make pork crackling like a boss

I absolutely love roast pork, for no other reason than crackling. However, over the years I’ve struggled to produce consistently good crackling when I cook it. Recently I came across a method that gets it right every time.

So here’s a step by step guide:

• Pre-heat your oven to the hottest temperature it’s got – turn it way up high.
• If the butcher hasn’t done it already, score the layer of skin and fat on the outside of the roast. Make sure these are relatively parallel – it helps to cut in the same direction as you are going to carve the meat.
• Then pour boiling water over the scored skin. I do this in a bowl and then roll the skin in the boiling water for a few seconds. This should open up the score lines you have made, nicely.
• Now, dry the skin with a paper towel. Try and remove as much of the moisture as possible. You want it to be super dry.
• Next, rub salt into the scored skin. Don’t be shy about this. I do this by pouring a whole lot of salt on a chopping board and then rolling the skin in it and then using my hands to rub it in.
• Drizzle a little olive oil over the top an make sure there’s a little olive oil in the pan – or if you have one, sit it on a rack above a pan.
• Put the roast in your hot as hell pre-heated oven for about 20 minutes.
• During this phase of cooking, open the oven every 5 minutes for a few seconds to let the accumulated moisture escape.
• After 20 minutes turn the oven down to a normal cooking temperature and cook the roast for the amount of time necessary to cook the meat. This might be a good time to put veggies in.
• Once cooked, remove from the oven, rest, carve, serve.

If you want to add a bit of zing to your pork roast, mush up a wettish paste of olive oil, garlic, fennel seeds and rosemary. Then push the mixture into the meat. Generally I use rolled roasts, so I push this through the middle of the roll.

That’s it. Great crackling every time.

Like. A. Boss.