Compliments of the season all!!
I was thinking of getting this pork belly - 800g but I’m worried about the cooking temperature and timing.
Could any advice me on that for me to give it a try?
I’ve used this recipe before, which calls for 24 hours at 70 ºC.
The meat comes out very tender, melt-in-the-mouth texture.
Michi.
Depends entirely on the texture you want. I use 54C/130F for 48 hours for a lovely roast.
Thank you both for you great suggestions! Certainly would try it.
May I ask if it is possible to do it in a shorter timing? This is my first few cooks and thinking a 24 or 48h cook might be ambitious?
Also may I ask how do you figure about the timing for meats that you buy?
Thank you for your time again
You will need to read and experiment. It helps to know where on an animal the cut of meat you have comes from. With pork belly that’s fairly obvious, but with other cuts not always the case. The higher work the muscle the more connective tissue, the tougher but more flavoursome the meat and the longer it needs to cook to achieve tenderness.
There is no rule of thumb for long cooks other than conversion of collagen to gelatin takes time. Conversion takes longer at lower temperatures, but can be achieved. Most decide on a trade off between cooking temperature and time.
If you’re in a hurry for your pork belly you might be better off cooking it via traditional means and get something smaller for your first cook.