The Texas BBQ Forum

We'll, it's been a while since I've seen any type of smoke rolling off of the deck, so today/tonight ( actually early morning as well ) I decided to do some Pork Belly Burnt Ends.
It's a first for me, but no way it's the last time. Grabbed a 6 lb Pork Belly from my butcher, trimmed a tiny bit of fat off but not too much.
Cubed it up, hit it with Sucklebusters Brisket Rub and then on the Akorn with Lump and a few chunks of Pecan & Apple.
Ran some tiny water pans under it with some Apple Juice and Water.
Let it go for 2 hrs at 220-230 then sprinkled Brown Sugar on top, drizzled some Natural Local Blueberry Honey across them and then some Butter Chunks.
Foiled them up and back on the Lump for another 2 hrs.
Made some finishing sauce with Guy Fieri Brown Sugar Sauce,Apple Juice, Frank's Red Hot and some pretty intense Apple Cider Cinnamon Jelly.
Simmered it for a few minutes, then tossed the PB chunks in it and back on the Akorn for another 20 minutes uncovered to set the sauce.

Everything caramelized like I was hoping.
These are now part of our monthly cook, that's for sure.

Thx for taking the time to look and read all my blah blah blah :):):)

Lawdy Poco Pal, I'm gonna really have to use my imagination on that toasted biscuit I'm fixin to have for breakfast.
Those look great and some day I'm gonna give them a try

Man oh man, I'm going to have to try that one day, looks great.

I just scratched my laptop screen with my teeth. Danged, those look scrumptious

I bet those melted in your mouth. Love pork belly burnt ends. Been too long, gonna have to then again soon.


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WOW! My mouth is watering looking at those!

Hey guys, Thanks for that.
Yeah, they were really good, only thing I'll do next time is trim a bit more of the fat cap off. I was worried about them being dry, but they weren't dry one bit.
Wasn't sure how the Peach/Apple wood chunks would go but it was a great combo.

What EVERYONE says! Whoahhhhh.....

They look awesome!

How do you like that Akorn? They’re on sale at Amazon today. Kinda tempting.

Dang Man!! Awesome.

Leave the fat on, perfect colours, great pics....again.

Russ

A magnificent mess

Sailor Kenshin wrote:What EVERYONE says! Whoahhhhh.....

Thank you Sailor, it's definitely a keeper.

BigThicketBBQ wrote:They look awesome!

How do you like that Akorn? They’re on sale at Amazon today. Kinda tempting.

Hi BigThicket,
Thx, I appreciate that.

As for the Akorn, I'm pretty honest when acknowledging the pros and cons with it.

The Pros :
Affordable, Efficient as can be, very versatile, built well for what it is made of ( double wall steel and Porcelain Coated )
Fantastic Pizza, Breads ,Soups , Q, etc etc

The Cons :
Minor OR major air leaks out of the box. Each one seems to need the quick fix of Nomex Gaskets.
After the gasket add on, the thing hums along at 225 pretty consistently all the way up to 700 degrees .

No cover in heavy rain = Water in the ash bowl... So get a cover.
I'm on 3.5 years and it sits outside 365 days a year under a cover and it still looks like it's not even a few months old. And I live in Northeast Pa on top of a mountain so we get harsh winter's.

So, is it built as good as the ( true ceramics ) ?
Without a doubt, NO.

But for under 250$ you can't go wrong.
I'm expecting to get maybe 6-8 years out of it but who knows.
All I do know is that once you get it ( Dialed in ), its a great cooker/smoker.

egghead wrote:Dang Man!! Awesome.

I appreciate that Egg. I surprised myself with the end results.