Pork Belly's Popularity Continues to Rise

Eastern Europeans love pork and, frugal cooks as they are, nothing goes to waste -- heads, ears, feet, tails, innards, and the belly. What used to be considered scrap meat, relegated to enhancing the flavor of soup or cabbage, is now considered chi-chi and served in the hautest restaurants. Pork belly is running about $10 a pound, if you can find it, and you're paying mostly for fat. But, oh, that flavor. Yes, pork fat does rule, Emeril!

Chef Donald Link, chef Stephen Stryjewski and chef Warren Stephens, of Cochon (pig in French) Restaurant and Cochon Butcher in New Orleans, know their pork. Cochon receives whole pigs at its in-house butcher shop where blood puddings, sausages, smoked bacon, and head cheese, among other delights are created. The menu features braised pork belly, rabbit and other game meats. While pork belly is most frequently seen today as an appetizer, it can be eaten as a main course. Here is where pork belly, also known as the side, comes from.

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