Danny’s Belly of Pork slow roasted on a bed of Bramley apples recipe
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Danny was upbeat as he swung his car into the space front of the butcher’s shop.
“Let’s stop mourning Fred’s old shop closing and enjoy the search for a new butcher. It could be fun.”
The Chicken Lady had reminded me that there was a good butcher in Fordham, a fifteen minute drive from Cheveley. This shop specialises in free range local meat. Some of their cattle graze on the stud farms that surround our village.
We stepped over the threshold past a long fringe of spiced beef and hunks of biltong. This was an unusual sight in a village butcher’s shop in the heart of a small Cambridgeshire village. We were surprised to learn that there is a relatively large population of people from southern Africa in these parts.
“I’d like to buy a whole belly of pork, please.”
“We have just one left!”
The joint was much smaller than those that we bought from Fred’s and the same price (£10). But this was organic, free range, locally sourced pork. As we had some old friends coming for supper on Sunday evening we dived in and bought it. At 2.3 kilos (bones in), we discovered that this would have fed six hungry people with second helpings. The ordinary pork belly shrinks a lot when roasted. Are the ordinary joints injected to plump them up?
The recipe below is D’s standard recipe but he added the twist of slicing some cooking apples from the garden laying them in the nest beneath the joint and adding some raspberry vinegar to the cooking juices underneath the joint for the last hour or so. The plan was to make an apple sauce by spooning the mush from underneath the meat into a blender, minus apple skin. Somehow that step was forgotten as the wine and conversation flowed.
The cooking apples and vinegar tenderised the meat still further and kept it succulent. As the belly weighed more than double the joint in the original recipe, he thought that it might need more time but four hours was fine.
He put the cooked joint under a low grill for a few minutes to encourage the crackling to bubble. It tasted amazing. Melt in the mouth and full of flavour. If in funds, we’d now buy free range pork belly for a roast every time or save up if we needed to.
I can’t wait to try bacon cured from free range pork. It would still be much cheaper than the ‘decent’ bacon available in the shops. I reckon that it might not shrink so much when it’s cured and smoked. I’ve ordered an ordinary pork belly and now plan to buy a hunk of free range to compare and contrast.
Danny’s Belly of Pork slow roasted on a bed of Bramley apples recipe
The oven temperatures are for a fan assisted oven, adjust as necessary. If you are cooking on an Aga, use the slow oven but you may need to put the joint into the high oven for ten minutes at the end to get the crackling to bubble and crisp, or pop it under the grill.
The purpose of the foil nest is to prevent the juices from drying out and to ensure that the base of the joint cooks in its own juices.
Ingredients:
These quantities are for a 2 kilo (approx) joint. Halve them for a 1 kilo joint.
- I – 2.5 kilo joint of belly of pork
- 15-20 leaves off a sprig of rosemary
- 3 large cloves of garlic sliced (or 3 small for a smaller joint)
- 2-3 cooking apples (ideally Bramleys) cut into 1 cm slices (skin on but not the cores).
- 2 tablespoons of raspberry vinegar
- Enough foil to form a nest for the joint to sit in
Method:
- Place the pork, crackling side down, in roasting pan. Distribute the rosemary and garlic evenly over the base of the belly. Then add your layer of sliced apple. Place the foil over and press it down so as to keep the herbs and apple layer snugly in place.
- Turn the whole lot over, crackling side up, and form the foil into a snug nest, with walls, 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 (fan) for another hour (4 hours total). 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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Thank you for your comments. And a bit of silly bath time fun with the Frothing Sea Monster trick!
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Hi Fiona and Danny – I predict you’ll be converted to free range pork! Since I’ve been buying free range Gloucester Old Spot pork which a darker and full of interesting porky flavours, the ‘ordinary pork’ taste bland by comparison. And the crackling is in a league of its own!!!!!
Looking forward to you expert findings!
Celia
Sounds absolutely delicious!!
