Useful Charts

The Heat Chart below shows the advisable interior food temperatures for safe eating

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Roast Pork with Crackling

Serves 6

  • Easy Roast Pork and Perfect Crackling:
  • 1 kg boneless pork leg or loin must be a ‘crackling’ joint with the rind left on (see note 1 for other weights)
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ½ teaspoon pepper
  • Roast Pork Gravy:
  • Pork juices from roasting tin and carving board
  • 1 tablespoon cornflour
  • 500 ml hot chicken stock – from a cube is fine (I use 1 Kallo organic chicken stock cube)
  1. Easy Roast Pork and Perfect Crackling:
  2. Remove the pork from the fridge approximately 30 minutes before cooking (2 hours before you wish to serve the pork).
  3. Preheat your oven to 240C / 220C fan / gas mark 9 / 475F.
  4. Using a very sharp knife, score the rind with deep scores in a diamond pattern (or ask your butcher to do this), then pat the pork dry using kitchen paper.
  5. Sprinkle the salt and pepper over the rind of the pork and work it in to the cuts using your fingers.
  6. When the pork has been out of the fridge for 30 minutes, and the oven is at the correct temperature, place the pork on a rack in a roasting dish and put it into the oven for 30 minutes.
  7. After the pork has been in the oven for 30 minutes, turn the oven down to 200C / 180C fan / gas mark 6 / 400F and continue cooking for 50 minutes.
  8. Remove the pork from the oven and leave to rest for 10 minutes before carving.
  9. For ease of carving, remove the crackling first (it should pull away quite easily), then carve the pork into slices and cut up the crackling into chunks.
  10. Serve with Yorkshire puddings, roast potatoes or mashed potatoes, plus apple sauce, pork gravy and all your favourite roast dinner vegetables.
  11. Roast Pork Gravy:
  12. To make a delicious gravy to go with the roast pork, simply mix 1 tablespoon of cornflower with a small splash of cold water in a jug until you have a thin paste.
  13. Add the hot chicken stock to the jug and stir to combine.
  14. Tip the contents of the jug into the roasting tray and stir gently to mix the stock with the pork juices and to release the stuck-on bits from the bottom of the pan.
  15. Tip the gravy through a sieve into a clean saucepan and gently heat until the gravy starts to bubble and thicken. Take off the heat when the gravy is your preferred thickness. (See note 2.)
Notes
  • These are the timings for alternative size joints: 1.5kg/3.3lb (30 mins at 240C, 1h15 at 200C) 2kg/4.4lb (30 mins at 240C, 1h40 at 200C) 2.5kg/5.5lb (30 mins at 240C, 2h05 at 200C) 
  • For a thicker gravy, simply use more cornflower. If your gravy looks too thin in the pan, simply mix up a little more cornflower and cold water and add it bit by bit into the bubbling hot gravy until you reach your preferred thickness. 
  • Suitable for freezing.