Month: January 2023

Heo Quay – Crispy Roasted Pig Belly

Written January 23, 2023, updated Jan 31, 2025

First attempt
Beautiful crispy skin, but overcooked

2nd attempt
Delicious but no crispy skin 🙁

What

Crispy-skinned roasted pork belly

Ingredients

2-3lb slab  Pork Belly

1 Tbsp  Garlic, minced or crushed

2 Tbsp  Shaoxing Wine

½ Tbsp  Hoisin Sauce

½ Tbsp  Oyster Sauce

¼ tsp  Salt

¼ tsp  Sugar

¼ tsp  Pepper

pinch – ⅛ tsp  5-Spice Powder

Kosher Salt/Vinegar

Time

20 minute Prep, 4 hours – Overnight Marinate, 1-2 hour Cook

Prep

  • Turn pork belly skin side down onto some paper towels
  • Cut vertical lines into the meat, making sure NOT to cut into the fat for the marinade
  • In a separate bowl, mix Soy Sauce (1 Tbsp), Garlic (3 cloves, crushed or minced), Salt, Sugar, Pepper (¼ tsp each), 5-Spice Powder (pinch – ⅛ tsp), Hoisin Sauce (½ Tbsp), Oyster Sauce (½ Tbsp), and Shaoxing Wine (2 Tbsp)

Optional: Before preparing meat, mix the Garlic (3 cloves, crushed) with Butter (2-3 Tbsp, softened or melted). If melted, then allow to solidify overnight in refrigerator, if softened, then mix together. This helps the mixture stick to the meat

  • Taste and alter if necessary (it should be more saucy than liquidy)
  • Rub the Spice Mixture into the meat, making sure NOT to get any on the skin
  • Place it meat side down into a baking dish or plate

Optional: Create a dish the size of your Pork slab out of Foil, folding up the sides to hold in the sauce close to the meat. Place a piece of Plastic Wrap inside of that, then place the meat and any sauces meat-side-down into it

  • Dry the skin with a towel (needs to be dry)

3 Choices:

Rub with a sprinkle of salt

Lightly brush on a salt/vinegar mix

Just dry it

  • Place UNCOVERED in the refrigerator 4 hours or overnight (preferable). The goal here is to get the skin super dry

Cooking Day

  • Preheat oven to 400F degrees Roast setting
  • Dry the skin
  • Line a baking sheet with foil
  • Place meat skin-side-down on the foil
  • Roast for 40ish minutes until internal temperature exceeds 160F (See NOTES)
  • Take it out, flip it over so skin is up

Optional: Dry it and then either prick tiny holes in the skin or score it – either way be careful NOT to cut past the skin and into the fat. Otherwise it will NOT get bubbly and crispy

  • Brush on a thin layer of vinegar/salt combo
  • Broil on High for 3-5 minutes until desired temperature/doneness (WARNING: This process produces a LOT of smoke. Recommend opening windows and creating a crosswind to prevent buildup)

Serve

  • Let sit for 15 minutes
  • Slice into little squares
  • Serve with rice or noodles

Notes

  • Part of the reason I’ve been unable to get a proper crackling exterior (apart from my mistakes) is because I realized that the skin has been removed on the pieces I buy. It’s just a fat pad

Temperature Guide (SOURCE)

  • 160-165°F – Fat begins rendering, meat starts becoming tender
  • 175°F – Fat rendered, meat is tender
  • 185°F – Fat mostly rendered, meat very tender
  • 195-205°F – Fat fully rendered, meat fall-apart tender

Apple Themed Smoked Ribs

Written: 1/2/2023

Notes for charcoal smoked St. Louis ribs with an apple theme pulling from a variety of online recipes and ideas

What

Charcoal-smoked St. Louis ribs

Ingredients

1 rack of St. Louis ribs, mustard, rice wine, soy sauce, apple juice, 1-2 apples, applewood chips, spices

Spices: coarse/Kosher salt, fresh-cracked peppercorn, brown sugar, garlic powder, onion powder, cumin, paprika, dill weed/pickle seasoning

Foil or peach paper

Time

Prep, Overnight, 3-5 hours in smoker

Steps

  • Combine the spices in a bowl: coarse salt, pepper, brown sugar, garlic powder, onion powder, cumin, paprika
  • Very important: remove the connective tissue lining the bone side of the ribs: Slide a butter knife under the film on a bone. Carefully wiggle until you can grasp the film and then pull. It should come right off cleanly.
  • Cut the rack into 2 if you want (you can also season them differently if desired)
  • Add soy sauce, rice wine, and mustard, spreading evenly on both sides
  • Rub the combined spices into the meat on both sides
  • Very lightly, sprinkle a hint of dill/pickle seasoning
  • Use plastic wrap to tightly bind the rack
  • Refrigerate overnight

Smoking day

  • Take the meat out and let it get to room temperature
  • Optionally, soak some applewood or pecan chips (there is plenty of argument about the functionality of this on the internet)
  • Prepare the smoker (my set up is quite involved, so it’s a good time killer)
  • Start the charcoal in the chimney starter (don’t use lighter fluid)
  • Finish prepping the thermometers, tongs, and workspace
  • Cut the fresh apples into pieces
  • When the charcoal is ready, pour it into the firebox and add a few chips and 1 or 2 apple slices. Yes, apple slices! (apple gives off this neato perfume when it burns)
  • Let the temperature get to be around 250F or so and put the ribs bone side down at the highest point (I’m using a vertical offset smoker)
  • Ribs can be smoked anywhere between 225F to 300F and they’ll still end up great. Faster cook at higher temps, slower at lower temps (duh.)
  • Note: When cooking with charcoal, bigger chunks are good for longer even burning, and smaller chunks give high heat faster. Adjust according to your cooking goals
  • About 30 minutes in and at 60 minutes throw in your wood chips and apple pieces. Remember that you can add smoke flavor, but you can’t take it away, so be wary of over-smoking your meat. I personally don’t like a lot of smoke flavor, so that’s it for the chips at this step for the rest of the cook.
  • About 1.5 to 2 hours in (depending on amount of meat), remove the ribs. They should have a nice bark on them at this point.
  • Brush on or spritz some apple juice all over the meat
  • Using peach paper (or foil), wrap the ribs
  • Place them back in the smoker
  • Add more charcoal to maintain the temperature and any remaining chips or apple pieces
  • After 1-2 hours, do the bounce/bend test: if you give the ribs a nice shake and they start to crack, then they’re done. If not, then brush on some more apple juice and let ’em keep cooking.
  • Good internal temp for the meat is, apparently, 180-200F
  • When they’re done, let the ribs sit for a little and then serve

What happened to me is that it was getting dark, the air temperature was rapidly dropping, and I didn’t want to start up another batch of charcoal, so I took them inside and put them in the convection toaster oven at 275 for an hour. The end product was really, quite good. I like subtle flavors, and this was subtle on every level: lightly sweet from the apple juice, perfect hint of smoke, no overpowering spices, a good bark crust despite the apple juice and peach paper. No need for BBQ sauce! The only thing that could have made it better was cooking at the higher temperatures the whole time (except I had other meats in there, too) and putting enough charcoal in there to achieve that.

I love apples!