A reoccurring theme in bacon production is the difficulty of finding fresh belly/side meat.
Please post a location and vendor you know of who sells fresh Pork belly and the price., also comments on quality of product.
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Lawton, Fort Sill, Oklahoma, Commissary, $1.85/PP skin on., restricted to military ID card holders. Bellies varied in quality, some mighty thin and overly fatty.
Just picked up a 27lb belly a couple of weeks ago at a local place, Jaspermeats.com. Open to the public on Saturday mornings. $2.49/lb. skin on. Doing my first cold smoke as we speak. Coming up on 18 hrs. of smoke on a 3.5lb piece of belly.
If you have difficultly finding pork belly, check out the local Asian markets, they probably have pork belly.
Ben E. Keith sells Duroc Pork. Comes frozen but the quality was very good. Check out the food distributors if you can't find them.
Our local Asian market sells them but the quality isn't good. Very, very thin.
Our local Asian market sells them but the quality isn't good. Very, very thin.
From another thread:
Just a note on my recent experience. I found what look like decent bellies from Homestead Natural Meats in Iowa http://www.homesteadnaturalmeats.com/
They advertise skin-off pork belly, 9 - 11 lbs, at $69.99 with $9.99 flat-rate shipping (Fedex with dry ice, 2 days). Mine came frozen solid and weighed just about 14 lbs. That's about $5.70 a lb including shipping. Obviously their shipping weights vary, but I guess I got lucky!
Update: The belly was whole - I quartered it and vac packed and froze it for later use. Most of it was around 2 1/2 inches thick with lots of good marbleing. I'll update when I cook it - in this weather, the first cook may be braised and then pan fried.
Just a note on my recent experience. I found what look like decent bellies from Homestead Natural Meats in Iowa http://www.homesteadnaturalmeats.com/
They advertise skin-off pork belly, 9 - 11 lbs, at $69.99 with $9.99 flat-rate shipping (Fedex with dry ice, 2 days). Mine came frozen solid and weighed just about 14 lbs. That's about $5.70 a lb including shipping. Obviously their shipping weights vary, but I guess I got lucky!
Update: The belly was whole - I quartered it and vac packed and froze it for later use. Most of it was around 2 1/2 inches thick with lots of good marbleing. I'll update when I cook it - in this weather, the first cook may be braised and then pan fried.
Last week I purchased a Creekstone Duroc skinless 10 lb belly from Dole & Bailey...one of my Boston purveyors. Paid $4.63 @ lb. Very nice, uniform ratio of lean to fat.
Creekstone doesn't offer pork bellies on their online store but a call might get the job done.
Creekstone doesn't offer pork bellies on their online store but a call might get the job done.
quote:Originally posted by MaxQ:
Creekstone doesn't offer pork bellies on their online store but a call might get the job done.
Try the Food Service companies. I forgot to mention the ones I got from BEK were Creekstone.
Andy, was that ONE belly that was 27 pounds or two sides? I know my recent Tamworth we harvested was close to 500 pounds and her bellies weighted close to 20 each with the skin off: Tams are supposed to have the most bacon of any pig out there. Yours must have been massive, close to 750 or so. How thick was it?
That was one belly, skin on. They normally supply a lot of the local independent stores, but are open on Saturday mornings to the public. They had a huge barrel full of bellies. I had them cut it in quarters. Then I cut it down some more when I got it home.
It was between 1 1/4 and 1 3/4 inches thick. Also picked up several racks of loinbacks at $1.99/lb. Had to buy three racks minimum, I bought five.
It was between 1 1/4 and 1 3/4 inches thick. Also picked up several racks of loinbacks at $1.99/lb. Had to buy three racks minimum, I bought five.
Costco's in Warrenton, Or and Bellingham, Wa are now carrying sliced ($2.99/lb) and whole ($2.29/lb) pork belly. Skin off. You might check with your local Costco. They're pretty decent looking.