• Course

    Main course

  • Category

    Classics,
    Meat

  • Cooking technique

    Indirect cooking,
    Smoking

  • Level

    Easy


  • Prep time

    15 minutes

  • Cook time

    250 minutes

  • Total

    265 minutes

  • Amount

    20 persons

Big green egg pork bellty

Please note: the indicated preparation time does not include 24 hours of brining.

If you want to give extra flavour to your pork belly, you could brine it or marinate it beforehand. In this pork belly recipe, the meat is brined, which enhances its natural flavour. Afterwards, the pork belly is slowly cooked on the Big Green Egg, and the addition of smoking wood gives it even more flavour.

You can do much more with your smoked pork belly than just use it in a starter or main course. Thin slices are very tasty with a fried egg, as a filling for flammkuchen or even just in a sandwich. You can also slice or dice the meat to make a small dish or combine with other ingredients.

INGREDIENTS

PORK BELLY

  • 1.5 kg piece of pork belly without rind
  • 100 ml maple syrup

BRINE

  • 100 g fine sea salt
  • 50 g sugar
  • 5 cloves of garlic
  • 4 sprigs of rosemary
  • 6 sprigs of thyme
  • 2 bay leaves

Salted and smoked pork belly

In advance

For the brine, heat around 200 ml of water and dissolve the sea salt and sugar in it. Pour this mixture into the Rectangular Drip Pan. Peel the garlic and finely slice the cloves. Add 1 litre of cold water to the Rectangular Drip Pan and add the garlic, rosemary, thyme and bay leaves. Let the brine liquid cool down completely and then put the pork belly in it. The meat must be completely immersed. Place it in the fridge and leave the pork belly to brine for 24 hours.

Method

  1. Ignite the charcoal in the Big Green Egg and heat to 110°C. Remove the pork belly from the fridge and let it drain, You don’t have to pat it dry.
  2. Lay a Hickory Wood Chunk on the smouldering charcoal and place the convEGGtor in the EGG. Place a Disposable Drip Pan on top and pour in 1 cm of water. Place the grid in the EGG and lay the pork belly on the grid, fatty side up. Close the lid of the EGG and allow the pork belly to cook for 75 minutes.
  3. Carefully remove the grid with the pork belly and the convEGGtor with the Drip Pan from the EGG and place a second chunk on the charcoal. Place everything back in and allow the pork belly to cook for 75 minutes. There’s no need to pour water into the Drip Pan.
  4. Carefully remove the grid with the pork belly and the convEGGtor with the Drip Pan from the EGG and place a third chunk on the charcoal. Put everything back and glaze the top of the pork belly with the maple syrup. Close the lid of the EGG and leave the pork belly to cook for about 1.5 hours until it has reached a core temperature of at least 70°C. Glaze the meat every half hour with the maple syrup. Use a probe thermometer to check the core temperature.
  5. Remove the pork belly from the EGG and make it into a dish or let it cool down and keep it covered in the refrigerator until using it.

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