Questions on pork bellies

[mrad]

Two days ago I came across pork bellies at costco. Since then I have been using the search function to do some research on pork belly's.  This is my understanding on things  with pork belly,

-Pork belly will have a different flavor/texture when cured vs. seasoned and smoked.

- If it is just seasoned and smoked/cooked it will not have the bacon flavor.

-Pork belly can be cooked to a high IT and be pulled like pork shoulder.

If everything above is correct, would the following technique work:

Cure the belly then smoke/cook it until IT is in the 200 range.  Pull the pork and then fry the pulled belly in a frying pan to get a pulled bacon like consistency flavor??

 

[mfreel]

I'm not sure what would pull.  Cooking pork belly at 200 would render all of the fat and I think it would be pretty messy.  There's not enough meat in a belly to do that.  I recommend curing and cold smoking rather than using the heat.

 

[slipaway]

I have to agree with mfreel. I make bacon and, after curing the belly for 10-14 days I "smoke" it at 225 degrees until it gets to 150 IT. Then let it rest for a day in the fridge and then slice and eat, eat, eat...........

If I were to get that temp up to 200 I owudl think all the fat would just render out and ytiou would be left with thin pieces of meat.

If you cure it and then smoke it you will get bacon. Not sure what "seasoniong" means in your context. You should look at a few bacon recipes that use pink salt or tender quick. This will give you that salty bacon flavor.

Good luck