Pork Belly Diagram

Whole the belly is one long piece with the skin on weighing about 12 pounds.
Pork belly diagram. When the skin is removed it s salted cured and smoked to make bacon. Above the loin is another section of fatback which can be used for making lard salt pork or added to sausage or ground pork. Pork belly is an inexpensive fatty cut of meat from the underside of the pig near the loin.
Most pork bellies go straight to processors to cure smoke and slice into bacon but fresh pork belly is widely used in asian recipes. For the best flavor it s typically best to select a whole pork belly with nearly equal amounts of fat and meat. The tenderloin is taken from the rear of the pork loin and baby back ribs come from the upper ribcage area of the loin.
Pork belly has the highest amount of fat of any primal pork cut though the majority are either good monosaturated fats or saturated fats which should be limited in a healthy diet pork belly is also a good source of protein vitamins and minerals. This part of the pig provides some very important products including spare ribs bacon and salt pork. Cover dish with foil.
People gravitate towards slow cooking pork belly mainly because of the fat not because the meat is especially tough by comparison. Fill baking dish with enough melted pork fat or lard to cover the pork belly by inch. Chart zooming allows you to change the scale level on the chart magnify the area shown.
Most of my bacon making is with belly so we get through quite a lot of it. The entire pork loin can be roasted or it can be cut into individual chops or cutlets. Bake at 300 f until tender about 4 hours for a 3 pound piece.
I cook it at 300 or 325 degrees says mylan. The process of butchering it to remove the ribs and prepare it for curing or roasting is quite simple and worth learning since. As a result i tend to buy it most of a belly at a time.