Roast belly of pork

Obviously, crackling is everything.  But to acheive perfection, more important than any of the details in the recipe that follows is that you make friends with your butcher and persuade him to seek out and reserve for you the fattest pig belly at his market.  We are talking a good inch of fat, at the thickest point.  The other reason it must be a butchers to which you go, is that it simply won’t work to try and roast a small belly joint, such as those sold in the supermarket.  These smaller, and invariably leaner, joints are great braised with onions, cider and cloves.  But roasted?  Definitely not.  Use a Stanley knife for the scoring, even if you have to go and buy one specially.  No kitchen knife will do the job anywhere near as well.

This technique is a combination of an article written by Simon Hopkinson for Waitrose magazine, and advice given by Justin Aubrey, head chef at the newly opened Perseverance, in Shroton Street, Marylebone.

The pork is delicious served with dauphinoise potatoes, apple sauce, kale and gravy.  A gravy recipe is given below.  It is also superb party food, with floury buns and apple sauce being all you need to worry about.

Roast belly of pork

A large belly of pork (a fine size is half a side of belly), with a thick covering of fat; onions; carrots; celery; thyme; lemon juice; salt; pepper.

Score fully across the belly at 5mm intervals with a Stanley knife, cutting deep into the fat but not through to the meat.  Place the joint on an upturned colander in a sink, and empty a kettle full of boiling water over the joint to open up the scorings.  Leave to dry wrapped tightly in a tea towel in the fridge overnight, or if in a rush you can use a hairdryer.

To eat the pork in the evening, remove from the fridge first thing in the morning to allow it to come up to room temperature.  Salt the joint generously, rubbing into the scores, and leave for a few hours.

Create a ‘veg trivet’ in the base of a large roasting tray by peeling and quartering a few onions, carrots and celery sticks.  Add sprigs of thyme which will infuse the meat.  Pour in a tablespoon of vegetable oil and ensure the veg are coated.

Season the joint with pepper, and place on your veg trivet.  Massage some lemon juice onto the fat (all the recipes saying you need a perfectly dry skin are wrong) and place into the centre of a preheated oven at 140C.  The hot oven crackling phase comes afterwards...

After roughly four hours remove the joint and whack your oven up to maximum temperature.  Once it is up to temperature place the joint back into the oven and leave for 20 minutes.  Check at this stage for crackling formation.  You may need to turn the joint around to ensure even crackling formation without burning in the hottest part of the oven, like baking a cake.

Once you are happy with the crackling, and you must be bold in allowing it to form, remove and rest the joint on a board for 30 minutes.  I generally remove the crackling in one piece after resting to facilitate carving.  Season the meat with fine salt once carved.

Gravy

The veg of your trivet and around the joint will inevitably burn during cooking (although thinking about it you could potentially do the slow phase with the tray covered with foil to create steam but anyway), to be safe I like to make a separate gravy, if one is required, using this technique and a few strips of belly pork bought at the same time.  This is certainly a recipe to be carried out with one’s senses rather than to the letter!  But it’s easy really.

3 pork belly strips, 3 slices streaky bacon, butter, onion, carrot, celery, red wine, thyme, bay leaves, crabapple (or redcurrent) jelly

In a deep casserole (le creuset is ideal, non-stick is not), brown the bacon pieces in some butter, then add the belly slices in large cubes.  You can brown it over a flame or in the oven, but what you are looking for is to take the caramelisation of the meat, partly on the bottom of the pan, to the right stage.  Well browned but not burnt.  

Remove excess fat with a spoon or pour off, then add finely sliced onion, seasoning with salt and scraping up the browning residues, again taking the onion to a full stage of colour.  Add chopped carrot and celery and sweat again to sweeten.  Over a lower heat add a tablespoon of flour and stir together to cook the flour, before adding a large glass of red wine.  Simmer and reduce slightly before covering with water and adding a large bunch of thyme, two bay leaves and a tablespoon of jelly.  Skim off the inevitable scum that will form as you bring to a boil, then simmer slowly for at least one hour while the pork cooks.

Pour the whole lot into a colander over a clean pan.  Wash the solids with a glass of water, push down with a ladle then discard.  Season the liquid with pepper at this stage and reduce until the consistency is good.  Finish with a further splash of red wine to help the colour and freshness, taste and adjust for balance of flavours: saltiness, sweetness, acidity and concentration.