Cookbook:Roast Pork

Roast pork is a wonderful dish. The fatty skin on the joint, if cooked correctly, forms what is known as crackling, where the skin crisps up into a brittle state and breaks your teeth as you eat it! This recipe was originally contributed by user Peterkirchem.

Ingredients

 * 1 ea. (about 5 lb or 2.5 kg) joint of loin or leg of pork
 * 1 tsp (5 ml) salt (rock salt preferred)
 * 1 large pinch ground black pepper
 * ¼ cup olive oil or other good cooking oil
 * 2 cups water
 * 1 onion, chopped
 * Herbs and spices as desired

Procedure

 * 1) On the morning of cooking, take the pork joint out of the fridge, and let it stand to warm up to room temperature.
 * 2) Preheat the oven to 220°C (400°F), and place the roasting tin you propose to use in the oven to heat up. If you have a spare one, place another onion in the tin as it heats up.
 * 3) If desired, remove the skin from the pork and butterfly the joint.
 * 4) Season the pork all over with whatever herbs or spices you like, and rub into the meat. If desired, poke whole cloves into the meat and sprinkle with dried sage. Similarly, you may cut a wide slit into the middle of the joint, and place some fresh sage or basil, chopped apples, and garlic into it.
 * 5) If you have removed the skin, place the skin on a open rack at the top of the oven, with nothing underneath it, and leave it hanging there until cooked and crispy.
 * 6) Spread the chopped onion in the bottom of a roasting pan. Add a little water, and place the pork joint on top of the onions.
 * 7) Place the pan in the middle shelf of the preheated oven. Roast for about 20 minutes per pound (50 minutes per kg) until the meat's juices run out clear (not pink) when a skewer or knife is inserted.
 * 8) Loosely cover the joint with aluminum foil, and leave it to rest for 15 or so minutes in a warm part of the kitchen. By this time the crackling should also be cooked. If it is not, turn your oven up to its highest setting and watch it carefully, as it will crackle up quickly.
 * 9) Carve the pork as desired, and serve with vegetables.

Meat

 * It is best to buy a 'joint' of pork loin or leg with the fat and skin, which should ideally have been scored by the butcher.
 * It's best to buy high quality free-range meat from a reliable butcher, and preferably not from a supermarket. The meat should be moist, slightly shiny in appearance and somewhere between pink and beige in colour.
 * The joint needs to relax in preparation for its weekend ordeal. Put it high in the fridge on a dish—don't even think about freezing it—with a quartered onion, and cover with foil. Turn it over occasionally, making sure you don't drain any juice that may seep out.

Technique

 * Try and use a cast-iron roasting tin. They conduct heat better.
 * Butterflying the joint will aid the roasting process as well as the carving. However for purists, you may need to re-string the joint before roasting.
 * If you have a George Foreman grill, you can attempt this recipe by placing the joint, skin-removed and flattened as much as possible, between the grill plates. The results are exquisite, as the meat gets slightly blackened on both sides and is moister as the cooking time is much reduced. Sprinkling a small amount of brown Caster sugar on the skin makes it even better! You cannot, however, achieve crackling this way, which has to be done in the usual manner, in the oven.
 * To ensure you get crispy skin crackling, there are multiple methods. The method in the recipe above, which separates the skin and cooks it separately, is very reliable. However, some prefer to keep the skin on the meat. Either way, ensure the skin is scored to a depth of about 2 mm in a criss-cross pattern. Rub over a small amount of oil, and then rub a generous amount of salt into the skin. If you take the skin off the joint, ensure you leave some of the fat underneath on, which will then crisp up a little whilst roasting.

Serving

 * Roast pork is usually served with applesauce. You can add a drop or two or rosewater to the applesauce, which gives it a most wonderful and subtle aroma.
 * This dish can be served with a sage sauce, which is made by mixing chopped, fresh sage, vinegar, and honey, heating in a pan, allowing to infuse for 15 minutes, and then serving separately.
 * Pork is often served with a variety of vegetables. Mashed potatoes (with a subtle addition of mustard) and a simple mixed salad are excellent.
 * The juices that run from the joint whilst cooking, which will have mixed with the onion, are perfectly adequate for a gravy (or a jus, as it is called)—sieve the juices from the roasting pan, ensuring any burnt bits are scraped off and mixed with the juices, reheat, and serve with the joint.