Will most certainly be trying Danny’s recipe out..
Jane xxx
Sliced apples under pork belly is really good- try some chunks of sweet white onion or shallot too, makes an apple sauce with onion , lovely.
honestly, once you go free range/organic you never go back. Pork was one of the most noticeably “improved” meats when my husband and I went organic, from being something we rarely ate as it was often bland/dry, it has become a firm favourite, saved up for, savoured….a good cut is the shoulder, its cheaper than many and very ample/tender.
Absolutely. We save for Gloucester Old Spot from our local Farm Shop (voted best in the country last year by the way) and the taste/quality is second to none. It does spoil you…
Thanks again for all your lovely recipes. This it yet another one to try!
We have a farm near here that raises GOS but they won’t sell they bellies because they make them into bacon to sell. I’ll have to keep hunting because this looks delicious.
I think there is nearly nothing better together than pork and apples. This looks like a really neat recipe. I imagine the subtle amounts of the rosemary and raspberry vinegar must be wonderful. I think I can almost smell it now.
Also – Thanks for the tag! I *finally* got around to posting it today.
I never tire of reading article and recipes about pork, especially belly (the best part) – verrrryyy nice, guys.
We were also converted to organic, freerange pork when we bought half a pig from a small family company called Number One pig- they have their own site. It was fun to use Hugh’s ( of River Cottage fame) book to use every part of the pig we received -even the head!
yep, do do do consider buying a whole or half pig, it is soooooooo much fun
Ummm…. that looks good even though I haven’t had pork since 1980. I mean that really looks great, and I love how you write about food.
I found your blog a month or so ago because of crabapples
I realize you’re busy and will understand if you can’t participate, but I recognized your blog for an Uber-Amazing Blog Award: http://growingcurious.typepad.com/growing_curious/2008/11/recognition.html
And I celebrate you for your writing and sharing.
sounds yummy Danny!
Here in Thailand we use pork belly as a standard cut – and this is generally used in fundamentally Chinese recipes.
Slow raost pork belly is definitely one of the top ways to prepare this: succulent, crispy, juicy and tender..!
Do also try using szechuan pepper instead of normal pepper if you can find it: this will give an added – and unusally perfumed – additional depth to the pork!
That reciipe idea sounds so good. I am a big fan of chinese food and they use this cut all of the time. Its great to find a conventional method of cooking which seems to produce fab results. I am definitely going to try this one as I have a lovely pork belly sitting in the freezer waiting to go. Free range of course.
We supply Old Spot Delivered mainland UK
if you need any get in touch
http://www.ballardsfield.com
I did this for Sunday dinner and the smell nearly drove our dog crazy! She rushed into the kitchen every time someone opened the door, just in case someone had added something to her bowl.
I didn’t have any raspberry vinegar, so decided to use white wine vinegar and then forgot it all together. Doh! Any way the apple sauce was lovely and my husband is a very happy bunny.
I have strict instructions from both my husband and son to cook this again soon and I may even add the vinegar next time.
We tried your recipe and it was really good. since then, however my daughter has decided to not eat meat. what a shame however I am still wanting to encourage her to eat well. It was the recent Kill It, Cook It and Eat It programme that pushed her over the edge. We had previously watched the Turkey and Goose programme; this was the pig, lamb and cow. We are looking at sustainable fish farming, etc. Any advice about where this debate goes?
Oops I’ve been really dizzy and not answered any of these comments so here goes:
Hello Magic Cochin
I agree. free range pork tastes like a totally different animal from the ordinary pork that we used to buy.
There’s no going back.
Hi Jane
I do hope that you tried the recipe!
Hi Kate (uk)
You are so right. Onion add depth. We tried that with pheasant and apples and it was scrummy. Thanks for the tip.
Hello Natasha
You are so right.
