Perfect Roast Pork Crackling Recipes

PERFECT ROAST PORK CRACKLING

Steps:

• Score pork skin, best to have your butcher do this.
• Place pork in colander and pour boiling water over to open the skin. Dry thoroughly and then place in fridge for 1-2 hours.
• Remove from fridge and rub with salt -- Then mix ground fennel seeds with olive oil and rub all over pork and into slits.
• The flavour is magnificent. Use your own judgement on cooking times, but a general suggestion is around 50 minutes per kilogram in a moderate to hot oven.

EASY ROAST PORK WITH PERFECT CRACKLING

Steps:

• Remove the pork from the fridge approximately 30 minutes before cooking (2 hours before you wish to serve the pork).
• Preheat your oven to 240C / 220C fan / gas mark 9 / 475F.
• Using a very sharp knife, score the rind with deep scores in a diamond pattern (or ask your butcher to do this), then pat the pork dry using kitchen paper.
• Sprinkle the salt and pepper over the rind of the pork and work it in to the cuts using your fingers.
• When the pork has been out of the fridge for 30 minutes, and the oven is at the correct temperature, place the pork on a rack in a roasting dish and put it into the oven for 30 minutes.
• After the pork has been in the oven for 30 minutes, turn the oven down to 200C / 180C fan / gas mark 6 / 400F and continue cooking for 50 minutes.
• Remove the pork from the oven and leave to rest for 10 minutes before carving.
• For ease of carving, remove the crackling first (it should pull away quite easily), then carve the pork into slices and cut up the crackling into chunks.
• Serve with Yorkshire puddings, roast potatoes or mashed potatoes, plus apple sauce, pork gravy and all your favourite roast dinner vegetables.
• To make a delicious gravy to go with the roast pork, simply mix 1 tablespoon of cornflower with a small splash of cold water in a jug until you have a thin paste.
• Add the hot chicken stock to the jug and stir to combine.
• Tip the contents of the jug into the roasting tray and stir gently to mix the stock with the pork juices and to release the stuck-on bits from the bottom of the pan.
• Tip the gravy through a sieve into a clean saucepan and gently heat until the gravy starts to bubble and thicken. Take off the heat when the gravy is your preferred thickness. (See note 2.)

PORK ROAST WITH CRISPY PORK CRACKLING

Steps:

• Dry skin: Pat the skin dry with paper towels. If time permits, leave in the fridge uncovered overnight (even 1 hr helps). If not, pat extra well.
• Preheat oven to 220°C/430°F (200°C fan).
• Season flesh: Sprinkle pork flesh with 1 1/2 tsp salt, all the pepper and all fennel seeds and 1 tbsp olive oil. Rub into flesh, right into all the crevices and cracks.
• Salt skin: Flip pork, drizzle skin with 1 tsp oil, then rub all over with fingers. Sprinkle all over with remaining 1 1/2 tsp salt, taking care to get even coverage. Un-salted patches will not become bubbly crackling, it will be a hard flat sheet.
• Garlic & onion bed: Place halved garlic bulbs and onion in roasting pan. Place pork skin side up on top of them.
• Wine: Carefully pour wine into the pan, being sure not to wet the skin. Transfer to oven.
• Lower oven: Immediately turn oven down to 160°C/320°F (140°C fan).
• Slow roast: Roast for 2 1/2 hours.
• Level at 1 1/2 hours: Check pork after 1 1/2 hours to see if the pork is warped and the skin's overall surface is significantly unlevelled. If so, adjust to make the skin surface as level as possible using balls of foil and moving large dislodged pork pieces to the side (key tip for crispy crackling, Note 3). Then return to oven for the remaining 1 hour.
• Check pan & salt on skin: If pan is drying out, add some water. If there are bald patches on the skin without salt (eg it fell off), spray lightly with oil spray (or brush lightly with oil) then sprinkle with salt. (Remember, salt = bubbly skin!)
• Increase heat: Turn oven up to 250°C/485°F (all oven types), or as high as it will go if your oven won't go this high.
• Make skin crisp: Return pork to oven for 30 minutes, rotating pan as needed, until skin is crisp and bubbly all over. If needed, use foil patches, secured with water soaked toothpicks, to cover parts that are done and keep crisping up remaining patches.
• Rest: Transfer pork to serving platter, tent loosely with foil (don't worry, crackling stays super-crisp) and rest for 20 minutes (stays warm up to 1 hour). Then slice using a serrated knife.
• Serve with gravy. Don't pour gravy over crackling - pour it off to the side! See note for reheating.