Pork Farm to Plate

A super simple recipe for delicious juicy tender pork with guaranteed crispy crackling.. what more could you want?

Number of Servings: 8

Preparation Time: 15 minutes

Cooking Time: 4 hours

Ingredients

Brine

• 275g salt
• 5L water

Roasting the Pork Belly

• 1 large onion
• 1/2 bunch Sage leaves and stalks
• 6 cloves garlic
• 375ml apple cider
• 1L cold water
• Sea salt flakes
• Pepper
• Olive oil

Method

Brine

1. Combine water and salt, stir to dissolve
2. Score the skin of the pork belly and plunge into the brine. Brine for 12 hours.

Preparing the Pork Belly

1. Pat dry the skin, then drizzle with olive oil.*
2. Peel and cut the onion into thick 1cm discs and lay on the bottom of your roasting dish with the garlic cloves and sprigs of sage. Season.
3. Sprinkle 5g sea salt flakes on the skin ONLY and place in the fridge uncovered for a minimum of 4 hours. The skin should feel dry to touch and the salt will have absorbed.

Roasting the Pork Belly

1. Pre-heat the oven to 220°C.
2. Place in the oven for about 40 minutes. The skin will blister and start to go crisp. Rotate the tray regularly to make sure your oven doesn’t have hot spots and burn the crackling.
3. The onions will have softened at this point and the belly will now be semi-submerged in the liquid, reduce the heat to 180°C and cook for 3 hours until the meat is pulling away from itself.
4. Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 20 minutes.
5. Serve and enjoy!

Recipe Notes:

If you are short on time and want to speed things up, you can skip the brining and refrigeration steps and jump straight to roasting your pork belly.

*For the best crispy crackling make sure the skin is nice and dry before you add the olive oil.