Honey + Pork Belly

11 years ago

Well, Thanksgiving is approaching.

We are keeping it simple and small this year. Just us and maybe 4 or 5 friends. As for food, the popular vote was for just the basics - except that I don't want a honey baked ham, but my daughter does, so I proposed instead a

honey roasted pork belly

And she agreed. Great, except that I have no idea how to do this. Any thoughts? I'm happy to improvise and see what happens, don't need anything as detailed as a recipe - honey and pork, how bad could it be - so more looking for broad ideas on how to approach this dish.

The rest of the menu looks tentatively like
- your basic roast turkey, size small, larded with bacon
- gravy, probably make-ahead
- apple cornbread stuffing that daughter-san will make
- purple mashed potatoes
- creamed spinach and / or creamed corn
- brussel sprout cauliflower salad
- honey roasted pork belly
- phyllo cinnamon sugar apples

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Comments (10)

Islay_Corbel
11 years ago
Do you cook it with the crackling?
I'd be tempted to marinate it in some dry cider, honey and garlic after having scored the skin. Then slow roasted with some of the marinade added after alot of the fat has drained away and poured off, then more honey near the end, so that it doesn't burn and turn bitter.
If you cook it without the skin, then I'd marinate it, then put veggies in the bottom of an oven dish, brown the meat and lay it on top of the veggies mixed with the honey/cider marinade and cover it and slow cook. But, I think you would end up with a fattier dish. How lean pork belly can you get?
bbstx
11 years ago
Does Honey Baked Ham use honey? I thought it was brown sugar blasted with a blow torch - literally.
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We've had some threads on pork belly. I've posted pics of my usual method. But I can't find that old thread, so here's an abbreviated version. - Assuming you're starting w/ a slab of pork belly, with skin then fat then meat, cut into a piece that will just fit into a dutch oven or similar oven proof pot w/ lid - Score (make cut about 1/4" deep) skin in cross cross lines, like a checkerboard, each section will be a bite-sized piece so size them accordingly, about 1" squares, and use toothpick to poke a whole in the center of each square - Place piece in pot, skin up, add some aromatics (onion, celery, garlic, etc), pepper corns, and then equal parts red wine and stock to cover the meat. If you have knuckles, feet or other sources of gelatin, add them too. - On stovetop, bring liquid to boil then reduce to simmer, cover pot, simmer for 4 hours or until pork meat is very tender but not falling apart. Stop well short of "pulled pork". - meanwhile, start preheating over to 450F - Remove piece from liquid, supporting it so that it doesn't fall apart, set it aside. - Strain solids from liquid, bring liquid to boil, boil until reduced so that, when the piece is placed back in the liquid, liquid will come most of the way up the sides of the meat while leaving the skin exposed - I.e. reduce by about half. Liquid will have thickened, if needed whisk in some flour or cornstarch to bring to a sauce consistency, on the thin side though - Replace meat in liquid, skin side up - Move pot to 450F oven, uncovered, you want to brown and crisp the skin, while the liquid protects the meat and fat layers - Roast until skin is brown and crisp, you can also use the broiler if you're impatient and willing to watch like a hawk - Remove pot from oven, move piece to board, place toothpicks in each pre-scored square, cut into score lines to separate each piece. If you hadn't scored the skin and pre-poked the hole, pressure on the crisp skin layer would squash out the soft fat and meat layers - but you thought ahead - Serve with sauce poured over the pieces - Severely rich, I can eat three or four pieces at most, and don't let it get cold, it'll congeal and look scary - use a heated platter - You can add a glaze to the skin as you're roasting (honey, hoisin, char sui, whatever) - The goal is a single bite that combines crisp skin, melting fat, tender meat, and rich sauce. The most common mistake is overcooking the skin to blackened hardness :-( dcarch knows about an Asian trick of pricking the skin with needle before roasting, to make it even crispier. I haven't gotten that to work myself.
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Dcarch, your crackling looks great! Without the glaze, it tastes, well, porky! Soft, full of flavourn not at all mushy, though. Without the glaze, it looks like my top photo but not shiny.It wasn't very pink, in fact. Here's what's left after 2 days. Perhaps it's the different types of pig? The circulator is an Anova, John.
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plllog
11 years ago
I know nothing about cooking pork belly, but since it's essentially bacon, I was thinking it might make sense to choose a different flavor for the bird. Herb butter maybe if you want to lard it? Or braised in wine instead? For contrast?
John Liu
Original Author
11 years ago
Islay, I cook it with the skin, so your first approach sounds good. Normally I roast pork belly at a high temperature, closely wrapped in foil so that it is submerged in its own rendered fat, but I will have to use a lower temperature this time.

I hadn't thought about the overlap of flavors - yes, I'll need to do something different with the turkey.
Islay_Corbel
11 years ago
pllog, the taste is very different to bacon as it's not cured. You seem to eata lot of sweet food for Thanksgiving what with your squashes etc so perhaps a stuffing with pork sausage meat and chestnuts might be complementary?At xmas, we traditionally use that and a sage and onion stuffing.
dcarch7 d c f l a s h 7 @ y a h o o . c o m
11 years ago
Looks like a very delicious Thanksgiving menu.

For me, pork belly is all about crispy skin.

youtube has many videos on how to do that.

dcarch
plllog
11 years ago
IC, Thanksgiving menus are based on an old New England norm. As much as celebrating the harvest, I think they're about packing on pounds for getting through a snowy Winter in an unheated, drafty cabin. :)

Does the glaze get into the interior of the meat? Like with brisket, where sugar breaks down the connective tissue? If not, could you just make it the usual way, unwrap, glaze and put it in the oven just long enough to caramelize?
dcarch7 d c f l a s h 7 @ y a h o o . c o m
11 years ago
I was looking for pork belly recipes for you on youtube and found this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtWA5Zf9nqM

dcarch

Here is a link that might be useful: pork belly
annie1992
11 years ago
John, that's funny about the purple mashed potatoes. We'll be having those too, I think, I still have Adirondack Blue left from this summer's garden. Very festive, those purple potatoes covered with lightly yellow/tan turkey gravy, LOL.

Annie
Islay_Corbel
11 years ago
Because John is cooking it for the crackling too, then he'll have to marinate the meat part, but keep the skin dry, I think. Or, cook the skin seperately! Which may well be the best option to have lovely teder, melting meat and lovely crackling. That's what I'd do.
I did slow roast pork in cider last night and it was delish; but no crackling.

Honey + Pork Belly

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Islay_Corbel

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Honey + Pork Belly

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