Pork belly

For the fictional town of Porkbelly, see Johnny Test.
Not to be confused with pork barrel.
Uncooked pork belly, with rind (skin)
Chinese braised pork belly

Pork belly is a boneless cut of fatty meat[1] from the belly of a pig. Pork belly is popular in Asian, European and North American cuisine.

A 100-gram (3.5oz) serving of pork belly typically has about 520 calories. The calorie breakdown is: 92% fat (53 g)(1.75oz), 0% (0 g) carbohydrates, and 8% (9 g)(.30oz) protein.[2]

Regional variations

This cut of meat is enormously popular in Chinese, Korean and Philippine cuisine.

China

In Chinese cuisine, pork belly (Chinese: 五花肉; pinyin: wǔhuāròu) is usually diced, browned then slowly braised with skin on, or sometimes marinated and cooked as a whole slab. Pork belly is used to make Slowly Braised Pork Belly (紅燒肉) or Dongpo pork (東坡肉) in China (Sweet and Sour Pork is made with pork fillet).

Colombia

In Colombian cuisine pork belly strips are fried and served as part of bandeja paisa (chicharrón).

France

In Alsatian cuisine, pork belly is used to make choucroute garnie.

Germany

In German cuisine, pork belly is used to make schlachtplatte.

Japan

In Okinawan cuisine, rafute is traditionally eaten for longevity.

Korea

Koreans cook Samgyeopsal on a grill with garlic, often accompanied by soju.

Philippines

In Philippine cuisine, pork belly (Filipino: liyempo) is marinated in a mixture of crushed garlic, vinegar, salt and pepper before being grilled. It is then served with soy sauce and vinegar (toyo’t suka) or vinegar with garlic (bawang at suka). Pork belly prepared this way is called inihaw in Filipino and sinugba in Cebuan.

Switzerland

In Swiss cuisine, pork belly is used to make the Berner Platte .

United States

In the United States, bacon is most often made from pork bellies. Uncured whole pork belly is a popular dish as well.

Pork belly futures

The pork belly futures contract became an icon of futures and commodities trading, frequently used as a placeholder name for commodities in general and appearing in several depictions of the arena in popular entertainment (such as the 1974 movie For Pete's Sake and the 1983 movie Trading Places). Inaugurated on August 18, 1961 on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), frozen pork belly futures were developed as a risk management device to meet the needs of meat packers who processed pork and had to contend with volatile hog prices, as well as price risks on processed products held in inventory. The futures contracts were useful in guiding inventories and establishing forward pricing. The unit of trading was 20 short tons (40,000 lb or 18,000 kg) of frozen, trimmed bellies. (Bellies typically weigh around 6 kg (13 lb).) Pork bellies can be kept in cold storage for an extended period of time, and generally it was the frozen bellies that were most actively traded. Spot prices vary depending on the amount of inventory in cold storage and the seasonal demand for bacon as well as the origin of the pork; in the past, the former drove the prices of the futures as well.

In more recent years pork belly futures' prominence declined; eventually they were among the least-traded contracts on the CME, and were delisted for trading on July 18, 2011.[3]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Smith et al "Factors Affecting Desirability of Bacon and Commercially-Processed Pork Bellies," J. Anim Sci. 1975. 41:54-65.
  2. ↑ "Pork Belly at Fat Secret". FatSecret. Retrieved 6 December 2011.
  3. ↑ Garner, Carley (January 13, 2010). "A Crash Course in Commodities". A Trader's First Book on Commodities. FT Press. Retrieved 6 December 2011.