Pork Help
About a week ago I was at my local Mexican market, which has amazing deals on meat. I came across this HUGE slab of pork; there was 10 lbs. of it for $9.00. All it says on the package is "pork sin hueso," which is pork without bones. It doesn't say where on the pig it comes from, but to me it looks like it may be a chunk of the belly because there's still a layer of what can only be described as fat or pig skin- or whatever- on a good majority of it.
Obviously, I don't cook a lot of meat.
I need help preparing it. I want it to be delicious and tender, but I don't know how to accomplish those goals as I mainly only eat chicken and fish and don't prepare much else in the protein department. Also, I want it to be killer with mashed potatoes.
Do I roast the whole thing low and slow? Do I sear it first? Do I do some kind of spice rub? What temp do I cook it at and for how long? How do I make it the most flavorful, tender, and succulent?
I'd like to make this thing for Friday's dinner, so any help or input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!
Add a comment:
Previewing your comment:
HTML Hints
Some HTML is OK: <a href="URL">link</a>, <strong>strong</strong>, <em>em</em>
Comment Guidelines
Post whatever you want, just keep it seriously about eats, seriously. We reserve the right to delete off-topic or inflammatory comments. Learn more at our Comment Policy page.
If you see something not so nice, please, report an inappropriate comment.
Start Talking!
Need a question answered? Have advice to share? Start a Talk topic now!
Sign up to get your questions answered and share advice.
6 Comments:
You can do many things with pork belly. Most of them will take some time.
Bacon and Pancetta come to mind first. You can also confit the belly. The book Charcuterie has an unbelievable pork confit recipe...basically dry rubbed pork fat, slowly cooked in fat and then deep fried. You can't beat that! This is certainly a low and slow project. Since you would never be able to consume 10 lbs (unless you are feeding many, many people...it will be pretty rich), why not try a couple of different applications?
derosa at 7:29AM on 05/19/09
Don't know how meaty your cut is, but I found this recipe and it looks pretty easy. http://www.leitesculinaria.com/recipes/cookbook/porchetta.html
This one has pictures and looks delicious http://cucinarebecca.blogspot.com/2006/05/slow-roasted-pork-belly.html
Let us know how it turns out. I've never made this, but would love to try.
And with 10 lbs of meat- you could have a great weekend party!
julie527 at 8:22AM on 05/19/09
If it were pork belly, the outer part would be marbled like bacon. You probably have some boston butt or picnic shoulder. You could make carnitas or pibil. I'm a big fan of pibil, but I'm also partial to this recipe from Tyler Florence: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/braised-pork-tacos-recipe/index.html
SqueezeBottle at 8:36AM on 05/19/09
It is most likely pork shoulder. Key is to marinate it as long as you can. I posted a recipe for pernil a while back when this site first started. You can definitely use the marinade for your pork. Remember that since you have no bone your meat will cook alot faster so make sure you have a thermometer ready. Here is the link:
http://www.seriouseats.com/talk/2007/01/pernil-recipe.html
nelson5757 at 9:24AM on 05/19/09
pretty sure no bone makes it cook slower, not faster.
the bone can help transfer heat to the interior of the meat.
at the same time, boneless have more tendency to dry out but the amount of fat in a shoulder of butt generally prevents that.
intheyearofthepig at 10:13AM on 05/19/09
you could always marinate it to help keep it from drying out too
gastronomeg at 10:44AM on 05/19/09