Perfect Roast Pork Crackling Recipes

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.

Steps:

• Thorougly defrost the joint the day before cooking. You can use a supermarket joint, which contrary to some opinions, works just perfectly. Make sure you unwrap it to defrost it, to discourage it from becoming too moist.
• If the skin has not been scored, do so with a sharp Stanley Knife in long strokes about 1cm or less apart all over the skin.
• Pour boiling water from a kettle all over the joint as it sits skin side up. This will cause the skin to contract and go pale. Once done, dry immediately with kitchen paper.
• Rub salt into the skin thoroughly, then wrap in a clean dry tea towell and put into the fridge overnight.
• In the morning, unwrap the meat (remember to put the tea towell directly into the wash) and rub the skin with a small amount of butter all over.
• Put the joint into a low oven at 160 deg C for 3 hours. I find this just right for a larger joint of around 2kg, however if you want to check if your meat is ready with a meat thermometer, the internal temperature should be 60-70 deg C.
• Take the joint out to rest, and immediately separate the crackling from the meat in one piece and put it onto a small baking tray. Tap the crackling with a fork, if it sounds like its not entirely crisp (and it usually isn't at this stage) pop the tray back into the oven and turn the temperature up to 200-220 deg C for 10-20 minutes until crisp.
• Use a sharp knife to cut the crackling into strips for serving. Lovely served as a traditional English roast with roast potatoes, baked apple wedges and vegetables.