
This will keep for months in the fridge (how long do you really think it will last?), then fry some up and make fatty, crispy, succulent Taco's. I think I might pass out!

Since I am only using 3 lbs of pork belly I've cut the recipe in half.

Ingredients:
1 Tbs freshly ground black pepper
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/8 tsp ground allspice
1.5 bay leaves crumbled
5 sprigs fresh thyme
1 oz kosher salt (about 2 Tbs)
1/2 tsp pink salt

3lbs pork belly, skin removed, cut into 1" x 3" chunks

Dry white wine as needed.
Rendered pork fat as needed (I got mine from the Carniceria nearby)
Canola oil or rendered fat for deep frying

Mix the cure ingredients together
Toss the pork chunks and the cure ingredinents in a big bowl to coat evenly.

Pack coated pork into a non-reactive container.

Cover with white wine.

This goes into the fridge for 24-36 hours.

Preheat oven to 250F

Remove the pork from the cure and pat the pieces dry with paper towels.

Place pork in an ovenproof pot or Dutch oven and cover with the rendered fat.  And this is where the wheels came off - sorta. The fat that I had purchased had a lot of particulate matter in it and was nuttty brown.





















So I tried to filter it out - a little heat, some coffee filters and, well.... I did get a bit of the sediment out but I did not like the way it tasted.

I made an executive decision and went for the lard. It is pork fat, and it's produced by a huge faceless corporation, and I feel a little guilty. I'll get over it. I just don't want to mess up the confit.

Bring to a simmer on the stovetop.

Then place in the oven, uncovered, and cook until the pork is fork-tender, about 2 to 3 hours.

Remove the pork from the oven and cool to room temperature in the fat.

Refrigerate the pork in the pan it was cooked in or transfer to another container and add the fat; the pork should be completely submerged in the fat. Refrigerate until completely chilled, or for up to 2 months.

To serve, remove the pork from the refrigerator, preferably a few hours ahead. Remove the pork from the fat, and wipe off the excess.  It doesn't look like much but stay with me...

In a deep-heavy pot, heat the oil for deep-frying 350 to 375. Deep-fry the pork belly until crispy and heated through, about 2 minutes if it was at room temperature.

Remove and drain on paper towels. Add a dash of coarse salt.

I made tacos - simple with cilantro, onion and a squeeze of lime. Hot, salty, crunchy outside; fatty, rich, meltingly tender inside. Sublime.

Not something to have every day, but once in a while? You have to live right? This was not difficult to do, and the rewards are simple yet spectacular!


Until next time, Eat Well & Keep Digging!

The Gastronomic Gardener
Garden blog http://amidwestgarden.blogspot.com/
Cooking blog http://ihopeyouarehungry.blogspot.com/
Twitter - www.twitter.com/DavidPOffutt
http://www.facebook.com/TheGastronomicGardener

Canadian Bacon - step-by-step

Continuing my love affair with pork, curing, and smoking, I decided to start some Canadian bacon so the pastrami will not get lonely in the smoker on Sunday.

Like the pastrami, this will be cured in a brine:

1 Gallon water
1 1/2 cups kosher salt
1 cup sugar
1 1/2oz cure
1 large bunch sage (from the garden, I love that it is still green)
2 gloves of garlic peeled and lightly smashed

Combine all ingredients in a large pot and bring to a simmer, stirring to dissolve the salt and sugar.

Meanwhile trim the fat from a pork loin. 

Let brine cool to room temperature, then chill (outside works perfectly today) until cold.

Add the brine to the loin in a nonreactive container. Submerge the loin - using a plate as needed to weigh it down. Refrigerate for 48 hours.

Remove the loin from the brine, rinse under cold water and pat it dry. You can see some of the deeper red color from the cure, you'll see more once we heat it up.

Put on a rack over a tray and refrigerate, uncovered for 12-24 hours.

At this point the recipe call for a hot smoke but I will cold smoke it, then finish in the same slow oven as the pastrami.

In the smoker... (with pastrami and the duck breasts)

After 6 hours out of the smoker.

Ready for the slow (275F) oven to finish cooking. The color change should be dramatic if cured properly.

Out of the oven. Beautiful color, it tightened up a lot. This thing is a brick.

Have to have a taste.- As you might suspect the end pieces will be somewhat salty, but the flavor is great. This is so easy, just takes time.

The next morning sliced it up for packaging in six slice packs. Headed to the freezer, but not before we do a final taste test.

Where it all comes together!

Until next time, Eat Well & Keep Digging!

The Gastronomic Gardener

Garden blog http://amidwestgarden.blogspot.com/

Cooking blog http://ihopeyouarehungry.blogspot.com/

Twitter - www.twitter.com/DavidPOffutt

http://www.facebook.com/TheGastronomicGardener

Pastrami step by step

I am hopping around in the Charcuterie book, having done bacon and  now setting off on a Pastrami adventure. I am picking these recipes to get started as they are seem easy and I like the end product.

Thin sliced Pastrami on rye, with dark mustard. Sounds delicious!

Pastrami is a close cousin to corned beef, the main difference is once it is cured, it is heavily seasoned then smoked prior to steaming, while corned beef is often boiled. But the beginning steps are the same.

Brisket is the preferred cut. From what I've read the point is preferred for corned beef and the flat for the pastrami but perhaps I got that backwards. In any event I trimmed the brisket into two cuts removing almost 2 lbs of fat.

Here is the cut I brought home.

And after broken down to two cuts.

Now the cure. If you're following along, the bacon was a dry rub and the porkbelly gave up it's liquid to form a brine. It also took an excruciating week of waiting. This time we'll make a brine and the curing will be down to 4 days.

For the brine (page 91 of Charcuterie):

1 gallon water

1 1/2 cups kosher salt

1 cup sugar

1 1/2 oz pink salt

1 Tbs pickling spices

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 cup honey

5 garlic cloves minced

Combine all brine ingredients in a big pot,

bring to a simmer, stir until salt and sugar disolve.

Remove from heat, allow to cool to room temp then refrigerate until chilled.

Add the beef to your container, pour brine over the top to completely cover, use a plate to weigh it down.

Now into the fridge for 3-4 days (I'll do 4 so I can smoke on Sunday at it looks like a good day weather-wise).

We'll be back soon to continue the process.

A week later, we remove the meat from the brine rinse it off.

A rub is prepared with:

1 Tbs each lightly toasted black pepper corns and whole coriander

Toast the seeds in a pan over medium heat, swirling until fragrant. Grind in a grinder.

Cover the meat with the ground spices and  refrigerate over night.

Cold smoke for 5-6 hours. The pastrami is on the rack. Check my other posts regarding the Canadian bacon and duck breasts.

Out of the smoker. It's in the back.

Into a pan on a rack with some water.  Bring to a simmer, cover and pop in the oven (275F) to steam-bake for  2-3 hours until fork tender

I have to test it! This is right out of the oven, and the picture is poor quality but you can see the signature color, bright pink. As with the Canadian bacon, the end pieces are quite salty, but good.

The next morning I sliced up the point for packaging and freezing. Looks good doesn't it?

Only thing left to do now is to make that sandwich for lunch! Homemade bread, mustard and pastrami. A cold beer and it doesn't get much better than this!

Until next time, Eat Well & Keep Digging!


The Gastronomic Gardener
Garden blog http://amidwestgarden.blogspot.com/
Cooking blog http://ihopeyouarehungry.blogspot.com/
Twitter - www.twitter.com/DavidPOffutt
http://www.facebook.com/TheGastronomicGardener