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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Thanks for this top site! I am living in Rwanda and had bought a lovely belly pork joint but didn’t know how to cook it properly – was thinking of maybe BBQ! Anyway, I googled you and this was the first hit and your recipe looks fab. The joint is in the oven now so I am hoping my gas bottle does not run out! The pork here in Rwanda is absolutely amazing. I have lots of colleagues from South Africa who love their meat and they agree they have never tasted pork chops so good. Strange really as Rwandans (even rich ones) don’t really eat pork – they much prefer beef and chicken. Anyway, thanks for the site and I’ll let you know how well it has been received later!
Had lunch in a local (N.Wales, uk) 5-star restaurant yesterday – roast belly of pork – delicious – seemed v. similar to your results – served with celeriac mash and small segments of caramelised apple. Came across your recipes etc. when hunting down the cooking times to try it out. We cook on an Aga so it may be a bit hit and miss the first time!
Hello Lorraine
We have three recipes on this blog for belly of pork, so you’re spoilt for choice.
I’d be really interested to hear how your rolled belly experience went. We always roast them flat.
Hi,
I’ve got a 1kg of rolled belly of pork to roast in my aga – any suggestions????
Hello The Lincolnshire Poacher
Thanks for leaving a comment. Delighted that your’s turned out well!
We ate this joint this evening, a much bigger joint roasted over sliced Bramley cooking apples and it was wonderful. The crackling hadn’t bubbled so D finished it off under the grill for five minutes.
I cooked this recipe last week having searched for a long time for a good belly pork recipe. It was delicious. The meat was so tender and the crackling so crisp. I have been instrcuted by my wife to cook it again….soon!
Hi, Diane – so pleased that you like it enough to cook it regularly. In this house it’s always a toss-up as to whether a pork belly should be home-smoked for bacon or slow roasted. The aroma of slow roast for several hours is a mouth watering experience in itself! Thanks for that intriguing tip about lemon juice. Will definitely try that out next time.
Hi, Michaela – thanks for coming on to post your great report. The first time we had this dish we simply could not believe how the humble pork belly was so transformed by slow roasting. Your experience with non-crackling is very likely down to varying oven temperatures. I am gong to buy an oven thermometer (not a meat hermometer) to see exactly what temp our oven cooks at. You could probably crackle it faster under the grill and it might be better for succulence rather than subjecting the entire joint to half an hour of hot oven. We live and learn 🙂
This is undoubtedly the most delicious cut of pork that I have ever cooked. I agree with other posts though, I had to increase the temp to 230c for the final 30 minutes to achieve crispy crackling. I will look forward to scouring your site for other delicious recipes.
I have been cooking this recipe for about 6 month’s now since I first found it, we used to have belly slices on a wednesday evening, but no going back. I get in from work and prepare an dput it in the oven and we eat about 8.30, the smell is divine and the taste of the pork belly is so juicy and succulent, the crackling does benefit from a good score across the top and a trickle of fresh lemon juice, this encourages the crackliing to bubble up and go crispy, not a wasted bit in our house. best recipe ever…
Helo Caroline
These cheaper cuts need long an slow cooking so I’m intrigued to knoe how your joint turned out!