Oven-baked pork belly is one of the most delicious meat dishes. The versatility of pork meat allows you to experiment with spices, herbs and various side dishes.
The brisket is one of the tastiest parts of pork meat. Thanks to layers of thin and quick-cooking fat, the brisket is juicy and quite soft. The brisket is usually prepared very quickly (the cooking time for conventional frying is 13-17 minutes, for baking in the oven 1 hour, for baking in foil - up to 1.5 hours). There are a lot of recipes for roasting pork in the oven, a large number refers to author's recipes, that is, it is invented independently by each chef. Of the most famous, one can single out the brisket baked in spicy herbs.
To prepare 2 servings of this dish, you will need the following ingredients: 1 kg of pork belly, 3-4 branches of fresh rosemary (or a sufficiently large amount of dried), 2-3 branches of thyme (thyme), 1 small head of garlic, salt and black pepper to taste … You don't need a lot of spices when cooking this dish, as they hide the natural taste of the meat. Rosemary and thyme are best cut very finely, but black pepper should be coarsely ground (it goes best with meat dishes).
The brisket should be thoroughly washed and dried. Pre-chop the garlic very finely or pass through a garlic press. The brisket must be cut into 3-4 small pieces (you can leave 1 large piece, however, the cooking time in this case will increase to 2.5 hours), salt, pepper and make small cuts 1-1.5 cm deep on top of each piece of meat. you will need to carefully insert the chopped garlic. Next, rub the pork with rosemary and thyme.
The oven should be preheated to a temperature of 180-200 ° C and then the meat should be placed there on a convenient flat baking sheet. After 20-25 minutes, after the brisket is golden brown, the oven temperature should be reduced to 150 ° C. At this temperature, the meat will cook for another 1.5-2 hours. Do not forget to regularly (every 15-20 minutes) water a piece of meat with melted fat. Thus, the meat becomes juicier, and in addition, a beautiful crispy crust with a salty taste is formed.
The low baking temperature allows the fat to melt and thus makes the meat juicy.
Immediately after cooking, the brisket should be transferred to a separate cutting board or a plate covered with foil or cling film so that it infuses a little. In general, it takes about 15 minutes and the brisket does not have time to cool down, but it becomes more fragrant and softer. After that, you can serve the meat with a side dish.
Boiled potatoes, mashed potatoes, various vegetable salads are well suited to brisket baked according to this recipe. One of the most successful options for a side dish for a baked brisket is a Greek salad. The ideal alcoholic drink for the dish is chilled red semi-sweet wine, from non-alcoholic berry fruit drinks with sourness (cranberry, lingonberry fruit drinks and juices) are well suited.
Oven brisket sauces can be either spicy (chili, tabasco, etc.) or berry sauces.
Meat of this kind can be served both hot and cold (as a snack) with mustard and traditional sauces.
