In The Centre # 10 | Wibbly pork belly
What to cook when your belly needs a shave (and at other times too)
This recipe post was meant to go out last Friday, but the task (and the week) ran away from me.
Largely because:
my 2024 cookbook roundup took a lot of time and brain space;
our drains were blocked, which also stole hours and energy; and
my planned topic got kiboshed.
Re (1), loads of you have read it already. But if you missed it, then do take a look.
Re (2) this isn’t something I’d normally note, but I’ll come back to it.
And as to (3) well, I’d bought a lovely slab of pork belly, and aimed to roll and cook it with an emphasis on demonstrating a foolproof method for perfect crackling. But having paid little attention to the joint at the butchers, once home found two thirds of the rind was unappetisingly hairy. Unable to return to the shop (see (1) and (2) above), I shaved and scorched and shaved again, yet the appearance remained akin to the 5 o’clock shadow of an extremely hirsute gorilla.
Properly golden, blistered and crunchy crackling is at least forty per cent of the joy of pork belly. So I was dejected by the prospect of needing to find another use for 2kg of pig (well, 1.65kg once I’d removed the stubbly rind).
So: sad.
To my mind, the other sixty per cent can be broken down into flavour (twenty per cent) and, when cooked slowly and gently enough, the surprisingly wibbly, cuttable with a spoon quality of the meat (forty per cent).
So I spent quite a bit of time working out by what means I should extract every last bit of the joy that remained.
One of my favourite recipes for wibbly pork is in Crave, where strips of pork belly are gently braised with white beans until both are soft, and then served under a roughly chopped kind of tapenade.
But that recipe’s in the book, so not one for now.
Another favourite one-potter of mine involves cider and leeks and other good things. However, my method’s coming to a Waitrose Food supplement in early January. So again, not right for this newsletter.
My wandering mind turned to Japanese braised pork belly (kakuni). Specifically that served at the restaurant Koya. Then to a not totally dissimilar Peranakan (Malay-Chinese) soy-braised dish. Then to the sweet-saltiness of Vietnamese coconut and fish sauce braised belly. All of which I love. But none are ‘my’ recipes to share.
And then it landed on the idea of braising large chunks of skinless belly in milk — as shoulder and loin often are in parts of Italy and Spain. I’d add hints of anise through fennel seeds, star anise, perhaps some cinnamon, orange zest and caramel too. And work on a way to ensure it could be served without apology for way the milk looks once cooked and curdled. Which, incidentally, reminds me of what I saw underneath our backed-up manhole cover (I did say I’d return to this).
The end result was ace. Not in any way a looker. Yet exactly what I’d hoped for — the pork soft, flavoursome and mightily satisfying.
I baked a whole onion squash alongside the meat as it braised (and this was excellent), and kept that and the other vegetables seasoned but otherwise very plain. Definitely necessary when paired with the richness of the pork and its sauce. Although I think I’ve also been influenced by the number of Yellow Bittern articles flying around.
Genuinely a keeper. I’ll be using it again and again. And not only when the rind holds little promise of crackling.
The recipe is detailed below for paid subscribers. Also a few links to my favourite recipes for the other uses of pork belly, mentioned above.
See you next time. Ed