Using pork belly for pulled pork

[UTH]

Any advice here.

I’ve done pulled pork 3 or 4 times, always using shoulder/butt

I’m assuming I do similar to the shoulder……many hours at 110 degrees in the Egg until it hits the right temp, rest then pull?

Or is there more to it given it’s a different cut?

[Tam_Mullen]

I'm no expert, but I wouldn't have thought it would be suited to pulling as its so fatty.

[maccboy]

We've done it many times in a slow cooker. Remove the fat first (like this: Slow cooker pulled pork recipe | Good Food https://share.google/Mu3KBcF8C37ZA8YBz) so it's definitely a goer.
Never used an Egg though, so I can't help with that option.

[Mobile Chicane]

I find that pork belly in modern times isn't particularly fatty.

I wish it were, I have had to cheat when making rillettes de porc and add duck fat.

You could pretty much slow cook as is, but I would be inclined to cut off the skin and deep fry that in your newly acquired deep fryer.

[oddman]

It would work but why bother when shoulder is more suitable. It's also cheaper where I shop. It's not so much the fat but the connective tissue (collagen) that contributes to the moistness of pulled pork shoulder. The connective tissue melting (latent heat of fusion) is the reason for the 'stall' where the temperature of the meat refuses to rise for several hours.

A good one for belly might be char sui. Make up a rub with salt and sugar but add chinese five spice instead of the usual spices. Smoke this taking this slowly up slicing temperature - 79 C/175 F.

The meat that results can be coated in a chinese sauce and charred/grilled then served as it is or used as an ingredient in stir fries, fried rice etc.

[UTH]

Shoulder is better of course, but the butcher didn't have any and he said that belly is actually his favourite to do for pulled pork, although I wonder if he was just saying that.

I am slightly put off using what he's given me for pulled.....the actual meat itself looks very small vs what I've been used to before from a shoulder/butt

And, I'm way too late in the day to do it today anyway, next chance will be next Monday. I might freeze it then decide what to do with it

[The Gauge]

The Grillstock book has a nice cherry smoked pork belly recipe.

[thebraketester]

Turn the porky b into a porchetta.

[UTH]

The Gauge said:

The Grillstock book has a nice cherry smoked pork belly recipe.

Excellent, that'll be the one then!

[The Gauge]

thebraketester said:

Turn the porky b into a porchetta.

Also in the Grill Stock book. I think that requires a pork shoulder joint too doesn't it?

[thebraketester]

The Gauge said:

thebraketester said:

Turn the porky b into a porchetta.

Also in the Grill Stock book. I think that requires a pork shoulder joint too doesn't it?

Not usually. All the methods I’ve seen have been pork b

[Mobile Chicane]

thebraketester said:

The Gauge said:

thebraketester said:

Turn the porky b into a porchetta.

Also in the Grill Stock book. I think that requires a pork shoulder joint too doesn't it?

Not usually. All the methods I’ve seen have been pork b

Nope.

A pork loin (rubbed with aromats) rolled inside a pork belly and tied.

[thebraketester]

Mobile Chicane said:

thebraketester said:

The Gauge said:

thebraketester said:

Turn the porky b into a porchetta.

Also in the Grill Stock book. I think that requires a pork shoulder joint too doesn't it?

Not usually. All the methods I’ve seen have been pork b

Nope.

A pork loin (rubbed with aromats) rolled inside a pork belly and tied.

I’ll have to try that next time although I’m struggling to think how one would have room for the loin, unless your piece to belly is very long.

[Bam89]

Go for pork belly burnt ends, one of my favourite things to do on the bbq! More of a side or snack than a main meal, but depends on your tastes

https://meatsmokefire.co.uk/recipes/pork/pork-bell...

[Ridealong]

oddman said:

It would work but why bother when shoulder is more suitable. It's also cheaper where I shop. It's not so much the fat but the connective tissue (collagen) that contributes to the moistness of pulled pork shoulder. The connective tissue melting (latent heat of fusion) is the reason for the 'stall' where the temperature of the meat refuses to rise for several hours.

A good one for belly might be char sui. Make up a rub with salt and sugar but add chinese five spice instead of the usual spices. Smoke this taking this slowly up slicing temperature - 79 C/175 F.

The meat that results can be coated in a chinese sauce and charred/grilled then served as it is or used as an ingredient in stir fries, fried rice etc.

Char siu is traditionally pork shoulder or neck/collar as pork belly is consider too fatty; Chinese roast pork hanging up in the windows of London's Chinatown is usually pork belly for the great mixture of crackling, fat and meat.

[isaldiri]

Ridealong said:

oddman said:

It would work but why bother when shoulder is more suitable. It's also cheaper where I shop. It's not so much the fat but the connective tissue (collagen) that contributes to the moistness of pulled pork shoulder. The connective tissue melting (latent heat of fusion) is the reason for the 'stall' where the temperature of the meat refuses to rise for several hours.

A good one for belly might be char sui. Make up a rub with salt and sugar but add chinese five spice instead of the usual spices. Smoke this taking this slowly up slicing temperature - 79 C/175 F.

The meat that results can be coated in a chinese sauce and charred/grilled then served as it is or used as an ingredient in stir fries, fried rice etc.

