Part of the reason I put the Land of Plenty series to bed is because last week I received a bevy of new cookbooks, among them, the highly anticipated cookbook from Thomas Keller – Ad Hoc at Home. There’s been a lot of press surrounding this book launch, so there’s a good chance you’ve heard about it already. (WSJ article | New York Times | WSJ/AdHoc recipes)
Thomas Keller is the man; arguably the most heralded American chef of my time. You can read more about him here. His first cookbook, The French Laundry Cookbook, is extremely popular, though it’s notorious for being extremely complicated, requiring many advanced techniques, ingredients, and equipment which make many of the dishes very challenging to the home chef (The Dude rocked it though). Ad Hoc is Keller’s more casual, family style restaurant, so I think this cookbook has already been very popular due to its approachability.
Ad Hoc at Home features many of the dishes you may have grown up with, such as burgers, chicken and dumpling soup, or fried chicken, but there’s often a slight increase in the level of involvement. Keller’s notoriety for being extremely precise and detail-oriented shines through on each recipe. At first some of the steps may seem a bit over the top, or unnecessary, but so far I’ve really enjoyed it. Each step of a recipe has firm intent, I’ve already been taught a few techniques in a very approachable manner, and I connect with Keller’s “process”. I wouldn’t say the cookbook is “hard”, but it does require some time, planning, and if you’re like me, constant re-reading of the recipe throughout the process.
I prepared four of the recipes on Sunday evening, but there are tons of steps and photos of each, so I will start with just one – Pork Belly Confit, which I served as an appetizer.
The term confit gets tossed around quite a bit, though this is a true, traditional confit preparation. The pork is cooked in fat and can be submerged in the fat and preserved in the refrigerator for quite a long time.
To get going with this recipe, I first acquired my pork belly. I found out the hard way that Whole Foods Buckhead doesn’t carry it. I asked the butcher why they didn’t have it, he laughed and said, “we cater to Buckhead”. No fat back either. So I picked up a small piece from Star Provisions. It was much smaller than the 2.5lb slab recommended, but my ~ 1lb piece was plenty as an appetizer for four people.
The pork brines for about 12 hours before cooking. This was a cooked brine of rosemary, thyme, pepper, garlic, parsley, honey, and salt.
Submerged, ready to place in the fridge.
The next morning I set my alarm for 5AM, dragged my ass downstairs, then melted some lard and duck fat, submerged the pork, went back to sleep, and let the pork cook at 200F for five hours.
Eventually it looked like this.
Cross-section shot.
Then I poured the fat into a firm container, covered it with wrap, set a heavy can on it to press it, then it went into the fridge for six hours.
Here’s what it looked like once the fat set.
When I was ready to sear the pork, I took it out of the fat and cleaned it off fairly well.
I scored the fat side, then cut it into squares.
Then I seared the belly, fat side down, on low heat for 15 minutes. After that, it went into the oven for 10 minutes to warm through.
Finish with some salt (Australian pink salt from my momma)
Then we dug in.
Divine. With each bite, the fat melted and pressed into the flesh of the pork, creating a warm, and savory bite of the best pork belly I’ve had to date. This is the way fat was meant to be consumed.
I wasn’t sure if maybe I was just a little biased on how much I loved this dish due to the effort I put forth, but last night I was at an amazing restaurant in Charleston, I ordered a pork belly appetizer, and I’ve got to say, Keller’s pork belly confit was much better. More flavor, and the texture just didn’t compare.
Thanks to Broderick for these last few photos.
This was one of the Pinot’s we drank with the first few courses of the meal. It was fairly good Burgundy, for under $25 at Tower on Piedmont.
October 29th, 2009 at 11:19 am
Sweet. I made pork belly confit a couple of years ago with the recipe from Brian Polcyn’s “Charcuterie”. If I remember right the cure took several days and required pink salt (sodium nitrate) – hard to come by (poisonous). Well worth the effort.
I’d fry a slice and make a sandwich with fried eggs and grilled tomatoes. With good bread, it’s phenomenal.
October 29th, 2009 at 12:22 pm
Hot damn! That looks great. And having Atlanta’s best food photographer in the kitchen definitely makes for a good looking post.
Given my fascination with Pork Belly, I’m definitely going to have to try this one out. The only Thomas Keller cookbook I have is The French Laundry, and you are right….I usually pass on cooking anything out of there b/c it can be a daunting task with some expensive ingredients (see: Truffle potato chips).
October 29th, 2009 at 4:10 pm
That looks disgusting and is in no way appealing … please bring some freshly made examples over post haste as I will need to confirm this with extensive tasting and samplings.
October 29th, 2009 at 4:47 pm
Thomas’ first book was called “The French Laundry Cookbook,” not “French Laundry at Home.” The latter was the title of the blog Carol Blymire wrote when she cooked her way through the book a few years ago.
October 29th, 2009 at 11:24 pm
Allison – got that corrected. Thanks for pointing that out.
October 30th, 2009 at 8:20 am
Well done. Looks and sounds excellent.
Broderick was raving about it Wed night.
I need some. Do you deliver?
Finally got the AdHoc book yesterday.
Look forward to trying some things out.
Thanks for the shout out.
October 30th, 2009 at 2:28 pm
I think this is the beauty of Ad Hoc (just ordered my copy after browsing through it). It looks fancy and hard because some recipes are long with a lot of procedures but if you take it one step at a time you end up with a delicious, deceivingly simple dish. I guess the only downside was waking up at 5am in the morning haha.
Great shots by B, especially the action shot!
October 31st, 2009 at 1:55 pm
Impressive! I was looking forward to seeing the finished product after reading your tweets. I have to admit to being slightly intimidated by the process, but the pork belly looks and sounds delicious. I wouldn’t mind giving this recipe a go when I have a free weekend-I need to order a copy of this cookbook.
November 9th, 2009 at 12:19 pm
This is definitely “adultery pork porn”….like you stated!
I figure it would be great filling for a panini too?! YUM!!!
November 11th, 2009 at 9:38 pm
Wow, the cooking way of this Pork Belly Confit is great and the cooking pics are so clear that I can follow it easily, I’ll try it later and I hope it tastes delicious. Just one suggestion: If you add some cooking pictures it will be easier to follow!
May 21st, 2010 at 1:58 pm
Making this right now to serve on top of a mint and roasted tomato salad at tomorrow’s supper club. Thanks for the recipe walk through.
June 9th, 2010 at 10:03 am
I hope you,ve figured out by now that the best places to find pork belly in ATL are the Asian markets on Buford Hwy or, if you prefer all-natural Berkshire pork, Your Dekalb Farmers Market. Thanks for the commentary on the recipe.
June 9th, 2010 at 10:06 am
I hope you’ve figured out by now that the best places to find pork belly in ATL are the Asian markets on Buford Hwy or, if you prefer all-natural Berkshire pork, Your Dekalb Farmers Market. Thanks for the commentary on the recipe.
August 13th, 2010 at 6:18 pm
Which of the Asian Markets on Buford Highway do you recommend for finding good pork belly?
August 14th, 2010 at 1:23 pm
Winston – See Nick’s comment above, they are good suggestions.
If you feel like dropping some coin on a shipment, my last few buys have been from Caw Caw Creek Pig Farm – http://www.cawcawcreek.com/