Pork belly in the smoker?

[FurtiveFreddy]

Anyone here cooked a slab of pork belly with indirect heat in a kettle barbecue or in a smoker?

Thinking of trying this at the weekend and wondering:

Skin on and try and crackle it at the end or skin off and crackle it separately?
Put it direct on the grill with a drip tray underneath or cook it in a tray with/without a splash of something?
Best temperature?
Keep it whole of cube it?

So many BBQ/smoker recipes for ribs out there, but not as much info for belly.

[FurtiveFreddy]

opieoilman said:

I take the skin off, give it a rub with various herbs and spices, then put it on a rack in a tray filled to about an inch deep with onions and tomatoes. Once the pork is on the rack, I fill to just under the level of the meat with chicken stock. That goes in the smoker at about 120-130C for about 2-3 hours, then the pork gets wrapped in foil and put back in for another 3-4 hours. The juices and veg from the tray go into a blender to make bbq sauce.

That's pretty much how I usually do belly in a normal oven, except I leave the skin on and at the end of cooking turn the oven up to 200 (top element) to get the crackling.

I think I'll try doing it in the smoker in the same way and just give it a blast over the direct heat at the end. I'll do some 'back-up' crackling as well in the normal oven just to make sure there is some. Can't have belly without crackling!

[FurtiveFreddy]

OK OK, you've talked me into it

I'll do a tray of burnt ends but I'm also going to do a chunk of belly as well to see if I can get crackling on the BBQ.

[FurtiveFreddy]

opieoilman said:

Yes, I based it on the way I do it in the oven. I'm gutted to lose out on the crackling, but for some reason, each time I have tried to do crackling when it's not attached to the pork, it goes wrong.

Well I used to take the crackling off at the end of the slow and low cook and crackle it on it's own as that guarantees good crackling for me, but now what I do it score the skin every 1-2 cm along the portion of belly (makes it easier to slice at the end) then it goes in the oven in a disk on onions & garlic with some cider or wine at 130-140 for at least 6 hours covered with foil for the whole time.

Just before serving, I uncover it and change from fan oven to top element oven at 220 and in 5-10 mins the crackling is done. I do like to be able to serve a nice slice of belly with it's crackling attached!

Otherwise, I'll leave the skin on during the slow cook and then remove it near the end. It then needs any meat or fat scraped off so there's only rind left to put back in the oven at 220 to crackle. Or you can cut it into thin strips and do it between two baking sheets a la Masterchef

[FurtiveFreddy]

Yes, me too.

[FurtiveFreddy]

Thanks for the recipes. I've got a pork belly to pick up tomorrow and I'll be firing up the Weber on Monday. Fingers crossed the weather stays reasonable.

[FurtiveFreddy]

The result of yesterday's porkfest:



Only did small bits of belly as there was only two of us and it was an experiment to see what did/didn't work (it all worked though, so plenty of leftovers).

Grill temp. at 225-250F throughout. Smoke for the first hour or two.

Both pieces of belly were put on the grill uncovered for about 4 hours then covered for the final 2 hours.
The one on the left had skin left on to see if I could get crackling.

The burnt ends were put on the grill for 2 hours, then glazed and left uncovered for 2.5 hours.
Two types of burnt end - oriental rub/glaze and Memphis rub/glaze.

Achieved partial crackling by holding it over the direct heat at the end.
On balance, I think I'll take the skin off and do the crackling it in the oven next time so it's guaranteed