2 Weekends off to judge a couple of competitions and it’s back to it, it’s been a while since we had some Pork Belly.
Yes, 2 weekends, 2 very different competitions. Both were fun and full of great food (I will forever remember that cake) but today it was back into the swing of things and some pork belly.
I wanted to cook this one nice and slow (250F) so I started with removing the skin so I could cook this in the oven.
The belly also had a nice rack of ribs too so I set at removing those too so I could cook them seperately.
The belly looked amazing, today it was rubbed with Heath Riles BBQ Cherry Rub. I rubbed the ribs with Famous Dave’s Rib Rub (sweet with a hint of heat).
The smoker up to temp, both meat and ribs went on, plan for 4 hours cooking with a spritz of Apple juice once an hour or so. I also added Apple Wood and Cherry Wood chunks into the ash pan to fill bbq with smoke and a lovely smell in the air.
And it was an uneventful cook, everything went according to plan, the ribs came off about 10 mins before the belly (I did them unwrapped….they were an added bonus cook really) and I wrapped for nearly 2 hours in the end (our guests were delayed) but it just made the belly more gelatinous.
I thought there would be leftovers but no, we scoffed the lot.
I was a bit disappointed that the cherry rub didn’t shine. I really wanted a good hit of cherry but not this time.
The ribs, while a little dry, were very flavourful and a nice difference to the belly.
I will certainly return to belly before the year is out.
Next week though is pulled pork, and it will be cooking for 20-22 hours straight. I will be streaming on Twitch the entire cook (even if I’m not online the entire time) so join in if you wish
