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!
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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!
