Roast Pork Joint with Crackling

Prep Time: 0:10
Cook Time: 2:15
Serves: 4

Ingredients / Shopping List

1. 4 kg Pork roasting joint (rolled shoulder or leg)

1 -2 tsp salt

2 - 4 tblsp oil

1 onions

Fresh sage stalk or sprigs of thyme

Prep to Cook:  Roasting tray, chopping board, veg knife

Prep: Pre-heat the oven to Gas 8 or Electric 220ºC

Remove the wrapping from the pork joint

Rub the skin with oil using your hands

Sprinkle with salt and rub over the skin

Cut the onion into slices leaving the skin in tact 

Lay the onion slices over the bottom of the roasting tray

Place the joint on top of the onions

Lay stalks of sage or thyme over the joint

Drizzle oil over the base of the roasting tin 

Put the joint into the oven without any covering

Allow 15 minutes

Reduce the temperature to 210ºC or Gas 7

Baste with oil twice during cooking

Cook for a further 1 - 2 hours depending on the weight of the joint.  Allow 35 minutes per half kilo plus 35 minutes to cook the joint.

Do not use the juices for gravy because they will be too salty

Check it out!

Roast crackling pork is comes from the culmination of a hot oven and patience.  Keep it simple by serving with crisp salad and jacket potatoes.  Nothing tastes better.

Roasting a large joint requires 35 minutes for 500g and 30 minutes over. Use a roasting thermometer if you have one to check the internal temperature

Recipe Science

Cooks Know How: Roasting is a very hot method of cooking using some fat to ‘baste’ or lubricate the meat joint.  The weight of the joint is crucial.  You must work out the cooking time and stick to it because the heat will take time to penetrate to the centre of a joint.  It is the heat that makes the meat safe and therefore cooking a joint basically requires you to know the amount of time it must be in the oven.  Meat shrinks when it is cooked and roasting is likely to make meat shrink a considerable amount, what looks like a big joint when it goes in will come out a lot smaller.  Getting to believe what you see will help you buy the right size joint for the number you want to feed.  In particular economy supermarket pork is a wet meat that shrinks considerably.  The ‘crackling’ is the skin of the pork joint and this is tough and is ‘scored’ or cut with a sharp butcher’s knife to help the heat melt the underlying fat and turn the skin crisp.  I have struggled in my time to achieve really crisp crackling.  I have tried pouring boiling water over the joint first as described by some chefs but in the end the heat and the time is the critical factor.  If all else fails I detach the skin after the cooking time has lapsed and carried on cooking the skin to achieve perfection.  The meat itself benefits from standing after cooking and before carving and will keep hot enough if wrapped in foil for at least 30 minutes.