pork belly confit

This has been on my to do list for at least a year now. After a year long search I've found a few places that readily have pork belly so all I've done the past few weeks is play with making bacon. One of these days I'll go back and finish my bacon post. I saved about 4 1/2 lbs. from my last belly I got just for this recipe. Being the pig that I am I thought it 4 lbs of belly confit wouldn't be too much. I was way wrong. It's keeps for at least a couple months so I have some time but it's sort of rare that I know when I've had enough before I over eat. I had the piece shown in the pics and I couldn't finish it. It's has the same richness quality that desserts do. You want more but there is a point when it becomes too much. Had to throw in the towel. Not such a bad thing though cuz the only way you could add more fat in this would be to dip it in chocolate and roll it in bacon. If anyone wants to come over and try it I'll have plenty to go around.

The pork belly strips get seasoned with kosher salt, black pepper, pink curing salt, fresh thyme, bay leaves, cinnamon, all spice and clove. Next put the pork in a container and cover with enough dry white wine to cover and let sit in the refrigerator for a day or so.

I didn't take pics of the marinade. Nothing to see really but the above pics are after 36 hours. Take them out and pat dry with some paper towels. Next was something I haven't done before. Basically this is nothing more than cooking fat with a little meat on it with rendered fat. Health food! The cooking temp is low enough that the fat on the pork belly isn't rendered so it stay in tact. I used probably about four cups of rendered duck fat but you can lard. It's cheaper and easier to find. Add just enough so that you don't have any pork exposed when the fat liquefies.

I posted a pic on facebook and was told this looked like a tumor covered in pee. I agree, but it smelled amazing. This is what it will look like when your duck fat or lard liquefies. You want it just hot enough to get a gentle simmer going before putting the uncovered pot in a preheated 250 degree oven. It will take somewhere between 2-3 hours to cook. When you can slide a fork in the meat with no resistance its done. Here's were things get old school. Leave the pork belly in the pot, with the fat to cool at room temp. Once at room temp cover the pot and put it in the refrigerator and you're done. When you want to have some just fish some out of the fat but like I mentioned above the meat has been cooked and is preserved in fat so it keeps for months.

You might ask how we can make this just a little more unhealthy? Yup! Deep fry it! Like it matters. Your eating mostly fat at this point anyways a minute or two in a deep fryer isn't really going to make this much worse than it already is. I used Canola and maybe had them in for two minutes. It's already cooked you just want to get the outside crispy to give it some texture. You could also saute or pan fry too.

                          

This is a recipe from Charcuterie so I can't exactly post the recipe so message me if you have questions. For anyone interested, the book is a very good resource on how to cook with salt, smoke and curing methods. Worth every penny and no, I'm not being paid for pushing this book.