This is a perfect low stress recipe to feed crowd. In our family there is also a palpable sense of excitement when the smell indicates that we are having roast pork which of course means crackling!
We have tried a few different ways of doing it. Here's the river cafe 12 hour version
We cooked this the other evening for 12 people. Our joint was a bit bigger, more like 4.5kg and had been beautifully scored by our butcher.
This recipe requires three things really good meat, an accurate oven and faith. You gotta have faith.
The meat needs to be nice and dry and room temperature before you put it in the oven. If it's at all slimy you wont get good crackling. The same will be the case if it spends the first ten minutes in the oven taking the refrigerator chill off of it.
I've seen that some recipes say that you should take a hairdryer to the joint to make sure its really dry, not sure I will be doing that but might be interesting to try if your meat is at all wet.
On the oven front you need to have an oven that gets really hot, and I mean really hot. I some times start it at 250 and turn it to 230 as soon as I put the joint in so that it really gets going fast ... that first 30 mins is the key to the crackling. Then when you turn it down it really has to go that low, otherwise you are going to have cremated pork after 12 hours.
Then you just need to have faith that the combo of time and a low temperature will slowly melt the fat away and leave you with a joint that you can 'carve' with a couple of forks.
My only other tip is that you should either make sure that you dont leave any garlic and fennel seeds sitting on top of the skin because they will burn in the first 30 mins ... or even better, although a little messy, is to leave some of the mixture to rub into the cracks in the skin after the first 30 mins have passed.
We served this with a salsa verde, Ottolenghi roasted vegetables and broccoli with garlic, chilli and lemon zest.
The leftovers (if you have any) are great in a sandwich ... they also fry up beautifully.
The River Cafe recipe
We have tried a few different ways of doing it. Here's the river cafe 12 hour version
We cooked this the other evening for 12 people. Our joint was a bit bigger, more like 4.5kg and had been beautifully scored by our butcher.
This recipe requires three things really good meat, an accurate oven and faith. You gotta have faith.
The meat needs to be nice and dry and room temperature before you put it in the oven. If it's at all slimy you wont get good crackling. The same will be the case if it spends the first ten minutes in the oven taking the refrigerator chill off of it.
I've seen that some recipes say that you should take a hairdryer to the joint to make sure its really dry, not sure I will be doing that but might be interesting to try if your meat is at all wet.
On the oven front you need to have an oven that gets really hot, and I mean really hot. I some times start it at 250 and turn it to 230 as soon as I put the joint in so that it really gets going fast ... that first 30 mins is the key to the crackling. Then when you turn it down it really has to go that low, otherwise you are going to have cremated pork after 12 hours.
Then you just need to have faith that the combo of time and a low temperature will slowly melt the fat away and leave you with a joint that you can 'carve' with a couple of forks.
My only other tip is that you should either make sure that you dont leave any garlic and fennel seeds sitting on top of the skin because they will burn in the first 30 mins ... or even better, although a little messy, is to leave some of the mixture to rub into the cracks in the skin after the first 30 mins have passed.
We served this with a salsa verde, Ottolenghi roasted vegetables and broccoli with garlic, chilli and lemon zest.
The leftovers (if you have any) are great in a sandwich ... they also fry up beautifully.
The River Cafe recipe
Shoulder of
pork is the most suitable cut of pork for this long method of cooking, as the
meat is layered with fat which slowly melts away. Rogers and Gray cook it
overnight in the cooling wood oven.
Serves 8-10
Ingredients
1 small whole
shoulder of pork, with skin, about 2.75-3.25kg/6-7lb in weight
10 garlic
cloves, peeled
100g/4oz
fennel seeds
Maldon salt
and freshly ground black pepper
5-6 small
dried red chillies, crumbled
juice of 5
lemons
3 tablespoons
olive oil
Method
Preheat oven
to 450F/230C/Gas 8. Using a small, sharp knife, score the whole skin of the
shoulder with deep cuts about 5mm (14in) wide.
Smash the
garlic with the fennel seeds, then mix with salt, pepper and chilli to taste.
Rub and push this mixture into and over the skin and all the surfaces of the
meat. Place the shoulder on a rack in a roasting tin and roast for 30 minutes
or until the skin begins to crackle up, blister and brown. Turn the shoulder
and pour over half the lemon juice and two tablespoons of the oil. Turn the
oven down to 250F/120C/Gas 12, and leave the meat to roast, overnight or all
day (from eight to 24 hours). Turn the meat over occasionally and baste with
extra lemon juice and, if necessary, a little oil.
The shoulder
is ready when it is completely soft under the crisp skin. You can tell by
pushing with your finger: the meat will give way and might even fall off the
bone. Serve each person with some of the crisp skin and meat cut from different
parts of the shoulder. Add extra lemon juice to deglaze the pan, and spoon this
over.
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