Perfect Pork Belly
The key to great pork belly is a crispy crackling and melt in the mouth moist and tender meat. To achieve a crispy crackling, you need the pork skin to be very dry. Salt helps to draw moisture out of the pork and leaving overnight uncovered in the fridge helps to dry out the pork – but if you dont have time for this a hair dryer can work wonders. When ready to cook wipe away any salt and well dry the skin before covering with a mixture of hot oil and DYC white vinegar and cook in the top third of the oven at 230C. Then reduce the oven temperature to make the meat moist and tender.
Pork
DYC White Vinegar
Rice Bran Oil
Salt
1
Choose a piece of pork with skin on with a reasonably thick layer of fat underneath the skin.
2
Slash the skin through the pork fat, trying not to cut the pork flesh, using a very sharp knife or clean Stanley knife. Make the slashes about 3 centimetres apart.
3
Dry the skin and rub salt into the skin and fat.
4
Place in a dish and leave uncovered in the fridge overnight or for 4 – 5 hours. This allows the skin to dry out. If you don’t have time to do this, use a hairdryer to dry the pork skin.
5
When ready to cook, brush or wipe off the salt and dry the skin with paper towels. Place in a roasting dish.
6
Heat the same amount of white vinegar and oil together until just starting to bubble. 1 – 2 tablespoons is enough, depending in the size of your piece of pork. Pour this over the pork skin using a brush to make sure all the skin and fat is covered.
7
Cook in the top third of the oven at 230 degrees C for 30 minutes then reduce the temperature to 130 degrees C and cook until the meat is cooked and the crackling crisp and golden.
