Pork Belly using the Fredy Girardet method

I first saw this mentioned as a innovative way to cook fish in the Modernist Cuisine books: fish is placed in a pan with wine coming up most of the sides of the fish, with the skin exposed, and broiled -- the liquid keeps the flesh from overcooking while letting the skin brown. Could the same be done for pork belly? We came pretty close.

Some others have blogged about doing the original Fredy Giaradet method on fish, with mixed success. Cook's Illustrated came up with a fine technique involving slow-roasting to cook, then crisping the skin in a thin layer of hot fat in the November 2015 issue (pay wall). I figured I'd try marrying the techniques.

I cut the pork belly into 3 cm widths, then scored through the skin in about 1cm increments; these would be where I cut for service and plating. Scoring would expose the fat under the skin to the heat.

Per the Cook's Illustrated technique coated the meat with a sugar/salt mixture on the bottom and sides, leaving the skin alone. This was placed, unwrapped, in the fridge overnight to flavor the meat and dry the skin.

The next day, I carefully placed them in as small a skillet as would contain them, and filled it with an affordable, quaffable white wine until it just came below the fat/skin height. If I had copious cider, I would have used that instead, but we saved Irene's homemade cider to serve with dinner.

This was placed in the oven, with the skin a couple inches below the broiler to cook. It took a fair while: the wine heated, cooking the flesh. The intense heat of the broiler first dried the skin, then it started to brown, and finally it began to bubble as the fat boiled, crisping the skin. I had to add a bit more wine part way through since evaporation dropped the level to a point where it was exposing the flesh.

I took it out when it looked about crispy-bubbly enough; I should have probably left it in longer. The wine protected the meat from overcooking, but there was still a hard, chitinous edge to the skin that wasn't ideal -- longer cooking should have caused the fat to puff more of the skin, until it became one big crackling.

I sliced each pork belly slice through the cuts that we made at the outset, then fanned them out on the plate for service. We paired them with Brussels sprouts and turnips that we roasted in the oven below the pan with the pork belly -- good cool-weather dinner.

Irene said the wine was too acidic; again, if we made a big batch of cider (or found some reasonably priced stuff that wasn't sickly sweet) I'd use that instead.