Pork belly pastrami and pulled pork

[ponyo]

Today is beautiful Sunday. Perfect day to smoke some meat.

This 10 lb pork belly has been sitting in pastrami brine for the past 7 days.

Today I removed it from my garage fridge. I rinsed and vacuumed sealed one to freeze and use later and the other one I rubbed it with ground coriander, course black pepper, and some Montreal Steak seasoning.

While the smoker was coming up to temp, I went to Sprouts and picked up 12 lb pork butt to smoke. Pork butt is on sale this week at Sprouts for $0.99 /lb. I rushed home and rubbed the butt with some pork rub and placed it in the smoker.

About 30 minutes later, I added the cured pork belly to the smoker.

The smoker is humming along. I don't know what exact temperature it's cooking at and don't care. This WSM is old model so it doesn't have temperature thermometer. I could use my remote Maverick temp probe but most time I don't use it anymore unless I'm doing some kind of reverse sear cook. I go by feel now and I use Thermapen to check for final meat temp.

After 3 hours, I opened the lid for the first time and took a peek. Color looks good and everything seems to be coming along nicely. I'm going to give the belly another hour before I wrap it to steam finish in the oven. The butt probably has another 4-5 hours to go. But I'll wrap that too to finish faster once the bark sets.

 

[Mayne]

Looks pretty awesome. You don't want to see pics of the 20 pound pork roast I did in my oven yesterday.

 

[UglyCasanova]

Looks awesome

 

[Dr. Detroit]

Pork Butt at the local Sprouts is $1.49/lb this week - thank you silicon valley cost of living!

 

[ponyo]

Another hour passed and the belly looked ready to come off for its steam bath.

I placed the belly on the chicken rack and poured some hot water in the disposable aluminum pan. Then I covered it tight with foil and placed it in the oven set at 325 F. I'm thinking about 2 hours in the steam bath in the oven should do the trick but who knows. Smoking isn't exact science and it's done when it's done.

The pork butt is still in the smoker. I'm going to let that go another hour or two before I wrap. In the meantime, I'm relaxing and drinking some hot green tea.

 

[Mayne]

don't they hang pastrami for a couple years?

 

[ponyo]

Pork Butt at the local Sprouts is $1.49/lb this week - thank you silicon valley cost of living!

$1.49 is still great price. Beef rump roast is also on sale for $2.99 /lb this week. But I bought some two weeks ago for $2.88 /lb at Sprouts and made awesome roast beef.

 

[ponyo]

don't they hang pastrami for a couple years?

You're probably thinking something like salami. Pastrami is any corned meat that's smoked. Most pastrami you find in the US is made with corned beef brisket. But I like to use other meats just to experiment and keep it interesting. Since I make the pastrami brine myself, I can use any meat I want.

 

[Mayne]

sorry was thinking of Prosciutto

 

[Kaido]

sorry was thinking of Prosciutto

I just had my buddy's 8-month Prosciutto, it was pretty dang tasty! He built a system out of a dead fridge & a fan & some temp-monitoring stuff. He has an interesting little meat-curing group locally; apparently an aged prosciutto can go for like $500+. I think most of his go for 12-18 months now.

 

[Dr. Detroit]

apparently an aged prosciutto can go for like $500+.

That's a bit rich - https://www.costco.com/prosciutto-smoked-cured-meats.html

 

[Kaido]

Pork belly pastrami

Those are three words that I have never seen put together before. Dang. That sounds amazing!

 

[Kaido]

That's a bit rich - https://www.costco.com/prosciutto-smoked-cured-meats.html

Well yeah, you're talking about Costco stuff. Culatello alone can sell for $100 per pound. The world of ham & other aged meats is a crazy, crazy place:

https://www.tienda.com/products/reserva-jamon-iberico-de-bellota-fermin-jm-76.html

 

[ponyo]

So little after an hour in the steam bath, the pork belly pastrami was done. It read around 201 F and was probe tender. So I removed it from the oven to rest.

But I'm full right now. While I was waiting for the pastrami to finish cooking, my wife picked up some cold naegmyeon from korean restaurant. I wanted something light so she picked up three noodles. But my daughter didn't want any so my wife and I shared 3 bowl of cold noodles.

The pork butt was about ready for its wrap so I brought it in the house, covered it with foil, and placed it in the oven at 325 F. It should finish cooking in about 2 hours.

 

[UglyCasanova]

Damn man

 

[ponyo]

I tried the pork belly pastrami. It's awesome. It tastes sort of like ham but with that distinct pastrami taste. Which makes sense since ham is pork shoulder that's brined and then smoked. But you smoke a ham to 160 F so the meat is still sort of tough. The pork belly was smoked and steamed to 200 F+. If you ever had smoked pork belly that's cooked to 200 F+, you know how the pork belly is like soft like pulled pork and the meat just melts in your mouth. It's extremely rich in taste and silky smooth. I even pan fried the pieces I used for my pork belly pastrami sandwich and it was still so soft and velvety. It's like butter.

Small taste

white bread with mustard and pork belly pastrami slices

Everything is so soft.

 

[ponyo]

Wow, the pork butt finally finished. Total cook time for the pork butt was 11 hours! It's been long time since I had pork butt take more than 8 hours. But then again, I normally use one my kamados and not WSM for butts and briskets.

 

[Mayne]

why did I open this thread again

 

[Bubbleawsome]

Wow I’ve got cravings now