MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
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Leg of pork on my bench. I want fantastic crackling. Give me your top tips.
No tips, but if you need any help with eating it...
(looks in empty freezer, then checks purse - also empty )
You're a bit late to start if you plan on cooking it today, as you should ideally remove, and dry the fat as best you can before starting. However, you should get something cripy if you score the fat (not all the way through to the meat) with a very sharp knife and rub salt onto the top.
Warm up the oven to it's highest temperature, bung in the meat, cook for 20 minutes, then turn the heat down (and open the oven door to cool it quickly) to a more sensible cooking temperature and finish off.
slash through the skin but not into the meat so that it's in strips but still on the joint. Tiny rub of veg oil to get salt to stick, generously salt, rubbing into cuts. Preheat oven to 'preposterous'(220 or more) and cook at that temp for the first 20-30 mins until the crackling is nice and blistered but not burnt. Finish cooking time at 160 ish. Remember to rest meat 15 mins before carving.
Lots of salt and olive oil and score as above.
Don't remove it, spoils the rest of the joint.
A clean stanley knife is the best thing for scoring.
Use cheap table salt to dry the skin and remove excess after it has done the job.
As above, get the oven as hot as you dare for the first twenty minutes then turn it down. You can even crack the door open until to drops to a more suitable roasting temp.
Score the crackling, pour boiling water over the joint, dry off and salt. Cook in preheated hot oven. Result - light, fluffy crackling - hmmmn
all the home economists i work with(food people who prepare food for Film/TV/Photography) use a hot oven and a pan of very hot goose fat that's near to smoking and baste it with that.
I really feel like pork crackling now. 🙁
Foolproof method always used at Casa BigJohn, never known to fail: Just cook it like you would any joint of meat - none of this fancy prep (apart from making sure it's been scored a bit) no drying, salting, sticking it in a stupidly high oven.
Just about half an hour before the meat is ready to take out, remove the crackling from the joint, scrape off the excess fat from the inner side (and scoff - yum yum) then put it back in the oven. I tend to lay it down with the roast potatoes and carrots, but you can put it with the pork if there isn't too much pan juice.
Take it out with the joint and let them both rest in a warm place for 20 mins.
It is the resting and cooling which really turns it crackly.
It's been in 30 minutes, it's scored, it's salted, there's a load of juice running out from where it's been scored and it smells amazing.
Still take the crackling off before the end though.
slashing and salting, that's your key...
Give it a good going over in lines with the stanley knife (plaster/gaffa tape remnants still on of course) and then salt it to high heaven.
Cook pork under foil, then about an hour before serving, remove fat from pork and give it the heat. 10 minutes or so from serving, get the pork back in from resting and serve.
It's a hearty attack on a plate, but it's good.
I am cooking Pork. Dry skin, well scored, hot first 20 mins, veg on in 45 mins
Yum yum
thread useless without pix
Stanley knife? WTF? Do you not have a sharp chef's knife to use?
Just about to take a crackling loin joint out to rest while I do the veg.
Many scores into the skin/salt, leave in the fridge overnight. Clean off salt & dry with the wife's hair-dryer for 1/2 hour.
Rub with goose fat then add salt & pepper to the top of the pork, place on a bed of sliced onions, into a 240 deg C oven for 30 minutes then drop to 180 deg C for 25 min per 500g.
If after that your not happy with the crackling you can take it off as a sheet & continue to cook it while the Pork rests in a warm place covered with foil.
I like mine with creamy mash, sprouts & baby carrots
Use the caramelised onions with some flour & Carrot water to make a rich gravy.
CaptainFlashheart - Member
Stanley knife? WTF? Do you not have a sharp chef's knife to use?
Stanley knife every time for Pork skin.
slainte ❗ rob
Stanley is the weapon of choice for scoring pork. Everytime.
Perfect for fine cuts that don't go too deep.
Score with stanley knife.
Pour kettle of boiling water over.
Dry with kitchen towel.
Sprinkle lots of salt.
Hot oven then turn down.
Perfect every time.
It's been in 30 minutes, it's scored, it's salted, there's a load of juice running out from where it's been scored and it smells amazing.
Posted 6 hours ago
In the absence of any more reports, do we assume it's still in the oven, and now, errrm, slightly more than crisp?
Stanley knife FTW - Nigel Slater says so it must be right.
Stanley is much easier to control depth of cut than a cook's knife, and a new stanley blade is sharper than a sharp cook's knife as the blades are disposable so don't need a sustainable edge.
Maybe he's had a heart attack? Should we call an ambulance or just ask the mods to delete this thread while we walk away?
Why are you all so interested in when Paulo puts his pork in and out and what he does afterwards?
is it done yet?
must be bloody crackly by now?
It was immense.
The crackling never made it to the table though, it was eaten long before then