Slow Roast Pork

[dkmaxx]

Mod. Edit - posts copied to start new thread

Hello there - I've just joined the forum - been cooking for 30 years - sometimes professionally (am at the moment), always at home and am hugely in love with gastronomy in all its glory.

Current obsession is Thai cuisine at home - but at work I'm using some of those techniques to make very British bar snacks for a local pub.

Slow-roast 3 hr belly pork with crackling, rested overnight then cubed, deep-fried with a cider apple dipping sauce.

D'you think I could cut the roasting time
and boil it with the same results?

Looking forward to exchanging ideas!

 

[Morning Glory]

Slow cooked belly pork - well why cut down on the roasting time? Its hands off, let it do its own thing! But please start a new thread about it if you want!

 

[Masticator]

Hi & Welcome!
Newbie here myself..

As to the pork, do you sous vide at the restaurant?
Experimenting here with SV.... find the HD freezer Ziplock bags leave a plastic taste (IMHO), so sticking with the HD vacuum bags.

Cheers!

 

[The Late Night Gourmet]

I can understand why you'd want to cut down the cook time, being in pub and all. You can cut the time down considerably by using a pressure cooker: the cook time is about 1/3 of what it would be otherwise, but I'd probably check at 40 minutes just to be sure you're not overcooking it.

To manage the crackling, you have 2 choices:

• Cut off the fat cap first, and crisp up under a broiler. The trapped moisture inside the pressure cooker won't allow it to crisp up
• Keep the fat on, and then put what remains under a broiler to crisp up

I'm skeptical that the second one would work, since I think the heat and the pressure would basically melt the fat off the pork belly.

 

[dkmaxx]

I can understand why you'd want to cut down the cook time, being in pub and all. You can cut the time down considerably by using a pressure cooker: the cook time is about 1/3 of what it would be otherwise, but I'd probably check at 40 minutes just to be sure you're not overcooking it.

To manage the crackling, you have 2 choices:

• Cut off the fat cap first, and crisp up under a broiler. The trapped moisture inside the pressure cooker won't allow it to crisp up
• Keep the fat on, and then put what remains under a broiler to crisp up

I'm skeptical that the second one would work, since I think the heat and the pressure would basically melt the fat off the pork belly.

Thanks for your reply. To be honest, time isn't so much of an issue since I'll be preparing the dish on a day when there's no lunch service.
I've always cooked it using the slow-roast method, let it cool down then chop it into cubes and deep-fry, but I've seen Chinese and Thai cooks on YouTube just boil the pork for about 30 mins and then dry and deep-fry and the results look pretty good.

 

[The Late Night Gourmet]

I've seen Chinese and Thai cooks on YouTube just boil the pork for about 30 mins and then dry and deep-fry and the results look pretty good.

It seems like that would boil away some of the flavor, whereas slow roasting or pressure cooking keeps it all in. But, having never tried boiling, I can't say for sure. But, there's only one way to know for sure: try it and then see what you think of the results!

 

[Morning Glory]

Thanks for your reply. To be honest, time isn't so much of an issue since I'll be preparing the dish on a day when there's no lunch service.
I've always cooked it using the slow-roast method, let it cool down then chop it into cubes and deep-fry, but I've seen Chinese and Thai cooks on YouTube just boil the pork for about 30 mins and then dry and deep-fry and the results look pretty good.

I've seen that method used as well - so perhaps it does work. I'll be interested to hear how it goes.

 

[Elawin]

Slow-roast 3 hr belly pork with crackling, rested overnight then cubed, deep-fried with a cider apple dipping sauce.

Only 3 hours?! James Martin recently had a pork dish on his TV show that had been cooking for 5 hours - I think it was shoulder, though, not belly. I have cooked lamb and beef joints overnight before now when all the family lived at home, but would not normally bother these days. Too many other dishes to try.

Seriously, though, I like my meat well cooked so it is nearly falling part. I can't use my pressure cooker on my new hob but often used to use it for stews where I found that cheaper cuts of meat did not seem to cook successfully on the hob, and I have cooked gammon joints overnight in my slow cooker.​

 

[Masticator]

....the sous vide thing might work..
Prep in portions, vac bag & sous vide anywhere from 3 -72 hrs (technically "pasteurized"), ice bath/chill immediately.
Take out & reheat/cook as needed.
Lot of restaurants doing it that way now
Entertaining "map" https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/a-map-of-sous-vide-cooking

 

[GadgetGuy]

I used to slow roast a whole fresh pork shoulder.

But now, I get it in slices so that I don't have to cook the whole thing at once.

 

[Francesca]

I have only prepared " Cochinillo Asado" ( suckling piglet roasted in oven ) the Authentic, Traditional Spanish way and it is amazingly wonderful ..

 

[ElizabethB]

@dkmaxx warm to the forum. Your experience will be appreciated.

Pork roast is a favorite especially for family holiday gatherings. I usually cook a shoulder roast rather than the belly. I do remove most of the fat cap, brown the roast then deglaze with wine, add more wine and cook in the oven @300 F for 3 0r 4 hours - depending on the size of the roast. I would probably call it braised rather than roasted.

 

[CraigC]

Most of my slow roasting of pork is usually butt or shoulder in my off-set smoker. I've also done some in the BGE. My only solo attempt at whole hog was done in a Caja China (Chinese Box).

This is as close as we can get to a "Pig in the Ground" in south Florida. If we actually tried doing it in the ground, we would hit water long before the pit was deep enough.

 

[ElizabethB]

@CraigC

The first time I saw a cooker like this was in the early 80's. It was a homemade cypress box lined with sheet metal with a coal tray on top. It was called a Cajun Microwave.

 

[CraigC]

@CraigC

The first time I saw a cooker like this was in the early 80's. It was a homemade cypress box lined with sheet metal with a coal tray on top. It was called a Cajun Microwave.

I've heard that term before and I've heard people talk about Caja China that were in the thousands of dollars, not the $200.00 one I used.