Want some crackling with your pork?

We bought our Weber BBQ just before we left Sydney & we've have only used it a handful of times so we wanted to use it on the farm and see what we could do with it. A very crackly pork appears regularly on the Weber Facebook page I follow. 

I've only ever made one other roast pork with crackling & probably eaten pork a dozen times at most so it's not something I feel comfortable cooking & I was a little worried about the outcome yesterday. 

Before I started I made sure I read lots of recipes so I didn't miss any vital steps. 

This recipe is based on a few. 

ingredients 

1.5kg rolled pork (deboned) 

oil (I used EVOO)

salt (I used pink himilayan salt) 

Any vegetables you might like (we had carrots, potatoes, Brussel sprouts & broccoli)

Apple sauce (I used store bought because I wanted to focus on the pork but it's dead easy to make. I'm sure there are plenty of recipes flying around on the web). 

 

method 

Leave the pork out of the fridge for up to two hours so it reaches room temperature. 

Turn your BBQ on the highest setting & leave to preheat for 20 minutes. You don't need to lift the lid during this time. 

While your BBQ is heating up prepare the meat. Firstly pat the meat dry with paper towel. You will need to score the fat ensuring you don't cut in to the meat. I remember seeing Jamie Oliver using a retractable art knife and measuring the fat from the side of the cut of meat & retracting the art knife just a few millimetres so the knife would only cut in to the fat. 

To score the fat cut along the shortest side of the cut in lines measuring about a centimetre apart. 

Now baste the meat with oil. I used EVOO but plenty of sites recommend vegetable oil. Using your hands rub the skin with salt enduring you push it in to the cracks. I used a handful & it was a lot. You don't need to layer it on (like I did) but it does need to coat the skin. 

Place the meat on a Weber trivet & then on a convection tray. These are designed to let the air flow around the meat, acting like an oven.  

Leave the meat to rest for 30 minutes. 

Now that the BBQ has heated up place the meat (on trivet & convection tray) on the BBQ. Leave the temperature on the highest setting & cook the meat for 25 minutes. This will crackle your crackling. After 25 minutes lift the lid and you'll see that the pork has crackled. 

           This was our final product.

Reduce the heat to medium (half way) and leave the meat in the BBQ for a further 1 hour & 5 minutes. Do not lift the lid during this cook. This will give you time to prepare the veggies. If you're organised (I wasn't) you could cook these for the 1hour & 5 minutes around the meat on the BBQ. 

After 1 hour & 5 minutes turn the BBQ off but, without lifting the lid, let the pork rest (as the oven cools). 

After 20 minutes carve the pork and divy up the veggies & crackling. Don't forget the apple sauce! 

This is best eaten by an open fire looking down the paddocks out to sea (if you're lucky).