Pork Belly Confit Sandwich

I’m bringing gluttony back. And pork shall be my accomplice. Heady and emboldened by my previous duck confit success, I decided it was time to confit something even more decadent than duck — pork belly. It seems slightly absurd taking a cut of meat that is primarily fat and slowly cooking it in a bath of more fat, but this recipe creates one of the most succulent bites of meat you’ll ever eat. Absurd or not, it is delicious.

Pork belly confit, baby arugula, and heirloom tomato on homemade spent grain sourdough bread. Paired with a side of pickled carrots and Mission Street IPA.

My take on the humble BLT sandwich. Pork belly confit, baby arugula, and heirloom tomato on homemade spent grain sourdough bread. Paired with a side of pickled carrots and Mission Street IPA. The hop notes in the IPA complement the peppery arugula while the bitterness cuts through the fatty pork belly. At $6.99 and six-pack, Mission Street IPA, brewed by Firestone Walker and re-branded by Trader Joe’s, is a great value.

Note: The recipe for pork belly confit was adopted from Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn’s book Charcuterie. This book goes into great detail about confit, rendering fat, and the greater world of charcuterie.

Step 1 – Prepare Your Fat

One of the more difficult requirements of confit is collecting the large amount of fat needed to cook your protein in. While lard is readily available at many markets (look for ‘Manteca’) it tends to be highly processed and hydrogenated. Some butcher shops will sell their own house rendered lard, but it is just as easy to buy some pork fat back and render it yourself. The process is pretty basic. The fat back is diced and then slowly cooked with a bit of water until all of the moisture is cooked out and you’re left with pure melted fat. The liquid is then strained of solids and allowed to solidify. For this recipe I rendered out about 6 pounds of fat back for use in the confit.

Step 2 – Cure Your Pork Belly

Pork belly, salt, herbs, and a dry white wine.

Twenty-four hours before you’re ready to confit your pork belly, the meat is cured. To do this, a mixture of salt and herbs is rubbed over the meat, which is then submerged in a dry white wine and placed in the refrigerator for 24 hours. This infuses the meat with flavor and gives it a preservative quality should you decide to store the meat for future use. I used Jim Drohman’s Pork Belly Confit recipe found in Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn’s book Charcuterie. You can find an online version of the recipe here.

Step 3 – Confit the Pork Belly

The cubes of pork belly are submerged in a bath of pork fat and slowly cooked.

The cubes of pork belly are submerged in a bath of pork fat and slowly cooked.

After 24 hours of curing in the refrigerator, the pork is removed from the cure and patted dry. The meat is submerged in the melted lard and cooked at 250°F for 2-3 hours until the meat is completely tender. Once cooked, refrigerate the confit so that the fat solidifies and encases the meat. If fully sealed in fat, the meat should stay good for a couple months. When you’re ready to eat the confit, simply melt the fat off and then reheat in a frying pan until warm and crisp. Retain the lard which can be used again for other confits, biscuits, tortillas, eggs, or pretty much any other recipe calling for fat, oil, or shortening.

The pork belly is lightly sauteed in a skillet to crisp up the exterior. It is then sliced and placed on toasted spent grain sourdough bread with butter, tomato, and baby arugula.

The pork belly is lightly sauteed in a skillet to crisp up the exterior. It is then sliced and placed on toasted spent grain sourdough bread with butter, tomato, and baby arugula.

Vienna Lager Homebrew Review

Vienna Lager HomebrewIt’s been about six weeks since I’ve brewed my Vienna Lager — prime time to review this brew. This is the third or fourth time I’ve brewed a Vienna Lager, and I’m always excited when the time comes to tap a fresh keg. The recipe is primarily a blend of Munich, Pilsner, and Vienna malts. The goal is to create a clean and crisp malt-forward lager, while imbuing enough character to remain interesting. Getting the beer to finish relatively dry and low in alcohol helps to make this a great session beer. This beer is similar to what a beer like Negra Modelo or Dos Equis Amber could be if they were all-malt beers.

