Spleen, and Pork Belly Rillons (together)

I happened across some fresh pork spleen at the co-op on Friday, and it looked really beautiful and was only $2. I have to say, offal is very affordable in addition to being good for you. I had no idea what to do with spleen so came home and searched my "The Whole Beast: Nose to Tail Eating" and "Odd Bits" cookbooks. Both had good options, but I went for the latter. (I will definitely try the former though, as soon as my sage comes in: Rolled Pig's Spleen with bacon and sage sounds great.)

Spleen rolls and 2 Rillons chunks!

It turns out the spleen is like a very mild liver, really soft and buttery on the inside and tastes more like chicken liver. It comes as one long organ with fat on the inside, and both cookbook recipes were suggesting a long/slow braise of rolled up spleen. McLagan of Odd Bits says her fave way to eat spleen is to cook as Rillons (rillons being chunks of pork belly caramelized on the outside, then cooked in seasoned fat until they are moist and tender on the inside). I happened to also have pork belly, and had tried the rillons recipe one other time but overcooked them. This time they came out perfectly: melt-in-your-mouth goodness. They are higher maintenance than my regular roasted pork belly (which I make at least once or twice a month), but definitely fancier. These would be great dinner party appetizers.

Rillons (with Pork Belly and Spleen)

Rillons before I added the spleen

2 1/4 lbs pork belly (or part pork belly part spleen)
1 T sea salt
2-4 T lard
4 cloves garlic, crushed
4 large sprigs thyme
1 fresh bay leaf
1 tsp smoked paprika
pinch cayenne
1/2 c white wine (or vermouth)
1/2 c water
Freshly ground black pepper

1. Cut the pork belly into equal large cubes about 2 1/2" by the thickness of the belly (about 12 pieces). Place them in a large bowl and sprinkle with salt. Toss together, cover, and refrigerate overnight. *If using spleen, salt the whole thing and refrigerate with belly.

2. Remove pork belly from refrigerator, pat pieces dry. (Spleen will not be browned and can stay in fridge for another hour or so.)
3. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
4. In a large, heavy frying pan melt 2 T of lard and brown the pieces of belly on all sides; they should get dark and caramelized. (A splatter screen helps here!)
5. Transfer the pieces to a casserole dish/dutch oven just big enough to hold them in a single layer (with room for spleen). Add garlic, thyme, bay leaf, paprika and cayenne. Strain the fat from the frying pan, leaving behind any debris, then pour it over the meat along with the wine and water. Season with pepper. Place in the oven and cook, uncovered, for 30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes.
6. Lower the oven temp to 300 degrees. Check the amount of cooking liquid in the pan: it should be about halfway up the pieces of belly; if it's not, add some of the remaining lard and a little more water if necessary. Cover and return to the oven to cook for another 2 hours until the pieces are very tender; stirring a couple of times. *If using spleen, it cooks for 60-75 minutes. When ready to add, pat spleen dry. Cut into 3-4 pieces crosswise, and roll each piece up, fat side in. Secure with a toothpick and set alongside belly.
7. The rillons can be eaten warm, or set them out to eat at room temp. Refrigerate for up to a week (and eat them on salad, or reheat in a frying pan.) For the spleen: slice each roll into thin slices and eat just like that, or on salad. Yum.

Pork Belly!

The rules for the Whole30 are no added sugar or sweeteners, including in foods you might otherwise eat. Like bacon, for example. So it has been almost 3 weeks of no bacon for me, which is a pretty long time since I am otherwise a bit bacon fiendish. Me and Brittany Griner = Bacon lovers. There is a company that makes sugar free bacon, but it is expensive and you have to order it online, and really, I was more curious about making pork belly.

Geez - Pork belly! I kind of can't believe that I waited so long to try it. It actually is not like bacon at all...I mean, bacon is made from pork belly, but pork belly roasted in the oven, with the skin all crispy and "crackling" and the fat beneath all melt-in-your-mouth creamy, is totally different. After making my pork belly, I later found this review of How to Make Perfect Crackling (and really I can't tell the difference between crackling and roasted pork belly - I think they are the same thing by a different name). I am not about to get all high maintenance because my belly turned out great, but it was an interesting comparison that is well written and funny about people's techniques to get the best crackling every time (one includes a hair dryer).

I got my pork belly from the Seward Co-op - it is shelved in the store, you don't need to get it at the meat counter. Actually, My Charming Companion bought it for me after I'd mentioned wanting some - so it was an exciting surprise to be gifted pork belly! It's about $7-8 a pound for the pastured pork.

I looked at The Clothes Makes the Girl for her recipe for pork belly, and also thought about a more Chinese spiced option. Both sound delicious, but I decided to go for a simple salt and pepper version as my initial entry point. I was not disappointed. I ate some right out of the oven with my lunch, and easily reheated some on subsequent mornings for breakfast. Oh it is just so good. And you get a lot of delicious pork fat/lard at the end! I keep using that to cook up other veggies and things, and it is amazing. More lard-like than bacon fat, but more smoky and creamy than lard too. I don't know, it is just plain good.

Making pork belly is pretty simple, but it takes some time (2 hours or so) and will likely get a bit smoky (part of the process is putting the belly into some hot heat to get the fat going and crisp up the crackling - which results in some smoke). My smoke detector went off so I had to remove the battery and open some windows. It seems unavoidable. Other recipes online reported open windows too, and some included stress about cleaning the oven afterwards. For whatever reason mine did not seem overly greasy. I don't know, I have never cleaned my oven. I've never even thought about it til now. Clearly I am not one of those people who might feel stressed about cleaning my oven after cooking pork belly.

2 lbs pork belly
1 T+ Smoked Maldon Salt (any salt would work, but Maldon is my fave)
Pepper

1. Remove the pork belly from its packaging and pat try with paper towel or tea towel or whatever you want to use. Turn belly so the fat side is up. Use a small sharp knife to "score" the fat: you want to cut just to the meat, but not into the meat. I did lots and lots of cuts all over, some people do a more precise cross hatch pattern. You are basically creating a way for the fat to bubble up to "baste" the top so that the crispy cracklings form. I also flipped the belly over and used a fork to puncture the meat side 6 or 8 times too. Next rub the salt all over the fat side of the belly.
2. Set belly in fridge, uncovered, for several hours. I stuck mine in overnight.
3. When you are ready to make the pork belly, preheat the oven to 425. I took my belly out of the fridge to bring it to room temp first, but I am not sure that it was necessary. Put the belly in the hot oven. After 30 minutes, reduce the heat to 350 and roast another hour or 90 minutes. Mine stayed in 90 minutes and it was perfect.
4. Remove belly and let sit for 10 minutes. Slice or cube, and eat! Pour off fat into jars and cool for amazing cooking fat uses.

I found two nice ways to reheat the belly: place slices in a cast iron pan and heat on the stove top, or put slices in the oven at 350 for 15 minutes or so. Both methods will release more fat from the belly and will crisp up a little more in that.