Sous Vide Mustard and Molasses Pork Belly Strips
Speed - 95%
Simplicity - 97%
Tastiness - 98%
97%
Yummy!
Very tender, succulent, and flavorful pork belly strips! Will definitely be doing this recipe again!
Ingredients
- 500 Grams Pork Belly Strips
- 1/4 Cup Molasses
- 1/4 Cup Dijon Mustard
- 1/4 Cup Apple Cider Vinegar
- 1 Teaspoon Black Pepper
- Salt to taste
Instructions
- Combine molasses, mustard, vinegar and black pepper in a bowl.
- Marinate pork belly strips overnight.
- Put pork together with the marinade in a sous vide bag.
- Cook for 4 hours at 170F.
- Season pork with salt and finish off on the grill.
This pork belly recipe is delicious! It's like having bacon with all those familiar layers of lean meat and fat, only this time more substantial to the bite and of course more succulent. The prolonged cooking time that sous vide allowed resulted into well-flavored pork strips with a tenderness that could best be described as gelatinous.
First, the flavor base. Mix equal parts of mustard, molasses, and apple cider vinegar, creating enough marinade to get all your pork evenly coated. Add in some spices(I only used ground black pepper) that you fancy – some chili flakes would be excellent. Leave the salt out for now, to keep the pork from losing any moisture.
If you'll notice, this marinade has the same components you'll need to create a basic vinaigrette, less the oil. Hence it'll be very likely that your favorite recipe for dressing your salads may work well to marinate your pork too.
Some I would suggest would include balsamic vinegar and orange marmalade, red wine vinegar and caramelized onions, mirin and honey.
Get the pork in and let it marinate for at least four hours. . . better yet overnight. It'll be good to get them marinating in a resealable bag too so you can put them straight into the sous vide bath the following day.
Find pork belly too fatty? This marinade will also be excellent for pork chops, baby back ribs, spare ribs, even kabobs. In fact, it'll work amazing for chicken too!
Get the pork strips into your sous vide bag together with all of the marinade.
Cook them at 170F in between four and eight hours, affecting the texture as they go longer. I've tried doing a batch all the way up to 8 hours but it ended up too tender for my liking. I find 4 hours tender enough while retaining that feel of meat with each bite.
If you don't have an immersion circulator yet, you should pick one from my list of the best immersion circulators available online.
These pork belly strips will come out fully cooked and ready to serve out of the sous vide bath after the suggested time. If you have an extra minute or two, finish them up on the grill. Allowing all those sugars in the marinade to caramelize will intensify the flavors significantly aside from giving your dish those gorgeous grill marks.
Take the strips out of the bag, shaking off any excess marinade. Don't throw away all those cooking juices in the bag though. It'll make for a very good basting liquid or can be reduced over the stove to create a very intensely-flavored sauce.
Keep in mind too that we left the salt out in the marinade. This would be the time to season these pork strips.
Ingredients
- 500 Grams Pork Belly Strips
- 1/4 Cup Molasses
- 1/4 Cup Dijon Mustard
- 1/4 Cup Apple Cider Vinegar
- 1 Teaspoon Black Pepper
- Salt to taste
Instructions
- Combine molasses, mustard, vinegar and black pepper in a bowl.
- Marinate pork belly strips overnight.
- Put pork together with the marinade in a sous vide bag.
- Cook for 4 hours at 170F.
- Season pork with salt and finish off on the grill.
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