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Roast Pork with Crackling & Apple Sauce
Shattering, bubbled crackling over sweet slow-roasted shoulder, with a sharp Bramley apple sauce to cut the richness. The trick is dry skin, salt, and courage.
- Prep
- 20 min
- Cook
- 150 min
- Total
- 170 min
- Yield
- Serves 6
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Era
- Georgian
Ingredients
- 2kg pork shoulder or loin, skin scored
- 2 tbsp sea salt flakes
- 1 tbsp fennel seeds
- 2 tbsp oil
- For the apple sauce: 3 Bramley apples, 25g butter, 1 tbsp sugar, splash of water
- Gravy: 1 tbsp flour, 300ml cider, 300ml chicken stock
Method
Oven240°C475°FFan 220°CGas 9
- The night before, dry the skin thoroughly and leave uncovered in the fridge — dry skin is the whole secret of crackling.
- Heat the oven to 240°C / 475°F (fan 220°C, gas 9). Rub the skin with oil, salt and fennel seeds, pushing salt into the scores.
- Roast 30 minutes at full heat until the skin blisters, then reduce to 170°C / 340°F (fan 150°C, gas 3) and roast 2 hours more.
- Meanwhile simmer the apples with butter, sugar and a splash of water for 10 minutes; beat to a fluffy purée.
- Rest the pork 20 minutes. Make the gravy with the flour, cider and stock in the roasting tin.
- Crack off the crackling in slabs, carve the meat, and serve with apple sauce and as much gravy as decency allows.
Oven temperatures are given in Celsius, Fahrenheit, fan and gas mark throughout. Quantities are metric, as cooked and written in the UK.