Curing previously frozen pork belly?

[BriCan]

Drop the temperature to 40 F (4 C) and it should be fine.

40 F is IMMHO a tad too cold and damp for aging/maturing -- 48 F. is much better but as I said above 55 degrees F is fine just need good gentle air circulation

[wheels]

I agree with Brican - I do it in my air-drying fridge at about 12°C.

That said, I've also done it in a domestic fridge at <5°C with no humidity control, but wrapped loosely in parchment. It needs care ful watching though, and turning regularly, to avoid (bad) mould.

Phil

[johngaltsmotor]

Ok, next question: I've got limited access to an electric smoker. So the 4 hours per day for 3 days is out for this batch. If you guys had to do a single session cold smoking how long would you go?

[Swing Swang]

If your smoke is 'thin' then increase the smoking time to 10 hours. I generate very thin smoke and can do 10 times 10 hour smokes over two weeks with no off flavours. What I wouldn't do is try and speed things up by generating lots of thick smoke. If you can't have the smoker for as long as you'd like then you're better off living with a less smokey final product in my opinion.

[NCPaul]

I agree with Swing Swang. I routinely go that long.

[Shuswap]

If you look back at Brican's Mar 16 post (page 1 of this thread) the first photo shows that he used a bone in belly pulling the bones and leaving the associated meat on the belly. Clever eh!

[wheels]

You can buy rib-pullers specifically for this:

http://www.weschenfelder.co.uk/rib-puller.html

Phil

[onewheeler]

What's that rib-puller made of Phil, and how does it work? It looks like it's knitted in the Weschenfelder picture!

[johngaltsmotor]

Well turns out the smoker didn't have independent temp and smoke. So I'm going to use my smoker wroth the aluminum dryer vent to cold smoke for a second time tomorrow. Didn't get as much smoke today as hoped. Just more incentive to build a dedicated cold smoke house

[wheels]

What's that rib-puller made of Phil, and how does it work? It looks like it's knitted in the Weschenfelder picture!

I have one, it's a nylon loop on a plastic handle.

It would be easy enough to make similar with a chunk of wood.

In my experience, you still have to go most of the way to cutting the bones out. It's only the last bit that's done with the puller.

However, I'm not very strong, so others may be able to do it differently.

That said, it looks like Brican has cut down both sides of the bones before using the puller.
HTH

Phil

[wheels]

Well turns out the smoker didn't have independent temp and smoke. So I'm going to use my smoker wroth the aluminum dryer vent to cold smoke for a second time tomorrow. Didn't get as much smoke today as hoped. Just more incentive to build a dedicated cold smoke house

That's disappointing for you, but don't be too struck on lots of smoke. A little smoke for a long time is a lot better than a lot of smoke for a short time.

Phil

[johngaltsmotor]

Problem is the smoke was intermittent. To make smoke the controller needed a higher temp setting but we had to leave the door open so that it didn't actually get the meat warm. Out of 6 hours of smoking we got maybe 2.5 hours of actual light smoke.

[Shuswap]

What's that rib-puller made of Phil, and how does it work? It looks like it's knitted in the Weschenfelder picture!

Here's a video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1YmhrsTjI0

[onewheeler]

Thanks Phil & Shuswap. The video following that one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ze3JvHoI8v8&nohtml5=False has a beast of an electromechanical one. Impressive!

The manual one looks more like a device for separating the ribs cleanly than actually pulling them out, but handy anyway. I'll try making one, it's bacon time soon.

Martin/

[johngaltsmotor]

You guys make it look easy to filet the rind off after curing and smoking but I'm not so convinced... That is on tonight's agenda so I can toss them in the freezer to stiffen them up for slicing. But the rind seems just as flexible as the fat right now so getting a clean and easy cut might be a challenge. I think next time I'll pay the extra 10cents/pound to get them already skinned (and hopefully they don't remove too much of that glorious fat along with it...)