Do you hear that crunch?
That's what crispy pork belly is all about.
At the same time it is not easy to
achieve the perfect crunch. Some crunch breaks your teeth others are just
perfect and today we're gonna find out which one is best so you can replicate
it at home every single time. So let's do it!
Here we have four pieces of pork belly. The important thing is to have skin on.
I square them off to perfect size so they're easy to work with.
Whenever I'm choosing my pieces I always look for the one that has the most
amount of meat. You have to because there is enough fat already in every piece and
most of the time meat is what is missing. Our experiment is going to be very
simple one of them I'm gonna be calling the oven and the reason for that is
because I'm going to be using radiant heat to cook the skin, there will be
nothing special about it just the preparation. The other one I'm going to
be throwing hot oil on it this is a very popular method in Brazil and we're gonna
test it out. The following one will be dehydrated. As we know moisture is what
prevents the skin from being crispy so adding it to the dehydrator should be
real good. And the last one will be Chinese style. If you've never have
Chinese pork belly you don't know what you're missing. And we're gonna put all
of them against each other and find out which one is best.
My very first preparations will be the oven in the deep fried. I started by making
very small slashes on the meat side. These cuts are not deep their only
purpose is so that we can get more seasoning into them. Talking about
seasoning, today I'm using Guga's rub if you have not seen that video make
sure you check it out. This is a rub you can do it at home easily, it can be used
with all types of meat including fish pork and beef. The one thing to remember
is that it does not have a lot of salt for additional flavor just add more salt to it.
This is a meat tenderizer I'm gonna be using it to poke the skin and
the idea is to make tiny holes so that the moisture will be extracted from the
skin. Then I got a baking sheet and covered it with coarse sea salt.
I shook it to ensure you spread nicely. Then with skin side out
I threw in my pork belly, and again the reason for this is so that we can
extract every single moisture there is on the skin. Now that that's done all
there's left to do is leave it on my refrigerator overnight.
The very next day
once I pulled it out you can see the difference. The skin is much harder and
the salt did its job. If I move the salt around you can see how much moisture was
extracted from the skin. Once I cleaned it all up this is what they look like.
Now all there's left to do, one will be baked like in the oven style and the other one
I'm gonna be throwing some hot oil to crispen up the skin. The next one is the
dehydrated one after following the same exact process of the first two and
adding Guga's rub it is now ready for the dehydrator. I started my dehydrator
to 158 degrees Fahrenheit put in my pork belly and left it there for 12 hours. The
very next day I quickly removed it and this is what it looks like.
As you can hear from my knife it is very dry and that is what we're looking for.
Once I picked it up and felt it in my hand there's still some moisture but the
skin itself is like a rock. To dry out even more I put it in a cooling rack and
put it into my refrigerator overnight. The very last one will be Chinese style
and this might be the most complex of them all. Using my tenderizing tool I
started by poking a bunch of holes on the skin, then I threw into boiling water
for 10 minutes. Once the 10 minutes had elapsed I removed it and quickly threw
it into an ice bath. The goal is to bring the temperature
down as fast as possible. Once that's done you got to remove it
from the water and pat it dry and poke some more holes on it. The only thing
that you want to be careful when poking the hose is not to break the skin, if you
heat it with full power it will shred. That's not what you're looking for,
you're looking for tiny holes not huge ones. Then into a regular plate add some
white vinegar, add the pork belly skin side out and make sure you have some
weight to press it. I'm using my BBQ dragon steak press just make sure all
the skin is in contact with the vinegar. The next thing is to leave it uncovered
overnight in your refrigerator. The very next day you can see that the vinegar
slightly changed color then using fresh water you want to wash the skin as much
as you can. If you skip this step the skin will taste horrible the flavor of
the vinegar will overpower anything on the skin once you are done pat it dry
nicely and make sure there is zero moisture on it. Now once again leave it
overnight in your refrigerator so that it can dry out. The very next day is
ready for cooking and the first thing we need to do is poke a little bit more
holes. Using aluminum foil fold the edges and wrap it around the pork belly. The
important thing is to leave half an inch of clearance so that you can add salt. As
you can see I'm left with a little boat and that is what you're looking for.
Now there's left to do is to fill that entire top part with salt. You want to
avoid table salt, using any type of rock salt or coarse salt will work just fine.
But now that I have all my pork bellies ready to go I'm gonna be baking them in
my grill at 450 degrees Fahrenheit. After 2 hours I'm gonna be removing two of
them the Chinese salted crusted and the Brazilian oil style.
The dehydrated and the oven baked will remain in there. Once I removed the crust
from the Chinese one it will go right back in and the Brazilian fried oil will
get its treatment. But now I say it is enough talking and it's time to get some
amazing crispy pork bellies. So let's do it!
We have our beautiful pork bellies over here.
Are you ready Angel? Yeah let's go. Today is all about the crunch and we have four
different styles and I want to know which one is the best crunch.
Best crunch? Yeah it doesn't even matter if he knows what it is or not because
So hold on. Yeah. When we talk about best crunch I like when things are very
crunchy but not hard. That's the key of pork belly you just made a very good
point. You want a nice crunch but that goes through your bite directly.
