Pork Belly?

Cooking secrets, tips, recipes and discussions featuring The Lakewood Observer's head chef, Chef Geoff (Jeff Endress), conversations about food, and restaurants.

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David Lay
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Re: Pork Belly?

Postby David Lay » Thu Sep 17, 2009 5:34 am

Zingerman's rocked - totally worth the trip to Ann Arbor. The food was amazing, and their customer service is seriously outstanding. A few photos:

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The line wrapped around the back of the building, but moved very quickly. They kept bringing out samples of tasty food to try (coffee, bread, sausage, etc) - plus looking through the extensive menu takes a while anyway!

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The view of the cheese counter. The breads (not in the photo) are off to the right. The building is from the early 1900s and very small, but they've managed to pack a ton of product in such a small space.

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La Quercia Prosciutto from Iowa. If you're a charcuterie fan like I am, you NEED to try La Quercia if you haven't already.

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The main event: Food, glorious food. On the left is the #2 Reuben, on the right is the #48 BInny's Brooklyn Reuben. Both include REAL Swiss cheese, Russian dressing that's made on-site, and served on bread made in their Bakehouse. You also get your choice of two pickles: Old, which is garlic-cured, and New, which is more crunchy and cucumbery. I asked for both, and I'm glad I did - both were very good, and tasted very different from each other.

Yes, they are a bit pricey, but considering they use the best ingredients they can find, and their superior (seriously, awesome) customer service, it's more than worth the cost.


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David Lay
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Re: Pork Belly?

Postby David Lay » Sat Sep 19, 2009 3:31 pm

It is seriously awesome. If you enjoy food like I do, you owe it to yourself to make the trip to Ann Arbor.


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Hank Trefethen
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Re: Pork Belly?

Postby Hank Trefethen » Sat Sep 26, 2009 7:16 pm

I picked up some pork belly at the market today. Rubbed it down and it's in the fridge now. I haven't Ruhlman's book yet but got this from instructables a couple weeks ago. Next sunday should be a good for the Trefethen Household:)


David Lay
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Re: Pork Belly?

Postby David Lay » Sat Sep 26, 2009 7:18 pm

Very cool! Let me know how it turns out!


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Hank Trefethen
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Re: Pork Belly?

Postby Hank Trefethen » Tue Sep 29, 2009 6:22 pm

A few days into it now and there is no salt to be seen…I'm guessing this isn't right. Can David can you shed a little light here? Should there still be a good amount of salt? Thiking I may just stuff the bag with more dry rub since all the cured meats i've seen are caked with salt.


David Lay
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Re: Pork Belly?

Postby David Lay » Wed Sep 30, 2009 6:10 am

According to this, the salt will disappear mostly into the meat.


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Hank Trefethen
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Re: Pork Belly?

Postby Hank Trefethen » Wed Sep 30, 2009 6:22 am

Shoot, I knda paniced and threw it in a proofing bucket with the rest of the dry rub. My copy of the ruhlman book comes in Thursday. Also a good thing that the pork belly was only a couple bucks. I'll post how it turns out this weekend. Thanks for the help!


Hank Trefethen
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Re: Pork Belly?

Postby Hank Trefethen » Mon Oct 05, 2009 10:33 pm

Well...it turned out way too salty but the weird thing is that the salt didn't kick in right away and before it kicked in tasted really good. I now have the book and am going to try it again this week.


David Lay
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Re: Pork Belly?

Postby David Lay » Mon Oct 26, 2009 1:29 pm

Here's a good 3-part series on making Homemade Bacon:

Part 1: http://www.5min.com/Video/How-to-Make-B ... 1-63230039

Part 2: http://www.5min.com/Video/How-to-Make-B ... 2-64756788

Part 3: http://www.5min.com/Video/How-to-Make-B ... 3-69237195

Seems super easy: Just Kosher salt, Brown Sugar, Maple Syrup.


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