The how to on making this meat candy
Get your smoker heated up to a steady 225 degrees.
Start with a good cut of pork belly. This becomes tricky to find in some areas, but always check with your local meat shop or the meat department at a grocery store. The butchers almost always have some in the back frozen.
Trim your pork belly to where there is a layer of fat on top measuring .25"-.50" thick. Make sure and trim any silverskin off the bottom of the cut on the meat side if any was left on there.
After trimming the belly, we are going to cut the belly into 1" cubes. I highly suggest a very sharp knife while you're doing this and the colder the cut of meat is, the easier it is going to be to cut.
Place these cubes in a large mixing bowl and drizzle with olive oil. I always glove up and mix them with my hand so that I can be gentle and not risk dislocating some of the fat from the meat.
Pull the bowl out and arrange them on mesh or wire racks that will fit in your smoker. I use some cheap ones from Walmart from back in the bbq section. They clean off easy and only come out to about $1 each.
Proximity on the rack doesn't matter as much as not having them overlapping. I always leave about a half inch in-between them on the rack. Take these out and place them on the smoker while they're still chilled from the fridge. This will help with the amount of smoke they absorb while on there.
Smoke for 3.5 hours at 225 degrees uninterrupted.
After that time marker, pull the burnt ends off and place them in an aluminum disposable pan. Drizzle with honey and sprinkle brown sugar across the top. After doing this it's completely up for debate. Some will top with a little butter and others will drizzle a bit of their favorite bbq sauce. I top ours with my favorite homemade Woo Pig BBQ sauce which I'll post a follow up on a recipe for that as well. A little sauce goes a long way and no need to mix it in. As it heats up it will slowly cover all burnt ends without leaving you with a large amount of liquid in the bottom.
Place on smoker for another 60-90 minutes at 225-250 degrees.
And that's it! Refrain from eating them all on the way from your smoker to where you're serving them.
Cheers and thanks for listening!!