Getting Perfect Pork Crackling

[Kidbee]

If you search the internet there are lots of suggestions. Score the fat and rub it with salt; apply lemon juice; pre-dry the skin with a hair dryer; rub it with beer and salt; hot oven during the initial cooking phase.

What works for you?

[corbs]

I dry it off with paper towel then rub a cut lemon across it. I've found it needs to be from a cut lemon, the juice from a bottle didn't work for me.

We used to rub with olive oil and salt but had mixed results.

[maggs]

For me the secret is in the salt. Use a really coarse rock salt as this plays a major role in the result. I first give the pork a light rub of oil to help the rock salt stick then cook at 200 degrees C till the meat is done. A meat thermometer is essential to get it right. Don't be shy with the salt either. I end up putting on a good few table spoons of it.

If the meat is cooked before the crackle is perfect you can always use the microwave method. Remove the offending soft crackle from the meat and nuke it at full power for 30 seconds at a time until it's perfect.

Steve

[Trav]

I've worked on this for some time, but the answer is so simple. Buy your meat from the butcher where it's not wrapped in plastic, floating in a soup of its own juices. Then I score it, rub it with a little bit of salt and leave it uncovered in the fridge for a day or, preferably, two. The skin dries out nicely. I rub it with some vegetable oil (it cooks at a higher temp than olive oil) rub in a bit of salt (I use fine salt, but whatever floats your boat) then cook at 250 for the first 30 mins, dropping to 180 for the rest.

If you want something truly amazing, follow those steps, but cook at 150 for 4 hours or more at the end. Slow cooked meat is so much better than normal roasting it is not funny. Pork is no exception. I do this with pork belly when I can, with the meat side rubbed with a mixture of rosemary, fennel, garlic, olive oil and lemon rind. Delicious.

Trav

[snowyskiesau]

Pour some boiling water over the skin and then pat dry.
The water will heat the skin and open up the slits cut in it.
Add salt if desired.
20 minutes or so in a really hot oven to get it started.

[_fly_]

Pour some boiling water over the skin and then pat dry.
The water will heat the skin and open up the slits cut in it.
Add salt if desired.
20 minutes or so in a really hot oven to get it started.

Agree, 20 mins on the hottest you can get at the start then turn down to 180 for the rest.

If it doesn't come up enough or brittle enough.
a minute or 2 under the griller always gets it puffed up and brittle.

[doug3030]

I start out with a nice bit of leg pork and score the skin about half an inch wide right through the skin.

I cut some slits in the meat through the scoring slots and insert slivers of either ginger or garlic into the meat to add flavour.

I dry the skin with a paper towel then rub in some apple cider vinegar. I then grind some Himalayan mineral salt onto the skin while the vinegar is still damp.

I sit the meat on a roasting rack in a baking tray with some water in the bottom with some onion and garlic and whatever herbs I want to use for the gravy.

I put that straight into a hot oven, around 230 degrees. I remove the crackling once it is done, usually 25 to 40 minutes. It seems to vary with each individual piece so I tend to watch it closely until the crackle is done. I then remove the crackle and hide it, or there wont be any to go with the meal. Then I turn it down and let it cook at about 180 degrees and check the water level in the baking tray.

Once it is cooked, I place the meat on a plate and return it to the oven with the crackle and turn the oven off and let it sit while I make the gravy from the pan juices. This warms the crackle back up again.

It seems to be very popular.:2tsup:

[fubar]

Riiiiiiiiiight... Get 2 bits of cold gravel (four yorkshire men)


I use a shoulder of pork let it sit in fridge uncovered for 24 hours then make a stuffing of bacon onions sage rosemary thyme dried apricots salt pepper pork mince olive oil and an egg yolk to bind it together slather it on the inside roll and tie it up then I salt the skin and leave overnight in fridge cook the next day on a bed of onions cut in half for 1/2 hour at 260 reduce to 160 for 4-5 hours very crackly skin beautiful moist meat .


and you try and tell the yonguns of today that and they wont beleive you.

[fubar]

ta dahhhhhhh

[whitey56]

I heard the other day not to use cryovac pork if you want good crackling. I will never find out as I prefer lamb roasts.

[doug3030]

I heard the other day not to use cryovac pork if you want good crackling. I will never find out as I prefer lamb roasts.


Can you give me a tip on how to get the lamb to crackle? It never works as well as pork for me

Doug

[whitey56]

Hi Doug
I think crackle from lamb would be difficult seeing it has only fat and not skin like pork, I just oil and heavily salt mine for the taste I am after, you could rub Gravox into it also.

Regards
Whitey

[Robson Valley]

I haven't done a pork piece indoors in years.
Anything warmer than -10C is BBQ weather.
Best bark: after the dry rub, it has to sit for some juice to mix
with the rub.
Normally I run apple wood for smoke for the first 60-90 minutes.
Not too much but I want a good smoke ring.
Little stuff, maybe 3 hrs at 275F. Big = double the time.

Some like a spritz with apple cider and brown sugar, I can't be bothered.

These days I have gassers #1 & 14 at my GF's house,
#15, 16 & 17 are out at my place in the mountains.
I left 3 at the lake, my kids have a couple, the rest I burnt out
beyond rehab.

#16 will do 4 chickens and 4 racks of pork side ribs in each load.
Spuds, corn and whatever for the last hour.

