Pork Belly Pastrami

This is a really nice treat if your like me and have eaten many beef pastrami sandwiches. I do this for my restaurant but dont slice it thin. I generally cut it into big slabs of meaty goodness, score it like you would foie gras and sear it to order. You can follow any pastrami recipe you like so i wont right mine down here. Although i will tell you that i usually up the amount of pickling spice in the brine. 

First you want to start with good porkbelly. I'm not talking about the run of the mill skinny little bellies that look like they went on a fast before being slaughtered. I'm talking about  3 inch thick slabs of fat with a bit of meat marbling the interior.  I am currently using brookdale berkshire and i couldn't be happier with the end product. First you want to brine it for 7 days. I add pink salt to my brine to keep its nice colour, otherwise it ends up oxidizing way too quickly and

 the colour looks like crap when trying to serve it to a customer. After brining, i grind up equal parts black pepper and corriander seed and roll the bellies in this peppery goodness. I then hot smoke for a day and then chill the meat overnight. once chilled, i 'll take a hotel pan and put a rack on it with the bellies on top. I fill the container with water about an inch high and cover with saran wrap and then foil to lock in all that smokey goodness. I'll steam braise the bellies till nice and soft all the way through. It generally takes about 5 hours at 350 degrees. At this point its very very tender so let it cool before you try and slice it.