CURE PORK BELLY RECIPE RECIPES

Steps:

• In a spice grinder or mortar and pestle, peppercorns, cloves, allspice berries, juniper berries and hot red pepper flakes. Grind until coarse.
• Mix the spices with nutmeg, kosher salt and curing salt.
• Rub the spice and salt mixture all over a 10-pound piece of pork belly, with the skin. Peel and coarsely chop 1 head of garlic, combine it with 1/2 cup red wine, and rub this on the meat, too. The wine helps the salt find its way into the meat.
• Arrange a metal rack on a sheet pan with sides and place the meat on the rack, to allow airflow. Leave it in the refrigerator for a week. Turn it over daily and pour off any liquid. The tesa is ready when the salts have penetrated to the center, one to two weeks depending on how thick the belly is. Test after one week by tasting a thin slice from near an edge, crisped in a pan. Once cured, the tesa can be refrigerated, tightly wrapped, for a month, or frozen. Cook it as you would bacon or pancetta; it’s especially good as crisp lardons in a salad.

Steps:

• In a small pot, add rice cooking wine, soy sauce, ginger, bay leaves, star anises, Sichuan pepper, sugar and cinnamon barks. Bring all the content to a boiling and let it simmer for 2-3 minutes. Move from the heat and cool down completely.
• During this time, slice the pork belly into thin long strips and rinse to remove any dirt. Then dry it with kitchen paper. The meats should be as dry as possible. The water will spoil the pork belly. Place the strips in a air-tight bag. If you use a container, make sure the pork belly is completely soaked by marinating sauce otherwise you need to turn them over every day.
• When the soy sauce mixture is completely cooled down, stir in Chinese Baijiu. Pour the sauce in the bag to marinate the pork belly 3 days.
• Then prepare thick cotton lines and dull kitchen scissor, wrap the line over the scissor and pork through the pork belly around 1/3 from the top. Hang up for air-drying for 5-7 days. After 5-7 days air-frying, the rind becomes quite stiff while the inner side is still soft and white.
• How to keep: you can freeze them in air-tight bag up to 1 month.