Danny’s slow roast belly of pork to die for recipe
Posted by Fiona Nevile in Pork Ham Bacon Sausages | 143 comments
Joint of pork belly with skin side down ready for slow roast
We have Sunday Lunch in the evening and Danny usually cooks it. If I have the day off, I can spend hours in the garden and totter in at dusk to a great meal. Perfect.
Last week he cooked the best pork that I have ever tasted. I had bought belly of pork from Fred Fitzpatrick on a whim.
Danny was polite and definitely suspicious when I showed him the thin joint. Belly of pork is a slim, boy racer sort of cut. A rib of small bones and meat that appears to be stingy. Wrong. BOP has loads of meat.
I was working last weekend and arrived home to tantalising smells drifting from the oven.
“I found a great recipe. But didn’t have the ingredients so made up my own and experimented with a new method,” D explained, as he sliced the delicious meat.
The pork had a deep, mellow flavour and the crackling was truly superb. The skin and fat both took starring roles. Proper crackling underpinned by a sparkling melt in the mouth layer beneath. I was not eating ‘fat’ but gently roasted, bite sized pieces of heaven that had transmogrified in the long slow cooking process into something with texture and flavour. I would kill for a decent pork scratching. Danny’s home made version impressed me and after the first forkful of meat I reeled with applause and, I hate to admit it, envy.
Edit Oct 2015: Getting the crackling good and crispy can be a hit and miss affair. Every oven is different. See Sue’s comment below. If it’s rubbery, you can pop it under a low grill for 5 minutes or more but be careful not to let it blacken and burn. I guess it’s best to play safe and score it, and rub on salt and oil in the traditional manner.
Do also consider serving this perfect Yorkshire pudding recipe with this or any roast.
| Danny’s slow roast belly of pork to die for recipe |
- I kilo joint of belly of pork
- 10 leaves off a sprig of rosemary
- 3 small cloves of garlic sliced
- Foil big enough to form a nest under and around the joint
- Place the pork, crackling side down, in roasting pan. Distribute the rosemary and garlic evenly over the base of the belly. Take the foil and press it over the belly to make sure that the herbs will not shift.
- Turn the whole lot over, crackling side up, and form the foil into a snug nest around the joint, leaving the crackling exposed and ensuring that the fat from the crackling will drip into the foil nest.
- Roast at 140c (fan) for 3 hours and then turn down to 130c for another hour (4 hours!) – these are our fan-assisted oven temperatures so you may wish to adjust for a conventional oven, but not by much I think. Maybe +10% maximum.
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Hi Dan
A pleasure to let you have the recipes, here they are
Puy Lentils with chorizo (for two as a main or four as a side)
Tin of Puy Lentils (you can cook from dried if you fancy)
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp sherry vinegar
chorizo cooking sausage
150g sliced grilled peppers (i use the ones in oil)
100g crumbled goat’s cheese (optional)
In a pan, gently warm the lentils with the olive oil and sherry vinegar.
Whilst they are warming slice and fry the chorizo in another pan, I’m greedy and like using two sausages even when the main was the pork belly.
Stir the chorizo and peppers through warmed lentils. Top with some crumbly goats cheese if you fancy.
Rosemary new potatoes (for four as a side dish)
500g new potatoes (small if you can get them)
2 tbsp light olive oil
a few rosemary sprigs
Preheat oven to 230c, heat roasting tin in oven for 10 minutes. Coat potatoes in 1 tbsp of oil, tip into hot tin and roast for 20 minutes.
Remove the potatoes drizzle over the left over oil add the rosemary and sprinkle with sea salt. Return to oven for another 10-15 minutes until crispy and golden brown.
When I cooked these with the pork I started them off at 3 hours for the first 20 minutes and then returned them to the oven whilst the pork was resting for their last blast of heat.
Hope you like them
Omygawd, Gail, you achieved something that I have always longed to do! Go For It, I always say, and you certainly did 🙂 Good for you.
Richard – congrats on what sounds like the perfect prep and method, and a delicious meal. Thanks for coming back here and sharing. Any chance that you might let us know your recipe for the puy lentil sides and your rosemary new potatoes?
Hi Happy Smallholders
Made this tonight, it didn’t even make it to the plate. Ate it with your apple sauce standing over the carving board. Got to go and clean up now, greasy chins do not a domestic goddess make.