Yeah I dont want something that
I'm like I'm getting a crunch but it's like yeah I'm breaking my tooth. It's hard no we
don't want that we want a nice soft crunch. I can tell you right now because
I cut all of them, they are all crunchy. But we're gonna judge the crunchiness
level and all that good stuff. Also if there's any off flavor. You ready? We're
judging chicharron. Chicharron basically. So we have right here this one
is the oven style all right, and then we have this one here which is deep-fried
in oils to give that crispness. And then we have this one here which was
dehydrated and we have the last one Chinese style okay.
You ready for it let's go for this one first Angel. Lets go. First one cheers everybody.
It''s very very crunchy obviously. This is good this is a good amount. Mm-hmm it
stays a little stuck on my teeth I don't know about you. Not at all?
Let me try another piece. Is the bottom crunchy?
It's crunchy. And it's like a soft crunch.
Yeah. It is not a hard crunch the bottom part still a little bit sticky
but very very small so the fat render nicely. This one is very nice everybody,
and the easiest one to make Angel. Which one is this, oven? Yeah
No not oven directly on the grill. Mm-hmm On to the next one. Mm-hmm the meat doesn't
really matter because I know the meats gonna taste great it's all about the
crunch, okay. Second one. Cheers!
hmm
Little bit harder crunch but it's still
not too hard you know. Yeah it's still the crunchiness is there but I think
surprisingly that this one here is better. What do you think?
They both, alright
I'm going with that one too. You're going this one right?
because the thing is this one is
just a little hard. It's a little harder and on the bottom part the fat that
rendered too much and it's still look it's still a little bit thick. You see
there? That gooeyness I hope you can see that through the camera that gooeyness
stay stuck on your teeth. Yeah. But it's not it's a nice soft crunch it's nice
and soft if the gooeyness is what I what gets me.
This one was an easier crunch. I agree 100%.
I've never seen anyone do anything like this one and you're so I'm excited for
this one. Let's go for this one. Just the crunchiness nothing else. I'm even
taking the meat out because I know that it's gonna taste amazing.
The meat tastes amazing!
I just want to say, this one, had a different taste than this one.
Yeah. Crunch wise. The oil no I
I guess so, but... The oil changed... I like this one more. The oil altered the flavor of this one
a little bit that's why. I'm really excited about this one I never seen
anything done anything like this before, dehydrated. Ready let's go cheers
everybody!
That's a different. Very different. Very different crunch.
Soft but hard how do I
explain that it's soft but a little harder than this one but it's nice.
It's not an all right these two have like that
I guess space in between. Yes perfect description it has air gaps in between.
This one is just solid, Yea this one is solid is like you're breaking up a chunk. Yeah.
This one is like when you crunch it it breaks apart...Don't get us wrong though
it's soft it's not it's like not soft it's a it's an easy crunch it's not like
break your teeth.
That's right. You agree? That's right. Yeah it's good these
It's a good crunch is different though. It is different very
very different. Different kind of crunch.
You see I can break it with my teeth.
No problem mmm that's nice.
It's a good one.
I enjoy that one. It's different. It
doesn't it doesn't have the feel of a chicharron. No. The last ones Chinese
right? Yeah so let's give this one a try I'm excited for this one right I don't
want the meat we're just gonna take the crunch. Crunch judgment you ready? Crunch.
Last one everybody. Cheers!
That one is delicious! That one is the combination of them
together because there's some air gap there is a little hardness what do you
think Angel? It has a nice flavor.
I like this one. I like this one bro. This one
has the most chicharron feeling to it. Yeah, oh, okay this one is the winner everybody
and our favorite overall. This one is really nice.
Ahhh
It's like a nice soft crunch with air pockets in between not so compressed like this
dehydrated one and it has the nice things about the very first one that we
enjoyed together with the flavor. This one goes a little bit of vinegar on top
Angel. Yeah, I tasted that a little bit but it's not that bad. No but it gives a nice
unique flavor on the vinegar. You know who would love this? Hummm?
The vinegar boy!
The preparation of the Chinese one takes a lot more time it is more work but it is better.
I guess it's, I guess it's worth it. It is worth it. Taste amazing. I mean they have been doing
this for years for a reason they know what's up. This is the best one second one
will be this one here. Yeah. Third one will probably be the dehydrator. No. No?
You go with this one here? I go this one this one here and the last one
dehydrated for you. It's just it doesn't have the chicharron. It needs something.
It needs that little like air, that gap in between. Yeah, the gap in between them, the air
pockets makes the crunch more enjoyable. Yeah. Yeah. And the flavor of the vinegar
did something here which is amazing everybody. The meat is freaking
delicious if you are wondering.
Come on! Anyway guys I hope you enjoyed this
video. If you do enjoyed this video make sure you give it a thumbs up. If you're
not a subscriber be sure to subscribe for future videos. Remember if you're
interested in anything I use everything is always on the description down below.
Thank you so much for watching and we'll see you guys on the next one take care
everybody. Bye bye.
See look they always say I don't like
green stuff I love green stuff. Oh come on. Come on that doesn't count!
It goes straight up dude. Oh man you. I like green stuff! I just don't like
all greens stuff you guys gotta judge me correct.
Thank you for watching guys!
we'll see you on the next one take care everybody bye bye!