Sunday lunch idea: Roast pork with crispy crackling
How to make roast pork with crackling that crackles beautifully when you eat it
Roast pork is a lovely Sunday lunch idea, especially if it has a crispy crackling.
Crispy crackling doesn’t just happen on its own – there’s a trick behind it. We’re happy to share the secret.
Follow these steps and impress your guests:
The secret of crispy crackling is to have the skin dry before cooking, so don’t oil it or baste it during cooking.
Use a sharp knife to cut all the way through the pork skin to make parallel lines, cutting some additional lines to those made by the butcher.
Rub salt into the skin.
Leave the pork out for about an hour, or leave it in the fridge overnight, uncovered, for the skin to dry out.
Set the oven to its highest setting.
Roast it in the centre of the oven for about 30 mins until the skin starts to crisp up, then reduce the oven temperature to 180°C and cook for a further two hours.
If the skin hasn’t formed crackling, turn the oven temperature up until it’s crisped.
Do not cook it for too long at the higher temperature or the meat may dry out.
Remove the meat from the oven.
Allow the pork to rest for about 10-15 minutes before carving.
Watch top chef Curtis Stone make crackling
Gravy to go with roast pork
Remove the roast pork from the pan in which you had roasted it.
Place the pan on the stove top and heat up the meat juices.
Stir 2 teaspoons flour into the meat juices.
Add 1 glass of dry cider or white wine.
Scrape all the juices from the bottom of the pan, reduced to a sticky glaze.
Add 500ml chicken or vegetable stock and stir well.
Strain the gravy through a sieve into a saucepan and boil until it’s reduced by one third.
Add 1 teaspoon butter, gently mixing it into your sauce once it has melted.
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