I didn’t really like pork as a Sunday roast until I tasted the free range pork from our new butcher. Pork shoulder is delicious and only £5 a kilo from him. Perfect for sausages too!
Hi Chris
This is a great recipe. Tasted delicious when we weren’t cooking organic pork. So if you have access to some you will be in clover.
Hello Gillian
Keep on searching as slow roasted pork belly is wonderful. And home cured and smoked bacon is to die for. The latter is easy. Check our blog.
Hi Sam
It’s to die for.
Hello Got
Thanks for that tip!
Hello Sarah
I do hope that it worked out for you. Danny’s tips are good for slow cooked roasts.
Hi Adrian
Thanks for the link
Hello Cher
I agree with your dog. I do hope that she eventually got a teeny taste!
Hello Sarah
Glad that you enjoyed the recipe.
I can understand where your daughter is coming from. We have all moved so far away from the raising and killing of cattle and poultry that 99% of us would be horrified if we saw their slaughter. A long way from the the small vacuum packs that we toss into our supermarket trolleys. Free range organic meat generally meet their end in a much kinder way. I’ve met these farmers and talked to them. Being a townie myself I hate the idea of any animal suffering, smelling blood and suddenly realising they are going to die.
In the olden days animals were culled on their farm. This seems so much kinder to me.
I know nothing about where to buy sustainable fish so can’t advise. Many apologies.
She did. My son even sneaked her some of the crackling! She is technically his dog, but it was some from the left overs. My husband was a bit miffed when he went into the kitchen to steal it for himself to find it gone.
Can’t wait to get some pork belly and try this recipe. Elsewehere on your site I was sad to read Fred Fitzpatrick’s butchers shop in Newmarket had closed. About 25 years ago we ran a ‘best Newmarket sausage’ competition in the Newmarket Journal. I was editing the Journal and at that time there were seven butchers in the town who made their own sausages and each one was fiercely proud of ‘their’ Newmarket sausage recipe. The competition aroused huge interest and great debate – and I’m pretty sure Fred’s sausages won the taste test. By the way, my old chum Mike Jeacock whose column a View from the Fen was required reading in the Weekly News (he’d have loved your blog), was a big fan of Eddis’ pork butchers in Ely and reckoned they made the best pork pies. Eddis don’t sell anything but pork – might be worth a try if you don’t mind driving a few extra miles.
Have cooked your pork belly recipe three or four times since discovering your recipe / website (would have it more often but my arteries and hips wouldn’t forgive me!). Foolproof and delicious every time. Many thanks.
Julie
Hi Liz
Great to hear your local tips! Thank you.
Amazing that there used to be seven butcher’s shops in Newmarket. Really pleased that Fred won the prize
Must check out Eddis’ pork butchers in Ely. If they sell good meat they are worth the trip. The Carter Street (Fordham) Butchers are pretty impressive to date.
Hrllo Julie
I really love both Danny’s belly of pork recipes that he has published on this site! Thanks so much for your feedback. Much appreciated.
Always spot on especially as I am not doing the cooking on a Sunday!
Ingle’s in New Cheveley Road used to claim the ‘carriage trade’ in Newmarket (butcher’s one side presided over by Gordon Ingle and his son and grocery the other which was the preserve of his wife and daughter). The shop is now a private house and Mr and Mrs Ingle have long retired but their son Eric is, as far as I know, continuing to work in the trade making sausages for Eric Tennant in The Rookery (Guineas shopping centre) in Newmarket. Eric is probably Newmarket’s most successful butcher – and a mean trumpet player too! This is probably much too ‘local’ for your worldwide readership but thought you’d like to know that there was once more to Newmarket than Waitrose and Tesco! The independent traders weren’t helped by the fact that in the days of yore some of Newmarket’s trainers expected everything ‘on account’! How times have changed.
Need some info about curing our own ham/bacon from our cornish lop ladies.saw an article on this site afew weeks ago but our printer was down at the time and it’s taken a while to replace it.