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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I bought a lovely pork belly from a local farmers market yesterday and roasted it as per your recipe. It was absolutely divine! I did have to (as some others have done) increase the fan oven to around 225 degrees 20 – 30 mins before the end, and the crackling was superb. Served with mash, gem squash, spinach and beetroot. Yum!
Hi Richard
You get a wonderful crackling, more like pork scratchlings than a trad crackling.
Hi Claire
THis is a long slow cook recipe. I don’t know how you would get round the problem of the high cost of fuel apart from creating a roasting co-op locally and filling just the one oven with three full bellies – I’m not being sarcastic here.
We buy whole bellies of pork for our bacon in a mini co-operative. This means that we buy at trade price. Why not extend the practice?
Hello
This recipe requires 4 hours cooking. What about the high cost of fuel? Would be interested to learn how to get round this.
Hi,
I cannot see how you can get crackling at all at your low temperatures. Suggest the first 20-30 mins @ 230 Deg then turn doen to 135 for 3-4 hours depending on weight
Hi Katie
If you cook this joint without bones it will be far less succulent but it’s still tasty.
Danny says cut 30 minutes off the cooking time. Make sure that your foil nest is well wrapped over the meat with only the shin exposed.
Hope that it turns out well for you!
I am making this tomorrow,Do I have to reduce cooking time if I have a joint with no bones??? HELP
Hi Tony
That sounds like a great twist, thanks for sharing!
I’m cooking this tomorrow for sunday lunch. I’m going to roast a whole head of garlic in its skin next to the pork for the last hour or so, so we have squidgy garlic cloves to spread like horseradish over our pork.
Hi Amy
I’m so sorry but I missed your comment. The red cabbage accompaniment sounds perfect. Thanks.
Hi Maureen B
Your accompaniments sound excellent too! Thanks so much for dropping by!
Have just cooked and eaten this delicious pork dish, I had to increase the fan oven temp to 230 for the last 10 mins, it was perfect. I served it with parsnip mash, brocolli, and a garlic cream sauce. (total cooking time was two and a half hours, the piece of pork was for 2 people only) Thanks again for sharing this recipe.