Hi Richard
That sounds like an amazing meal – love the idea of the hot lentil salad!
Rilletes have Dany weeping for joy. Hadn’t thought of making them from leftover belly of pork though – great idea.
Try our latest bacon recipe (they tend to improve as we get more experienced.)
Hay Danny,
Hangover just about cleared now so am ready to report back.
To start off 4kg of belly is big, it filled my oven. Apart from that shock all went fantastically. I split the meat into two 2kg slabs so it would fit into my roasting dishes. The only issue I had was that the moisture given off by the joint caused the crackling to lag behind but a quick blast under the grill remedied that. The four hours was spot on.
The long slow cook made for a beautiful meal. I served it up with a warm salad of puy lentils (cooked with sherry vinegar, chorizo and sliced roasted red and yellow peppers), and roasted rosemary new potatoes with a creme fraiche and chive sauce.
I shredded the left over pork and packed it in a jar and poured over the still molten fat, a happy accident of rillettes for this weeks lunches.
This is a great recipe which I’ll use again, possibly this weekend 🙂
Have you seen the book ‘Fat : An appreciation of a misunderstood ingredient with recipes’ by Jennifer McLagan well worth a look.
Now I think I’ll try your bacon recipe next. Thank you for sharing your recipes and advice.
Cheers
Richard
…or maybe if I do two pieces at 2kg each I could keep it at only 1hr 15mins at the lower temperature?
Hi Rich,
As you can see from the comments, there are many excellent methods for this dish. Some of them advise cooking for less time but I have never tried that. We find that the long slow roast produces the melt-in-the-mouth effect that we love.
Because it is such a thin joint I think the cooking times should be the same for a 2kg or a 4kg joint. Maybe add an extra 30 mins for the 4 kg. I think I would rather play safe and cut it into 2 x 2kg slabs.
The great thing is that at these low temperatures it would be difficult to overcook it. I suppose common sense says to test it after 4 hours and then decide if it needs longer.
Sorry, Rich, you are on your own – but we would really love to know how it turns out. If you come back here afterwards (once the hangover has cleared!) you could teach us all from your experience.
Wow this sounds beautiful, I’ve a 4kg boned piece of belly from our local organic pig farmer here in jersey and would like to use this method for a party we’re having.
Would I be right in thinking I should cook it for about 1hr 45 mins at the lower temperature – going by Dannys thoughts on a 2kg piece.
Any thoughts appreciated
I found this recipe on the internet a good while ago and have never looked back ~ it’s by Antony Worrall Thompson.
It’s 100% reliable and guarantees the perfect crackling and melt-in-the-mouth meat: I live in France and over here they don’t usually keep the rind on the pork, other than in belly pork, but then they’re not used to cooking it to have crackling! So my butcher was fascinated when I told him what I was going to be doing with it.
2kg /4½lb leg of pork (½ leg), rind scored
4 tablespoons cider vinegar
8 sage leaves
2 tablespoons Maldon sea salt
1 tablespoon crushed black peppercorns
3 tablespoons pork dripping, butter or vegetable oil
8 bay leaves
6 sage leaves
8 unpeeled garlic cloves
The night before, boil a kettle and pour boiling water over the pork rind 3 times at 1 minute intervals. This oriental method helps tighten the rind and is the secret to fantastic crackling. Next baste the raw joint with cider vinegar, rubbing it all with your hands to work the vinegar into the rind. Place the joint on a plate in the fridge uncovered overnight.
Pre-set the oven to Gas Mark 6/400ºF/200ºC.
Make 8 cuts in the pork and insert the sage leaves into the cuts. Spread the pork with the pork dripping, butter or vegetable oil, then season with salt and pepper. Place in a roasting tray with the bay leaves, sage and garlic. Roast for half an hour then reduce the oven temperature to Gas Mark 4/350ºF/180ºC. Roast for a further 1½ hours. (Sometimes I leave it a little longer.)
Remove the pork from the roasting pan and allow to rest for fifteen minutes in a warm place before serving.
Hi Andy
Sorry, I missed this comment. I’m a decorator and it’s amazing what happens in other peoples’ kitchens 😉
Thanks for all your cooking tips – much appreciated.
Hi Lisa
Thyme and orange would be great!