Smoked pork belly

Homeade bacon, you know you want to make this

Lunch
Dinner

My Thoughts

Okay, thisis homemade smoked pork belly. Let me say it another way, this is homemade smoked bacon. Yes, we're making bacon. Pork belly is the cut of meat that bacon comes from. This is homemade bacon, but don't confuse it with the stuff from the grocery store. Okay, so you get the pork belly at the grocer, but I am talking about the paper thin stuff you get in the vacuum sealed packs. This is on another level. Think bacon crossed with pulled pork barbecue. This is what bacon would wish to be when it grows up. This is a smokey, crispy yet tender, juicy bit of pork heaven. You can use it as an appetizer, you can use it on pizza (yeah, we do that), you can ... well you can do anything you want with it.

The How To Do It

  1. Preheat your smoker to 225°.
  2. Score the skin side of the pork belly with a sharp knife. I actually cut almost all the way through the skin. This allows the oil, rub, and smoke to get into the meat from all sides. Also, when we put the pork belly in the oven later, it allows the skin to puff up and get crazy crispy.
  3. Coat the pork belly with olive oil, and generously sprinkle with the dry rub (don't worry, the recipe follows this one and it is the same one used for the ribs).
  4. Place the pork belly in the smoker. The time I listed above can vary quite a bit depending on how large a piece a meat you have and even is it thinker and shorter or long and thinner. You're going to want to use a thermometer to keep up on the internal temp. You're aiming for 165° here.
  5. About 15 minutes before you are finished smoking the pork belly, you will want to preheat your oven to 450°.
  6. Once the pork belly is finished in the smoker, place it on a baking sheet skin side up, drizzle oil on it and put it in the oven.
  7. Roast the pork belly until the skin starts to puff up and blister. This should take not more than 15 minutes and will probably take a lot less, so keep a close eye on it or the skin will burn (that's not tasty, but the dog will still eat it).
  8. Let it cool for at least 15 minutes and maybe even longer. You'll know that it is cool enough when you can hold it comfortably in one hand to stabilize it for cutting. This is the hard part because this piece of porky heaven smells amazing when it comes out of the oven. If you don't though, you will have a rough time cutting into it. It needs to cool down so the fat inside it can solidify a bit. Cutting into it when it is screaming hot will make it almost impossible to cut into slices. Also, you run the risk of having lava-hot fat come flying out of the thing. It is not pleasant. Actually, it is insanely painful. How do I know? Let's just say I know and move on. And we won't mentioned again.

Dry Rub

  1. Mix everything into a bowl and store it away until you need it - that's it, you're done.
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Ingredients

Smoked pork belly
1 ½ lbs
pork belly - skin on
1 tbsp
olive oil
¼ cup
dry rub
*This is a guess. It depends on the size.
Dry rub
1 tbsp
smoked paprika
1 tbsp
granulated garlic
1 tbsp
black pepper
½ tbsp
ancho chili powder
½ tbsp
chipolte chili powder
1 tsp
corriander
*dried cilantro seeds
1 tsp
mustard powder
1 tsp
celery salt
2 tbsp
kosher salt
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