Fermentation went nearly perfectly with the beer starting at 1.052 and ending at 1.014 — approximately 73% apparent attenuation. The beer has been lagering at 32°F for the past 4 weeks and is ready for a taste.

Tasting Notes:

Judged as a BJCP Category 3A Vienna Lager

Aroma: (10/12)
The aroma is somewhat subdued, and very clean. There is a really nice round bready malt component that is very inviting and reminiscent of freshly baked bread. Intertwined are aromas of toasted biscuit and crusty sourdough. The is a light hint of sweetness that reminds me of golden colored caramel and provides a slight impression of sweetness.

Appearance: (2/3)
Rich amber with ruby red hues. The beer is clear, with just a hint of haze that should clear with a little more lagering time. The head is bright white, sticky, and persistent.

Flavor: (18/20)
The flavor is all about the interplay between toasty, dry, melonoiden-rich malt that finishes with a light touch of residual malt sweetness. There is no hop flavor that I can detect, but the bitterness is firm and clean, helping to keep the beer very balanced. To better fit the style, the beer could be a hair less bitter, otherwise it is nearly spot-on to style.

Mouth Feel: (4/5)
Medium-low bodied with a crisp and clean finish. There is a miniscule touch of astringency on the finish that provides further drying and slightly pushes it out of style.

Overall Impression: (8/10)
This is a beautiful beer to look at and consume. The balance is to the malt side, but it does so with a deft hand keeping it crisp, refreshing, and delicious. I will certainly be making this delicious recipe again.

Score: 43 / 50 (Excellent)

Spent Grain Sourdough Bread

Making bread from spent grain sounds like a it should be a natural extension of our homebrewing activities. It feels like a waste every time I empty my mash tun into a garbage sack and put it out on the curb. The Internet is chalked full of frugal and innovative homebrewers transforming their grains into edible concoctions. Unfortunately, of all the recipes I’ve tried, and breads I’ve been fed by others, I’ve yet to have one that has truly impressed me.

Spent grain sourdough loaf.

The main complication with using spent grain (malted barley) for bread making is directly related to the grain’s inherent properties and acceptability for bread production. Bakers tend to use wheat because of its high gluten content and lack of husk. Barley doesn’t possess these same attributes, making it a poor grain for bread production. This is exasperated by the fact that once we’re done with the mash, we’re left with primarily fibrous husk matter, very low in protein and nearly devoid of any sort of carbohydrates. The only way to make truely artisinal quality spent grain bread is to realize this nature and take into account the ingredient’s limitations when formulating a recipe. Instead of seeing spent grain as a primary ingredient, I like to think of it as an adjunct, bringing a depth of flavor and interesting twist to my loaves of bread. The recipe described in this article will create a slightly sour, nutty, light and airy, spent grain loaf.

The Sourdough Stater – AKA My “Barm”

Once fed, your sourdough starter should double in size. On the left was taken right after the barm was fed, the right was taken 24 hours later.

Once fed, your sourdough starter should double in size. The left photograph was taken right after the barm was fed, the right 24 hours later.

At the heart of any sourdough bread is a living starter. Sourdough starters contain a community of yeast and bacteria which are used to leven and acidify the bread. While you can buy a commercial sourdough starter from places like King Arthur Flour, I started mine from scratch using techniques found in Peter Reinhart’s – The Bread Baker’s Apprentice. Beginning with Reinhart’s methodology, I then supplemented the naturally occurring microbes found on flour with the dregs from a number of sour beers. I’m not sure the magnitude of this addition in the grand scheme of things, but I’m pretty happy with how my starter acidifies and levens bread. This is aided by the fact that I like to keep my starter at a relatively low-level of hydration (62% flour, 38% water) to encourage extra acidification. Two days before I’m ready to start building my dough, I make sure to feed my starter and ensure that it healthy and able to double itself in size without too much effort. With each feeding, I double the size of my starter. Starter health is very important; if I’ve allowed the starter to go dormant in the fridge for an extended period, I will typically feed it at least a couple of times over a week or two before using it to produce bread.

