Crispening up pork belly

I did some Sous Vide Pork Belly over the weekend, 24h hours at 70 degrees.

While the meat came up nice, tender and juicy, I had real problems crisping up the skin, despite searing it in a hot pan with oil.

After searing for 2 minutes and being dissatisfied with the crispiness, I even proceeded to broil it in an oven for 5 minutes, with still mediocre results.

Anyone have any ideas/tips on what went wrong?

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Brendan_Lee_56950

I usually freeze the portion when pressing after cooking. I then put it skin slide down in the pan over medium high heat and just leave it until it crisps to my liking, it'll thaw in the process but keep you from overcooking anything.

Thaddeus_37740

@Brendan Lee Yes I chilled and pressed the pork, then seared. However I may have made the mistake by chilling the pork belly skin side down, and when I took it out of the fridge, there was actually a thick layer of firmed up gelatin on the surface of the pork skin. I tried searing that, but with poor results, then I trimmed away the top layer of the fat, and seared again. It only got moderately crispy this time.

Brendan_Lee_56950

Yeah I always pat dry before pressing and chilling and then scrape it dry before searing again, don't be afraid if higher heat though you want to drive off as much moisture as possible.

Thaddeus_37740

@Brendan Yes thanks for the tips

In retrospect, I may have been too excited and eager in trying to press the pork belly that I'd forgotten to pat it dry and scrape out the excess moisture. I think that could have made a huge difference.