Adventures in BBQ

Pork Belly Burnt Ends

Today we are going to make a porky version of the brisket classic – burnt ends. These little super tender cubes of deliciousness are some of the best bits of a beef brisket. For this version we are making it from pork belly instead. Read on to see how this new experiment for pork belly burnt ends turned out.

Pork belly burnt ends on the smoker

This recipe came from Malcolm Reed over at http://howtobbqright.com/ and his YouTube channel; you should definitely check it out.

• Setup: Kettle with Smokenator and setup for indirect 2-zone cooking. Large water pan on the indirect side to add moisture and keep temperatures even. Since pork belly is so fatty, you need to have it clear of the hot coals otherwise you will get horrible flare ups (or a even worse, a grease fire…)
• Meat: 6lb of pork belly from Shalhoob (frozen)

The pork belly after unwrapping (and still slightly frozen)

• Fuel: Regular Kinsgford briquettes with pecan wood chunks (I am all out of peach chunks which was going to be first choice; I’ve just placed a replacement order for some apple, cherry and peach chunks with Fruita Wood & BBQ Supply so I’ll be keen to try out those when they arrive. Cherry in particular is frequently recommended for BBQ)
• Cooking temperature: Two zone cooking with 250F (120C) in the indirect part away form the coals.
• Cooking times: 2.5 hours uncovered in the smoke, into covered foil pan for 1.5 hours, 10-20 minutes uncovered in pan to set glaze.

Preparation:

1. 1. Once defrosted in the microwave, the main preparation needed was to separate the tough skin from the rest of the pork belly. There was then a big fight with the skin, while trying to persuade it to part company with the rest of the slab of pork belly. I eventually succeeded in getting it off but the surface looks a little hacked about.
   2. Once I had wrestled the skin off, the pork belly was cut up into roughly 1.5″ (approx. 4cm) wide strips and then into roughly 1.5″ (approx. 4cm) long cubes.
   3. The cubes of pork belly were then placed them in a pile and sprinkled all over with the rub from the shaker. The rub was Meathead’s Memphis Dust, with some salt added since this was not brined beforehand as usual.
      
      Save Print

      Meathead's Memphis Dust

      Author: Meathead Goldwyn

      Recipe type: rub

      Cuisine: BBQ

      Prep time:  5 mins

      Total time:  5 mins

      Serves: 1 cup

       

      Ingredients

      • ¼ cup dark brown sugar (lightly packed)
      • ¼ granulated sugar
      • 2 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons paprika
      • 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon garlic powder
      • 2 teaspoons fresh ground black pepper
      • 2 teaspoons ground ginger
      • 2 teaspoons onion powder
      • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
      • ½ teaspoon crushed dried rosemary

      Instructions

      1. Combine all ingredients in a bowl.
      2. Crush up the rosemary leaves with fingers as they go into the bowl.
      3. Smush any sugar lumps out with a fork against the side of the bowl.

      3.5.3251
      
       
      

      Ingredients for the Meathead’s Memphis Dust Rub

      

      The completed Memphis Dust rub (after most of the large sugar lumps had been squished out)

   4. Placed a rack over a foil pan and sprayed with PAM oil spray. The cubes were then transferred onto rack, covering all sides that were looking a little bare with more rub.

The pork belly cubes on the tray after being covered in rub and before being transferred to the smoker.

Glaze ingredients

At the end of the cook, the pork belly burnt ends were glazed in a sauce made up from:

• 1 cup of BBQ sauce
• 1/4 cup apple juice
• 1/4 cup apple jelly/jam
• 1 tablespoon of hot sauce (Original recipe called for Frank’s Hot Sauce; I used the green Tabasco as we had some already)

These are simply heated together in a saucepan until the jam/jelly dissolves.

Cooking Diary:

• 12:00noon: Made up the rub. Transferred into rub shaker.
• 12:10pm: Discovered that my pork belly, collected 24 hours ago, was still somewhat frozen. Defrosted in the microwave (not ideal).
• 12:15pm: Prepped the pork belly into cubes and covered with rub.
• 12:55pm: Light bbq using 14 briquettes in a Weber chimney and two lighter cubes.
• 1:10pm: Transferred lit coals into Smokenator.
• 1:30pm: Scrubbed grate, added water pan and filled with hot water from the kettle.
• 1:45pm: Put rack of pork belly cubes on the cooker.
• 3:05pm: Rotated rack 180 degrees. Added 2nd wood chunk and a few briquettes.
• 4:20pm: Off the smoker. Put the pork belly cubes into a Weber foil pan, sprinkled dark brown sugar and sqeeze-bottle honey over the top, along with approx. a stick of butter (cut into approx. 1/3rd inch slices). Covered with heavy duty aluminum foil and back on the smoker.
• 5:55pm: Combined glaze ingredients in a small saucepan and heated gently.
  

  The near-completed pork belly cubes before final saucing. This is after unwrapping the foil and before they got their final coating of glaze and went back on the smoker to set the glaze.

• 6:10pm: Took covered pan off the smoker and drained most of the liquid off (didn’t want to tip it up too far and get a cube-o-lanche…). Poured glaze over the pork belly cubes, mixed them around a bit and then back on the smoker to set the glaze.
• 6:40pm: Came off the smoker.

The completed pork belly burnt ends after final saucing and returning to the smoker to set the glaze.

Results and Verdict for Pork Belly Burnt Ends: B

Once I got over the hurdle of the auto-sensing microwave trying to run defrost on the pork belly for 46 minutes and managed to get the skin off, things went more smoothly. Apparently a curved boning knife (don’t have) and lots of patience (not sure about that either) seem to be the key to good skinning.  One issue I did have was that, with the poor job on the skinning, I ended up with some pork belly cubes that were quite a bit smaller than the others. This required a bit of shuffling around on the already tight wire rack to keep them away from the flames. Things could also have been a little easier with a wire rack like this one which would go into a foil pan (and also fit in the smoker better and further away from the heat).

Early issues aside, the cook went pretty smoothly and the smoker held temperature well. I feel that maybe it could have a little less time initially before getting covered with foil – this might have made some of the cubes turn out a little less chewy (but at least one person said they liked the jerky-like texture). They could also maybe have had a little more brown sugar sprinkled on them during the middle phase of the cook while covered in the pan or a little sweeter sauce could have been used – this may have got them a little closer to “pig candy nirvana”. But most importantly, I think this was a good recipe and one I would try again.