" like big slab of unsliced bacon"

I believe that's because bacon is made from pork bellies. There are many ways to prepare it.

pork belly is uncured bacon. In my opinion it just sounds fancier for a chef to say pork belly....tastes just the same to me.

Georgysmom... so what does it taste like? No bacon/smoke flavor?

If you have a chef or cook that knows how to cook pork belly it is very very tasty and yes it definitely has fat content lol. It's not something one would eat often but a treat on occasion . Not done right it's not good it can be almost slimy . It's best nice and crispy . It definitely can be smoked and it's very good .

This is a good looking nice crispy pork belly .

A friend made a dish that consisted of a pork loin (which is rather lean) wrapped in a pork belly (which is rather fatty) and then roasted and then sliced into 1/2 -3/4 thick slices to serve. Overall it was pretty good, but was probably a lot of work to make.

Smoked pork belly slab

So is it like extra thick bacon?

also, are cracklings related to pork bellies?

i didn't know that's where bacon came from. I love bacon but perhaps if I call it pork belly (gross) it won't seem so yummy

I encountered pork belly in an Asian dish recently. The texture was slimy and the sauce was not enough to make it edible for me. I am not a picky eater and look for different things on menus. Pork belly is available in most markets, it very popular for home smoking. If done correctly, that is a great taste. Better then store bought bacon.

Big Bad Breakfast, here, serves cathead biscuits with pork belly and sawmill gravy! Delicious!

I just bought another slab today from CostCo to make bacon. We cure it using this recipe, using brown sugar, fresh bay leaves instead of dried and including the optional juniper berries. Occasionally I add some red pepper flakes. Instead of using the oven, we smoke it in our smoker. I slice the smoked pork belly into strips and fry it in a skillet like store-bought bacon. But the result is many, many times better tasting than any store-bought bacon.

I bought it once, but they only had salt pork. It was awful, way too salty and I love salt. I'll have to check it out at costco next time I'm there

Note about salt pork---In our rural community we "salted down" cuts of fatty pork, saved in a crock in the cellar. To use it, we first simmered it in water to remove much of the salt, then fried it. Salting was simply a way to preserve the meat. Never ate it without "freshening" it in the water.

Yes salt pork is a little different. I like salt pork diced up in my dry beans in the slow cooker. I have some for next week. I have been doing a lot of those kinds of meals while living in the rv. It's easy to use my aroma cooker and doesn't heat up the rv. It does however make the whole rv smell good. I had a worker who knocked on the rv door one day, I had the aroma cooker loaded with a 15 bean mix with ham and salt pork. It was smelling wonderful. I opened the door and the smell wafted out and he just stood there and said omg whatever you are cooking smells wonderful. He said next time I will do the work for free if you feed me that kind of meal. I said that is a deal! He asked me if I was by any chance Cajun. I said yes why, he said his grandmother was Cajun and the last time he smelled something that good it was at her house in Louisiana years ago. Very nice sweet guy. I would definitely feed him lol

Salt pork is mainly used in seasoning. Makes the best milk gravy.

Mother used to fry it to get the grease and sister and I loved chewing on the rind.