Got pork belly on sale. In Malaysia, grandma use to make roast pork belly crackling by piercing with a sharp metal rod and rub with lots of salt on skin and meat. Then she rubs five spice powder. I am exploring a method that say NO SCORING! Why? Well, if you make even a small mistake with scoring you can compromise the crackling due to meat juices rising up and flooding the skin. Using oil and salt.

Google: “Pork belly is a fatty, boneless cut of meat that comes from the belly of the pig. When kept whole, the cut looks like a brick of meat with a thick layer of flat running along the top and smaller layers of fat marbled throughout. The function it’s possibly most famous for? Bacon! When pork belly is stripped of its fatty outer layer then smoked, cured, and sliced thinly it becomes what we know as everyone’s favourite sizzling breakfast food. It’s traditionally used in Asian, Hispanic and Northern European cuisines where it plays both a starring role (like in a pork belly bao) and a salty add-on to other dishes (like pancetta).”

“Don’t confuse pork belly with bacon, though. Pork belly is a fresh, thick slab of meat cut from the pig’s abdomen, uncured and unsmoked. Bacon, while often made from belly, has been cured, smoked, and sliced. It can also come from less fatty back cuts. So, while they start from a similar place, they end up as very different ingredients in your kitchen.”

I tried this method and it’s not crackling. My roast pork is not much crackling and there are some pieces the oil and fat are on the skin. Well, should have scored my roast pork and don’t add oil; just do like my grandma used to do it. Anyway, I did try this oil and not scoring method so, I know which recipe is better. Anyway, at least I do have roast pork to eat. Let’s roast!!!!

Ingredients

2 kg pork belly
table salt
2 Tsp oil, divided

Method

Pat the pork dry with a paper towel. Place the pork, fatty skin side up, onto a plate or tray lined with baking paper and refrigerate, uncovered, overnight to air dry the fatty skin before roasting. If time does not permit, try to air dry the pork in the fridge for at least a few hours. 

Preheat oven 120 degrees C fan forced. Drizzle flesh (only) with oil. Sprinkle over salt. Rub all over the flesh, including on the sides, being sure you get right into all the cracks and crevices. Pat skin dry with paper towels. Rub with oil then sprinkle salt evenly all over the skin surface. Place pork belly on the wire rack. and line triple foil on the bottom inside baking tray.

Place in the oven and roast for 2 1/2 hours until salt crust forms, the salt should be hardened. Make sure it’s not burnt just light brown. After time up, remove pork from oven, pull off the salt crust and discard then increase heat to 240°C. for 30-40 minutes, rotating after 15 minutes as needed, until the crackling is deep golden, puffy and crispy all over. If some patches are browning faster, cover with foil. Be careful extreme heat. Rest for 15 minutes.

Cut and serve immediately with rice and vegetables or eat with chili sauce if you like spicy like me! or tomato sauce. It goes well with a cold beer. Enjoy!!!!

Note: You can grill it the second time; to ensure an even golden crackling, rather than burnt splotches here and there. Grill for about 18-22 minutes or more depending on how crackling and make sure it’s not burnt. The remainder, freeze it for another time.

The bigger the pork belly the more time it need to roast. You might need to roast about 50-60 minutes the first time. The second time 40-45 minutes. If you still aren’t satisfied with the pork skin’s level of crispness, simply increase the temperature a bit to 250 degrees C for the remainder of the time Do pay close attention so that you do not burn the crackling.

https://helenscchin.com/2020/12/15/roast-pork-pieces-in-pot/

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