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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Great recipe but I also agree that the oven temperature needs to be raised to 220 for at least the last 20 – 30 minutes to produce the perfect crackling !
Absolutely delicious!! I found that the skin did not crisp but enough, so just put it under the grill at the end of the cooking time. Am going to try it with small apples roasted around it tonight. An easy way to get around my husband, it is his all time favourite!!
read this last night…picked up the pork from the butchers in the village this morning… can’t wait to try it out tomorrow evening! Salivating just thinking about it!
Jane
I have just made this it was fabulous, I did it with 750g boned, rolled belly and not being a herby kind of gal I put mine on a bed of carrot, celery, onion and garlic.
Oh my word it was absolutely amazing, this will be a regular on the menu!!
Thank you sooo much
Found this when googling for a good belly pork recipe and have it in the oven as I speak. The only thing to add so far is that on a cold day like today I would consider it a sin to have my oven on for 4 hours without popping a good old-fashioned rice pudding in alongside the pork. Love your site by the way and will let you know how the pork goes but if the smell is anything to go by it’ll be great.
Thank you so much for this recipe! I have tried it about 3 times now and each time I get better. It always tastes amazing, but my problem is the crackling. I never have a full piece with perfect crackling but I’m getting there. I am cooking a 3kg piece today for 7-8 hours and will report back on how it goes. A bit of pressure since it’s Christmas day, but I think it will go fine.
Thanks again for such a great recipe!
Elaine
Made this last night. Delicious. Really really delicious!
Planning to cook it Christmas eve, put it in over, go down pub, then come home to hot pork rolls.
Have ordered a 2kg piece of belly pork from my butcher…. can anyone recommend how long it should be cooked for?
That’s a very interesting variation, Joe. I think we will try it next time.
We have always cooked it flat, with additions of fruit etc underneath it. It does work well every time but I am up for proven variations.
Thanks for the idea. We will report back on here or in the forum.
When I cook BOP I roll out the belly and season it well. For a stuffing I put chop up some cooking apples,onion, garlic,parsley lemon thyme leaves, sausage meat and zest of a large lemon.
I chop up everthing faily small apart from the apples as they tend to break down in the heat and i like a bit of chunk. I roll the pork back up and put it in a pre heated oven to 220c put the pork in then turn it down to 150 right away.
The heat seals the pork. I leave it in there for about 3-4 hours depending on the size.
The pork is mouthwatering and just melts in mouth. If the crackiling has not quite crakeled I will cut it of the top of the pork and put it in a hot oven untill it is done.
Top man, Rich. Many thanks for those two. The rosemary potatoes may especially suit because we have many “marbles” from our own main crop.
BTW, I loved the post on your blog about your 4 year old daughter’s first day at school. Reminds me of the lovely story I once read about a similar little girl:
15:30
Mum, you know how you were sad when I went off for my first day at school today?
Yes, darling. I was sad and I missed you all day long.
Well, Mum, you will not have to be sad ever again.
Oh? Why is that darling?
Because I am never going back.
🙂