[Drillit]

Well now. As the son of a butcher and long-time cook of all our Xmas fare (meats)
I have found that the only way that works is:
1. Ensure skin is dry. Paper towel is sufficient.
2. Rub with olive oil and salt. (I dont use lemon)
3. If you are doing say a leg or loin then ensure high heat to start with and then cut back.
What I do is cook it on the Weber with briquettes for about 45 mins. per kilo. Perfect outcome every time. Beautiful taste.
4. Do not cover with foil when cooked as this will soften the crackling.
5. I also buy extra pork skin. Same process as above - dry salt and olive oil only.
6. If using gas stove for the skin (only) I place on wire tray sitting above baking dish & I turn this up to about 220 for about 15-20 minutes and then cut back to about 180 for 10.
Works a treat. I have used this process for many years. (I think this also depends on how effective your stove is - electric may be a little different.)
Hope this helps. Drillit.

[Robson Valley]

Thanks, Drillit: something new to try.
I have 3 dry rubs for red meats but they are all beginning to taste much the same.

Another stunt that a Culinary Arts teaching chef suggested is/was to get the beef/pork all ready
then roll it in instant coffee then into the BBQ. Have not tried it.

[Chief Tiff]

For those who have a spit on the barby....


First select a straight grained length of hardwood around 1-1/2" square and 2' long. Turn down to a truncheon shape and finish with hard burnishing oil.


Buy a cheap rolled up supermarket godknows-what-bit-of-the-pig-this-came-from "joint".
Buy some extra pork rind.
Score all the skin really deeply, no wider than 1/2".
Shove the extra rind in amongst the netting to ensure that all the meat is covered. Add any stuffing you desire at this point also.
Let it sit in the fridge for a day at least, uncovered, to dry the skin out.

Thread it on the spit and throw on plenty of salt, if the skin is really dry spray it lightly with oil so the salt will stick. Cook on a high heat to crisp up the skin, then you may turn the heat down. The skin acts as a sort of 'shell", keeping most of the juices inside the meat and allowing slow tender cooking without drying out the meat; so if the meat is likely to be tough this works really well. If the meat is a better quality them just blast it from start to finish at a high heat until done.

When cooking has finished, allow the meat to rest for about 20 minutes before removing the spit and the netting. Keep all family members, house-guests and other undesirables OUT of the area by brandishing the truncheon and making threatening noises. Some of the crackling will just fall off, the rest will need to be gently cut away. Break it up into small pieces; at all times though you need to keep the truncheon within easy reach and don't allow yourself to be distracted. Serve alongside the sliced meat.

If you don't posses a woodlathe, them a cut down mattock handle will do. For those who are still in the honeymoon stage of their relationship and prefer not to perform acts of crackling related violence; explain to your other half that they may only 'sample" the crackling before dinner providing that they ask really really nicely.

Nude.

[Allan at Wallan]

Much the same as has already been mentioned.
I apply malt vinegar all over with a generous amount of
salt.

Like "Chief Tiff" I need a weapon nearby to ward off the
hungry peasants. Everyone claims to want "just a little bit"
of the crackling but they risk losing a finger when I am
wielding the carving knife.

Allan

[Greg Ward]

Tastiest pork is the forequarter, boned, always remove any plastic/other wrapping to leave naked skin
Salt is the key. But it is hard to get an even coverage as it clumps or falls off
Now.....The trick is to have the salt stay evenly on the skin during the cooking stage.
Oil may work, but is doesn't hold salt on the side of the pork roast well.
Not sure about the use of lemon? try and see I guess.

Dry, score, etc etc as everyone else says, then cover all the skin with a coating of margarine.

Sprinkle sale evenly onto the margarine. evenly all over all skin.
I use table salt, but course may work. again......try both to see what works for you
Bake high for 20 minutes or so, then lower temp to cook meat.
If not happy with cracking towards the end, 20 mins before serving, cut it from the meat leaving fat on the cracking ,to allow heat under the skin as well as the top.

Greg

[Qlander]

If you search the internet there are lots of suggestions. Score the fat and rub it with salt; apply lemon juice; pre-dry the skin with a hair dryer; rub it with beer and salt; hot oven during the initial cooking phase.

What works for you?
I make my pork in the Weber Q 200. Take it out of the fridge 2 hours before cooking to get the chill out of it. Cut the skin all the way through with a sharp knife in a nice pattern. For a 2.5 KG pork roast use a handful of salt and rub it in vigorously with a good lot of olive oil. Then spice it up to your liking. Preheat the Weber on high heat for at least 20 mins. then place the roast on a roasting trivet, close the lid and leave it for 25 mins. on high heat. This is for indirect roasting so you have to put a double layer of al-foil under the roasting trivet. Cut slots in the al foil so the fat can drip through.
After the 25 mins. you can have a quick look, then reduce the heat to somewhere between low and medium and continue roasting for another 90 mins. You will get lovely crackling !!!
This requires a bit of experience but after 2 or 3 roasts you should know how to refine the outcome. I have got it down to perfection and always enjoy beautiful roast pork with crackly.
I believe the high heat and lots of salt at the beginning are the main part. The other is temp. control.
Carl

[red750]

Something I've tried recently. Have done it twice with good results. Spray the skin with Canola Oil Spray and sprinkle with salt, then pop in the oven. Crackles up nicely.