Slow Rosted BBQ Pork Belly & St Peter's Honey Porter

Since the weather's been getting a little warmer (at least here in Yorkshire), I thought I would have a little taste of summer? I got this recipe years ago from one of the best food blogs out there, An Endless Banquet. Over the years it’s become slightly modified, depending on taste at the time. Although easy to prepare, you do need to slow cook the belly pork to get the texture you need.
As with most barbecue, the recipe is a two stage process. Firstly, rub the pork with: 1 tbsp Salt, 1 tbsp sugar, 2 tbsp brown (or muscovado) sugar, a good grind of black pepper, 1 tbsp chilli powder, 4 tsp Paprika (smoked would be good) and 2 tbsp ground Cumin. Cover the meat and leave to marinate for an hour.

Preheat the oven to about 50c – very low. Pop the meat in there and leave well alone for at least three hours. After three hours, turn up the heat to around 175c and baste the meat with the following baste: 2 tbsp honey, a good dollop of Heinz Ketchup, a dash of tomato puree, a grind of black pepper, two squirts of Tabasco (or more, if you like) and three crushed, chopped and mashed garlic cloves. Baste the meat three or four times under the increased heat, and give them at least another 30-40 minutes like this. If actually barbecueing, this is where you would move the meat to the hotter part and really get some charred edges on it.



As you can see, it's a simple process that only follows the basics of Barbecue - controlling heat, sweet and spicy flavours, and underused cuts of meat like the majestic Pork Belly. Wha I like about this particular Barbecue marinade is the combination of sweetness with the black pepper and cumin, just under the baste. It makes for a slightly more interesting taste.

I plumped for St Peter's Honey Porter to wash this down with; it's a thick, smooth porter, and in my opinion is a little cloying on its own due to it having such a huge Honey aroma. But that just makes it perfect for pairing with sweet, faintly smoky meats like this. Lovers of sweet honey beers should give this a try.

Barbecue's a great food to drink beer with full stop, and almost any beer finds some partner in it. However, I can also reccommend Anchor Steam Beer and Holt's Maple Moon for recipes like this.