Char siu is traditionally pork shoulder or neck/collar as pork belly is consider too fatty; Chinese roast pork hanging up in the windows of London's Chinatown is usually pork belly for the great mixture of crackling, fat and meat.

Not really, the best char siu is generally either considerd to be the most fatty bit of the shoulder/collar (armpit is the favoured cut in east asia to be precise) or part of the pork belly that has sufficient meat as well rather than just fat as it can sometimes be.

I'd suggest a bit different a recipe than what oddman recommends above though - the important bit imo to use is really good quality dark soy sauce and 5 spice/cinnamon along with light soy sauce or salt and plenty of sugar. It's typically grilled/cooked fairly hot as well as far as i could tell by the various ovens being used that i had seen with flames spewing from the side but the starting slow to finish off hotter should also work.

[LunarOne]

I would say that pork belly isn't ideal for pulled pork, because with pulled pork you want longer muscle fibres to pull. That's wnhat gives pulled pork its particular texture. But if you've ever cooked pork belly, you might have noticed that the meat is made up of thin layers of muscle fibres going in one direction and then another thin layer of muscle fibres going at 90 degrees. And those layers alternate a couple of times. That gives the muscle the ability to contract in both directions, but it also means that when you try to oull the pork with a fork, you'll be pulling one layer and tearing the layer that crosses it. And that means the meat is going to end up a bit of a mush rather than having the texture you're after.

You could try to separate the layers of muscle fibres, but that's going to be difficult and a massive faff, when you could just buy a piece of meat where you have a thick slab of meat where the muscle fibres are all arranged in the same direction, and that will give you a superior end result.

Having said that, I do make pork rillettes from time to time (I love pork as you may have seen from my pig head brawn thread) and that recipe does call for the meat to be shredded in a similar manner as pulled pork and I use a mix of pork belly and shoulder for that.

[BlackTails]

UTH said:

Any advice here.

I’ve done pulled pork 3 or 4 times, always using shoulder/butt

I’m assuming I do similar to the shoulder……many hours at 110 degrees in the Egg until it hits the right temp, rest then pull?

Or is there more to it given it’s a different cut?

5-6 hours at 120 (non fan) in a regular oven works wonders. A shoulder from the butcher may come with skin and a thick layer of fat; if so trim that off aggressively before cooking. Costco do very well trimmed shoulders, and they are a lesson in what can be removed. As others have said what’s left is more connective tissue than fat, but a long slow cook will reduce that. You can’t really overcook shoulder as long as you keep the temp low (well, I’m sure you can, but I’ve yet to do it).

Cover in rock salt, flour and mustard powder before it goes in for some nice crispy outer bits; the meat inside will stay succulent.

Pull it to pieces with forks or your fingers.

The meat juice in the pan makes fantastic gravy too. Or dip, if you serve the pulled pork in a bun.

[oddman]

isaldiri said:

Ridealong said:

oddman said:

It would work but why bother when shoulder is more suitable. It's also cheaper where I shop. It's not so much the fat but the connective tissue (collagen) that contributes to the moistness of pulled pork shoulder. The connective tissue melting (latent heat of fusion) is the reason for the 'stall' where the temperature of the meat refuses to rise for several hours.

A good one for belly might be char sui. Make up a rub with salt and sugar but add chinese five spice instead of the usual spices. Smoke this taking this slowly up slicing temperature - 79 C/175 F.

The meat that results can be coated in a chinese sauce and charred/grilled then served as it is or used as an ingredient in stir fries, fried rice etc.

Char siu is traditionally pork shoulder or neck/collar as pork belly is consider too fatty; Chinese roast pork hanging up in the windows of London's Chinatown is usually pork belly for the great mixture of crackling, fat and meat.

Not really, the best char siu is generally either considerd to be the most fatty bit of the shoulder/collar (armpit is the favoured cut in east asia to be precise) or part of the pork belly that has sufficient meat as well rather than just fat as it can sometimes be.

I'd suggest a bit different a recipe than what oddman recommends above though - the important bit imo to use is really good quality dark soy sauce and 5 spice/cinnamon along with light soy sauce or salt and plenty of sugar. It's typically grilled/cooked fairly hot as well as far as i could tell by the various ovens being used that i had seen with flames spewing from the side but the starting slow to finish off hotter should also work.

I should have made it clear my way of doing char sui was not intended to be the echt version but a simple and delicious way of combining pork belly and smoke that might be a better option than trying to make pulled pork with it. Also taking into account that the OP is using (and wants to use) the equipment that we both have at home.

When I'm doing this myself I do a two stage process, slow smoking first then coating in a sticky sauce (which is mainly thick dark soy) rearranging the kamado for grilling to get the requisite stickiness and char for 'char sui'. If I have leftover smoked meat that hasn't been basted and grilled, this is really good, almost like chinese bacon and can be used in stir fries, egg fried rice, as a garnish on vegetables, salads etc.

[some bloke]

I like to use pork belly for Chicharrones- cut it into 1" squares, then put it on heat in a largish pan full of water and boil them. Once all the water is gone, they will start shallow frying themselves, and that will render more fat out, so they will soon start deep frying themselves. Eventually you will end up with a pan full of golden, crunchy, fatty pork goodness. I would do it outside though.