Pork Belly Burnt Ends Questions...

[ifitsdeadsmokeit]

I'm going to be serving these up for the first time at my annual bbq...been reading a little bit about them and had a few questions...

• Has anyone tried curing the belly prior to cooking...what effect do you think it will have on them or am I better off just cooking uncured.
• I have seen them cooked as a whole belly and then cubed and finished and also cubed before cooking...think it would be faster to cube and then cook...any big difference in methods, times and or temps to cook to....they will  be in at 250°... mix of apple and oak
• Any recommendations for finishing sauce...have seen just about everything...leaning towards a sweet bbq sauce (but which one) so it caramelizes and sticks a little better. Also seen a lot of butter and brown sugar and honey finished...thinking the glaze that forms might be a little to subtle and not stick very well....
• Since probably going with a sweet finish...probably need a sweet rub....my rub isn't sweet at all but is fantastic on any type of meat...have a sweet and spicy one I use on occasion...maybe leave out the spicey...any suggestions?

It will be a very full smoker, so don't have a huge amount of room...also be doing a 16 lb brisket packer and couple of pork butts at the same time and have a turkey on my other smoker...

 

[mrad]

I had a small chunk of pork belly left over after curing for bacon. I used it to make burnt ends. In my opinion, it was much better than the uncured pork belly I made burnt ends with earlier this summer.  In, fact, I thought it may have been the tastiest meat I have made. 

 

[Rings Я Us]

I was gonna try using this recipe.. no cure.

https://www.google.com/amp/www.smoking-meat.com/august-3-2017-smoked-pork-belly-burnt-ends/amp.

Now I'm going to have to do both ways.

 

[3montes]

I just did them a couple weeks ago. They are awesome and will be in my rotation from now on. I cubed them first about a inch square maybe a little bigger. Rubbed them with Dominator pork rub from Oak Ridge BBQ. Smoked at 250 until the fat rendered off and they had a nice color to them. Put them in a pan and sauced with Blues Hog Championship BBQ Sauce. Let them in there for about a half hour and let the sauce set up. Awesome stuff!

 

[Rings Я Us]

I just did them a couple weeks ago. They are awesome and will be in my rotation from now on. I cubed them first about a inch square maybe a little bigger. Rubbed them with Dominator pork rub from Oak Ridge BBQ. Smoked at 250 until the fat rendered off and they had a nice color to them. Put them in a pan and sauced with Blues Hog Championship BBQ Sauce. Let them in there for about a half hour and let the sauce set up. Awesome stuff!

Yeah.. that's lip smakin type yummy morsels there man! Get Er Done!

 

[chilerelleno]

After having done Burnt Ends with Brisket, Chuck and Pork Belly and flavored sweet, spicy and sweet-n-spicy, I have to say they all rock but Pork Belly is incredibly rich and succulent.

I've never cured anything except a hangover.
Will have to change that sometime soon cause it sure does sound good.

Never have cooked a whole belly, yeah, I think it would take longer unless you cranked the heat up to say 275° +/-.
One thing holding me back on that is that all the whole bellys are skin-on and they're tough to skin.
I've carefully cubed them and not so carefully just chunked'em up haphazard, they still take me a good three hours on the rack, then another 2 or so panned with sauce.

In the pan it doesn't seem to make a difference on tenderness whether they're covered or uncovered, but depends on how you want your sauce on them, wet or well glazed, and how quick you can set the glaze.
I'm leaning towards well glazed.

The sauce flavor is whatever blows your skirt up on that day.
I've been using one flavor or another of Sweet Baby Ray's.
Like I said, I've done sweet, spicy and sweet-n-spicy, and they're all great.
I want to try some fruit sauces next, maybe some Mango Habanero or Chile Lime sauce or similar.

Also, I'm going to start trimming some of the fat off the pork belly next time to get a meatier bite.

Here's the batch I did this last weekend.

Image

• chilerelleno
• Sep 18, 2017