Culinary Disasters

Well the first thing I had to do when getting the pork belly was make a confit.

Confit is basically cooking a piece of meat submerged in fat and usually the same fat from the meat.  For example, a duck confit normally is made with duck fat.  I attempted to render my own pork fat down but instead ended up burning it so I had to go out and buy lard instead.

For this recipe you will need:

• 7- 3 inch by 3 inch pieces of uncured pork belly
• 2 lbs of lard
• 4 tb of kosher salt
• 2 tb of pepper
• 1 tb of 5 spice powder
• 6 sprigs of thyme
• 4 crushed and halved cloves of garlic

The first thing you are going to want to do is cut the pork belly into 3×3 pieces.  Do not trim up any of the pieces of fat (the fat in the background was a huge chunk of overhang fat that I used to try and render down).

Next we want to add the kosher salt, pepper, and 5 spice powder into a bowl.

Place the pork belly cubes in a container capable of allowing them to be on one layer.  Cover both sides with the rub, cover, and place in the refrigerator for atleast 24 hours.

After the 24 hours preheat the oven to 190 degrees and take the lard and over low heat reduce it to a liquid in an oven safe vessel that is large enough to hold all the pieces on one layer.  Add in the garlic and thyme.

Once all the lard has been melted down add the pork belly and make sure it is all submerged.  If you do not have enough lard do not panic just add canola oil to cover.  Slowly bring all the ingredients up to a gentle simmer.  Patience is the key.  Once a gentle simmer has been reached place the pot in the oven uncovered for 7 hours. 

After 7 hours remove from the oven.  Let it cool to room temperature and place the container into the fridge.  If you do not want to transfer the container to the fridge it is ok to transplate the confit to another container, just make sure they belly pieces stay submerged.  Let them sit for a couple of days before enjoying.  When you are ready to enjoy bring the container up to room temperature, remove a piece, and reheat.  The best way to reheat from what I have heard is by deep frying but more on that in a couple days.

 Of course I could not resist and had to sneek a piece as a snack and yes it is definately tasty.  Can’t wait to see what a couple days and a swim in the fryolator does to it. 

Tags: pork, All //