Preparing the Spent Grain

I grind my spent grain in a food processor to avoid and large chunks of husk feeling rough in the final bread.

I grind my spent grain in a food processor to avoid any large chunks of husk in the final bread.

I like to store my spent grain dry so that it is shelf-stable and I can have it on-hand for whenever I want to bake a loaf of bread. To do this, I spread my wet, spent grain out on a baking sheet and dry it in the oven at the lowest temperature my oven can keep — around 200° F. I frequently turn the grain so that it dries evenly. The grain will take on a bit of color during the drying process, which helps add another level of flavor to the bread. Be careful not to burn the grain as it will lend an unpleasant flavor to your bread.

Building the Dough

When making my spent grain sourdough bread, I utilize a 3-day build and bake regiment. The recipe below will produce a 3lb. 9oz boule-type loaf that comfortably cooks inside my 6-quart cast iron Dutch oven. This amount of dough can be split up into smaller loaves, if desired. Cast iron baking was popularized by the New York Times’ article on ‘No-Knead’ baking and works well in my undersized, weak oven. Ratios of ingredients and the breakdown of loaves can be modified by maintaining the ratios while scaling down the amounts of ingredients.

Day 1: Build a Firm Starter

The first step is to create a firm starter. I like to make this very dry in order to encourage as much acid production as possible. The dough produced will be very firm and almost Playdough-like. The dough will get loosened up in the next step of the build.

The firm starter before (left) and after (right) fermentation.

The firm starter before (left) and after (right) fermentation.

8 oz. – Sourdough Starter (Barm)
8 oz. – Bread Flour
1.5 oz. – Cold Water

Mix ingredients in a bowl until well combined. Cover and ferment at room temperature for 24 hours. Dough will grow, but may not double in size during this period.

Day 2: Produce Final Dough and Retard Overnight

On Day 2, I build the final dough. The ingredients are mixed, the loaf shaped into a boule and placed into a 6-quart cast iron Dutch oven and then everything is placed in the fridge for a cold, extended fermentation. The dough produced should be slightly tacky and barely pull away from the sides of the mixing bowl. The amount of flour and water may need to be adjusted depending on your kitchen’s humidity in order to achieve this consistency.

17.5 oz. – Firm Starter Produced on Day 1
22 oz. – Bread Flour
18 oz. – Cold Water
1 oz. – Dry Spent Grain – pulverized in a food processor.
5 tsp. – Kosher Salt

1. Incorporate ingredients in a mixing bowl.
2. Knead in a mixer with a bread hook for 5 minutes.
3. Let the dough rest for 5 minutes.
4. Knead in a mixer with a bread hook for another 5 minutes.
5. Shape bread into a boule and then place in a oiled cast iron Dutch oven.
6. Place covered Dutch oven into fridge for approximately 24 hours.

The dough is shaped into a boule (left image) and placed into the fridge. After 24 hours, it has grown in size (right image).

The dough is shaped into a boule (left image) and then placed into the fridge for a long slow fermentation. After 24 hours, it has grown in size (right image).

Day 3: Proof and Bake

The dough is allowed to continue fermentation and proof at room temperature. The loaf is scored just before baking.

The dough is allowed to continue fermentation and proof at room temperature. The loaf is scored just before baking.

Four to six hours before baking the bread, pull the dough from the fridge. The dough may have slightly expanded in size, but will likely not have doubled. Allow the dough to continue its fermentation at room temperature until it has doubled in size. The time this takes will vary based on the make-up and health of your sourdough starter. Once doubled in size, place the covered Dutch oven into your oven preheated to 500° F. Bake bread covered for approximately 30 minutes and then uncovered for an additional 25 minutes. My stove is very unreliable and weak so your bake time will likely vary considerably. Allow the bread to completely cool before slicing and enjoying.

The bread has a fairly tight crumb which is great for sandwich bread or toast. Increasing the level of hydration in the dough will create a lighter crumb with larger holes.

The bread has a fairly tight crumb which is great for sandwich bread or toast. Increasing the level of hydration in the dough will create a lighter crumb with larger holes.