Preparing pork belly: Odd barn yard flavor
This might be a very silly question, but I'm sort a pork newbie.
Anyway, I recently went to the butchers and bought a big slab of pork belly, to make crackling.
Immediately, I noticed it had a very "farm-y" smell. I rinsed the pork belly but the smell was still there, mostly in the skin. I prepared it by steam cooking it in the oven for about three or four hours. But the smell made it impossible to eat, as the barn yard stench permeated the entire pork belly. It was nothing like what I'm used to when eating pork belly in a restaurant for example.
My question then is: Did I screw something up in the preparation, or did I get a bad piece of meat or what happened?
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Let me chip in if you have not solved the problem. Try blanching in boiling water for a minute or two and see if it works.
Its hard to say without knowing more about this 'farm-y' smell you mention.
I would say though that steaming pork belly probably isn't the way to go. Its a fattier cut that benefits from roasting, this will help release a nicer, less 'farm-y' smell. Plus you get nice crisp crackling.
Here are some recipe links I can personally vouch for:
www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/oct/11/nigel-slater-recipes-pork-belly
Having raised hogs I can say that the actual feed can make a difference on the taste and smell of the finished product. Clean feed and a clean lot can make a difference. There is also a difference in hogs fed on an open lot (grassy) v.s. a confinement.
Corn blend with soy protein - one flavor. Alphalfa pellets, another flavor. Open lot with wild onions or other strong products, another. Wood lots (acorns etc) another. It depends on what is desired, as these also will impact the texture and fat content percentage.
just seen this, I know it's a few years on but better late than never.
The smell is probably testosterone because the pig was male over 60 kilos and had not been castrated.
I have had this exact experience with the last two pieces of pork belly I cooked: the first one reeked of what smelled like fertilizer immediately upon open the package, and if anything got worse after cooking. The second smelled fine at first, but by the time it was cooked had a faint version of the same awful smell. I don't think it's "barnyard" so much as chemical - some sort of nitrate?
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