I got about a 1lb of super fatty pork belly via Amazon Fresh. It was not what I was expecting.
I would rather not throw it out, but I’m at a loss as to what to do with it. I don’t need all of it for spaghetti carbonara. Cracklings might be my best bet, but I’m open to other suggestions.
Thanks!
No, don’t throw it out! Can you describe more preciously what do you mean by super fatty? If it’s very fat, the easiest you can do is slice it and use it like unsmoked bacon. That you can find lots of recipes.
How about the Chinese pork belly either crispy or barbecued or the Shanghai style braised pork belly? I once ate a dish of roasted Cha Siu - very fatty - taste was amazing.
Fat gives taste!
hello naf
In the Philippines, roasting a whole pig on a spit over charcoal until the skin is super crunchy for special occasion is a national dish. It is delicious compared to the Hawaiian way of roasting in a pit. However, here in the US, it is not easy to roast a whole pig. The best part of the pig is the pork belly. There are many versions of cooking it in order to make the skin crunchy. You can buy the pork belly at Asian Stores, they come in 3-4 inch width. If you google, you can find recipes for Filipino lechon belly. Here is one which is a favorite of mine. http://www.filipinofoodrecipes.org/lechon-belly-ala-lechon-cebu-recipe
There are many versions of lechon ( roasting pork till skin is crunchy) I have in many occasions roast a small suckling pig in a spit cooking over charcoal ( have not tried to download pictures yet per your advise) or more often, just a small piece using pork belly. It takes a long time to roast in the oven, but if you have a turbo broiler, it goes even faster, until the skin gets super crunchy. This you can tell by hitting the skin with a fork and listen to the crunch. Another version is to bring water to a boil, then lower the pork belly and simmer for 45 min or so, which makes cooking faster. For a whole pig, the Filipinos makes a sauce call SARSA as a dip which is made out of roast pig liver, mashed fine with food processor, , with lots and lots of garlic ( heads of garlic) cider vinegar., bay leaf peppercorn simmered for a long time, thickened with bread crumbs or panko. The day after , with pieces of pork left ( usually no skin left as guest often go and grab the skin while being sliced), the pieces of pork are chopped up, added to the sarsa , simmered until thick with a little more cider vinegar and water served with rice. You can find salsa bottles in the Asian stores, or alternatively, I use liver pate to make my sarsa, if I use pork butt or shoulder to make my lechon. However, when I use pork belly, there is never any left over… Another very easy sauce which is great is a mixture of soy sauce, hot pepper, vinegar dip. Let me know how it turns out if you try this recipe.
Oooh, how lovely. With much of the modern pig raising methods, it’s a bit hard to find suitably fatty belly.
A number of ideas from my favourite food writer here. The roast works well but if it is really very, very fatty, then the rillettes might be the way to go - https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2009/oct/11/nigel-slater-recipes-pork-belly
As naf suggests, there are a goodly number of Chinese recipes around for fatty belly. You’ll find lots of recipes for “Chairman Mao’s red braised pork belly”. It’s a delicious Hunanese (?) dish
Is it cured or fresh? Carbonara is made with cured pork.
Oops, I forgot carbonara is with cured pork.
Thanks for the replies. I have made and enjoyed the dishes mentioned in the posts, but this looks a whole lot fattier than usual, no?
That is super fatty. Grind some up and add to sausage?
I would turn this into salt pork and cook up some beans.
I’m a big ran of fatty pork but that’s too fatty even for me. It’s as if you asked your butcher for some pork fat and they threw in a bit of meat cos they like you.
Now, that IS fatty.
I suggest looking for recipes that include pork fat. If you were in the UK, I’d be suggesting mincing it with rabbit and turning them into bunny burgers - but I seem to recall that rabbit is quite expensive in America, so maybe not the best bet.
Bunny Burgers. That would be a winning entry in the failed chain restaurant name sweepstakes.
Although I reckon Bambi Burgers would feel they were cheated from the title.
Rabbit was popular here during World War 2 as, because it was and is regarded as a pest, it was never subject to food rationing regulations. Afterwards, other meats regained popularity and it’s only fairly recently rabbit has started to become more widely available again. My local urban farmers market usually has at least one seller of locally shot bunnies
A recipe for the bunny ones, from the Hairy Bikers - http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/bunny_burgers_with_36119
I love the stuff I learn here, thanks.
agreed. i love Chinese dishes with fatty pork, but that cut looks extreme. I might just render that for lard and use it for baking.
I will second the add to sausage or burgers. You could also cube it up and render the fat for lard. I recently did 2lbs of fat scraps in the oven and now have a quart of lard. Love using it for refried beans.
How about paté or rillettes?
