smoked pork belly.

Discovery: Smoked Pork Belly

Ive been trying to figure out something new and exciting for my menus. Im bored of the same proteins cooked in the same few ways. Smoking meat has always been something I love to do but its just so time consuming. A brisket last year took me and my humble weber kettle almost 17 hours to get right. It was insanely good but wow that’s a long time to tend to a fire. 

I was wondering if I could use the same method on another cut of meat. Something different. I had never seen a Lamb brisket before. Brisket being the breast of the cow and lamb breast being readily available I thought this would be a fantastic spin on a classic. After some research and work with smaller cuts it seems the full on flavour of lamb accompanied with the heavy smoke just leads to a mess of flavour. Too intense and too sickly, even with short smoke exposure of a light wood like cherry.

So as many people before me have done in times of distress, I turn to the pig. Pork belly surely would work? It is a under worked muscle compared to brisket, so is a more tender cut but the lack of connective tissue can lead it can dry out fast. Will it work? Lets see.

I went to Costco to pick up a pork belly. The quality is okay but there no reason to get a rare bread belly that will cost a fortune if I don’t know the outcome. Im going to marinade overnight in a Cola and Jack Daniels base. Ill add salt by % of weight and some other aromatics. The reason for the marinade is I made a jack and coke rub when I last did a beef brisket. It was delicious. Sticky and complex, but not for beef. The sweetness was a miss. For pork I think it will be perfect.

Ill smoke over a heavier wood, probably oak as I have it to hand. The flavour profile of the pork and whisky will go well with a heaver smoke. Pork belly + smoke = bacon and whisky + smoke = peated Scotch. Two of my favourite things. 

The next thing to work out is to use the Texas crutch or not. The crutch is a method of cooking a brisket. It was reportedly first implemented by Aaron Franklin of Franklin Barbecue in Austin. To understand what it is, the science of a brisket cook needs to be explained first.

When smoking a brisket, the chemical reaction between amino acids and reducing sugars at elevated temperatures causes the formation of what’s called the bark. Its a very dark crust that can be almost black. The colour comes from smoke absorption, Maillard reaction and dehydration. Its a crispy and tasty crust that protects the meat and creates a sensational texture juxtaposition against the gelatinous inside.

The stall in brisket cooking is a phenomenon where the internal temperature of the meat plateaus, typically between 150°F and 170°F (65°C to 77°C), and this period can last anywhere from 2 to 6 hours. The stall is primarily caused by evaporative cooling and energy balance. As the brisket cooks, moisture from the meat’s surface evaporates, and this change from liquid water to vapour absorbs a significant amount of heat from the meat, cooling it down in a process similar to sweating. The latent heat of vaporisation, which is the energy required to convert water from a liquid to vapour offsets the heat input from the smoker and causes the temperature to plateau. During the stall, the rate at which heat is added to the meat equals the rate at which heat is lost through evaporation, resulting in no rise of internal temperature despite the smoker maintaining a constant temperature. As long as there is enough moisture on the meat's surface to evaporate, the stall can persist, preventing the internal temperature of the brisket from rising for hours.

So, The Texas Crutch. This is a technique to overcome the stall by wrapping the meat in aluminium foil or butcher paper once it reaches the plateau stage. By wrapping the brisket, the moisture released from the meat is trapped inside the wrapping, preventing further evaporation. This minimises evaporative cooling and allows the internal temperature to rise steadily, helping the brisket to push through the stall more quickly. The trapped moisture and steam inside the wrap increase the cooking speed by reducing heat loss and increasing the internal humidity (similar to a braise), resulting in a shorter cooking time and a way more predictable timeline of the cook. 

However, while the Texas Crutch is effective at breaking the stall, it can also ruin the bark on the exterior of the brisket that takes hours and hours to set on the meat. We don’t want to lose that. The increased humidity within the wrapping can prevent the bark from fully forming or cause it to lose its texture, leading to a softer, less desirable crust. To avoid this, some pit masters choose to unwrap the brisket towards the end of the cooking process to allow the bark to firm up, balancing the benefits of the Texas Crutch with the desired texture of the bark.

Although this isn’t a beef brisket I expect to similarly run into a stall. The question is, as its a smaller cut of 5KG as opposed to 7/8KG (also much thinner), will this stall last hours upon hours like the brisket or cruise though no problem. Im leaning towards no Texas crutch and hoping for the best as I prioritise that bark but ill only be able to make the decision as the cook is ongoing and I can see the developments and temperature changes. 

Annoyingly I woke up much later than anticipated and managed to get the fire settled at 11:45am and the belly on at 12. I seasoned it with the rub and used sweet baby ray BBQ sauce as the binder. The first hour was chaotic. I couldn’t stabilise the smoker temperature and realised I only had two medium chunks of oak. I think it got enough smoke off those two chunks but we will see later. The temperature swung from 150f to 400f. Really not ideal. Its now 4pm and it has been on for just over 4 hours and the temperature for the last three hours has been relatively stable, albeit slightly low for my liking. I was aiming at a cook of 300f but were sitting 225-265f currently. As mentioned before its a forgiving cut so I’m not too worried. I need to think about what to serve with this thing. 

For now I think I’m going to serve it just on some white bead with pickles, Texas style. When I come to refine this I think a cube of it on top of a bed of polenta would be lovely. I would most likely change the rub if that was the case to a more savoury base. Perhaps salt, pepper, garlic. For now the sweetness with the pickles will go down a treat.

Its now 6 hours in and the internal is sitting at around 175-180f. We are in the stall. Its been a couple of hours I hope not too much longer as I’m cooking this for dinner and I have to rest it for an hour at least. If we come out the stall soon it will get to the desired magic number of 205f quickly. 205 is the magic number in BBQ smoking as its the temperature collagen breaks down into gelatine. This is when the meat becomes luxurious, soft and unctuous. Ive been sporadically spraying it with a mixture of vinegar, water and baby rays to create a glaze while stopping the tips of the corners from drying out too much. Its just gone 6 o’clock. Hopefully I won’t be another 4am brisket fiasco. If its continues for another hour, I will wrap it as mentioned before.

Around 7:30pm it was reading 195-210f throughout depending on the varying thickness. I pulled it before the whole thing hit 205f as it would have dried out a large portion of the cut. Resting was done for 45 minutes wrapped in foil. I could have rested for linger but I had hungry guests. I don’t think it was detrimental, however, it would have been easer to slice with another 45 minutes on the clock.

It was tough to slice with a regular knife as the blade wouldn’t catch the bark. With a serrated knife I managed to get beautiful slices. Put on top of a plain slice of farmhouse white bread, served with coleslaw and pickles. Super simple. It was fantastic. The sweet and stick rub complimented the fatty meat like a dream and it was superbly tender. It didn’t need Amy extra time on the smoker. There wasn’t a huge amount of smoke flavour which I was worried about but it was enough for now.

My points to take forward are, more smoke, the internal number for pork belly is around 198f and I need to improve my fire management skills as my poor airflow inputs on my weber kettle basically added another hour and a half to the cook. 

Overall a success, and some valuable lessons. Although I definitely will be trying it again soon to put a more refined spin on the dish, pork belly isn’t exactly something you should eat every day! So with that, see you next post.