Bluffers guide to cooking pork well to impress guests
Discussion
I was perusing the FDR thread and the "how to cook steaks" thread got me thinking. To be honest cooking steaks is a lot down to personal preference rather than how you should do it and the risk to reward quotient on cooking a steak is a lot lower than the risk you take every time you cook pork.
I think this can be down to the fact that pork comes in a bigger, thicker wodge and also people will object more to it being underdone than steak. Those two things can lead you down the path to a very dry and chewy bit of something indeed. Also the fat is important in pork cookery for a lot of meals. Somehow they want you to juggle a moist but well cooked interior but with crackling so sharp you can cut atoms with it. Not hard to please are they ? They cannot even cook a sausage without quoting Jamie Oliver me thinks. So the pressure is on......
So, how do you keep the hunk of porky meat moist whilst having crispy crackling?
Here's my guide, though not perfect so please add your own thoughts.
Lets take a simple chop for a starter. A chop is relatively thin so hard to keep from not drying out. I have an imaginary chop from a farm shop with thick fat and rind rather than cut down from the supermarket. I get the chop and put butter over both meat sides. The meat sides are then wrapped in foil so only the fat is showing. The butter bastes the meat without any drying out due to the foil. The fat and rind crisps up under the direct grill/oven heat, say 200C. Serve.
For rolled pork joints you can do the same procedure for the meat, cover it in foil apart from the fat top outer to keep the meat from drying out. Being a roast at the end you can keep the collected juices that gather in the bottom of the foil for your gravy.
However for pork joints there are a couple of extra steps to stop your crackling being leathery. Crackling turning leathery is the worst ever.
1. Make sure the crackling is well scored. Forget the salt, scoring the fat well is the first rule of pork club. Score it 1cm width MAXIMUM and as deep as you can. You have to let that heat work on multiple edges. You may find your pork is pre scored. They will not have done it narrow enough or deep enough. Make that so. Getting a bit Star Trek there. Always a good sign for internet pork cookery I feel.
2. When the crackling looks like it will separate easily take the joint out of the oven. Take the whole of the crackling off the joint and put the joint back into the oven wrapped in the foil. Take the crackling and flip it upside down and with a spoon remove all the soft or semi soft fat from the back so you are only left with the really crunchy outer layer.
I'll say that again
"and with a spoon remove all the soft or semi soft fat from the back so you are only left with the really crunchy outer layer"
All that soft fat on the back of the crackling is just soggy and gums the mouth up. Get rid of it.
Put the thinner crackling back on the pork meat whist still with a few minutes to go. Don't bother resting, it will make the crackling go soft. The foil will have made your pork meat still moist.
If you do this then you will have pork meat that is not dried out and pork crackling very crisp. The captured juices from the tin foil will mean your Bisto derrived gravy will taste sensational also, so you can even lie about that and say it was all home made.
So first rule of pork club?
1. Score your fat properly
Second rule of pork club?
2. Get rid of any excess soggy fat from behind the outer rind with a spoon before end of cooking.
Third rule of pork club?
3. Cover the meat apart from the fat in tin foil to keep the juices in. You want it to autobaste all the way through cooking and then use the liquor as a good base for your gravy.
Learn these simple rules and you will have a very moist pork joint, you will have crispy crackling and you will have a good tasting gravy. And you will probably have a knockout new partner as well, even though you are a bit ugly.
I think this can be down to the fact that pork comes in a bigger, thicker wodge and also people will object more to it being underdone than steak. Those two things can lead you down the path to a very dry and chewy bit of something indeed. Also the fat is important in pork cookery for a lot of meals. Somehow they want you to juggle a moist but well cooked interior but with crackling so sharp you can cut atoms with it. Not hard to please are they ? They cannot even cook a sausage without quoting Jamie Oliver me thinks. So the pressure is on......
So, how do you keep the hunk of porky meat moist whilst having crispy crackling?
Here's my guide, though not perfect so please add your own thoughts.
Lets take a simple chop for a starter. A chop is relatively thin so hard to keep from not drying out. I have an imaginary chop from a farm shop with thick fat and rind rather than cut down from the supermarket. I get the chop and put butter over both meat sides. The meat sides are then wrapped in foil so only the fat is showing. The butter bastes the meat without any drying out due to the foil. The fat and rind crisps up under the direct grill/oven heat, say 200C. Serve.
For rolled pork joints you can do the same procedure for the meat, cover it in foil apart from the fat top outer to keep the meat from drying out. Being a roast at the end you can keep the collected juices that gather in the bottom of the foil for your gravy.
However for pork joints there are a couple of extra steps to stop your crackling being leathery. Crackling turning leathery is the worst ever.
1. Make sure the crackling is well scored. Forget the salt, scoring the fat well is the first rule of pork club. Score it 1cm width MAXIMUM and as deep as you can. You have to let that heat work on multiple edges. You may find your pork is pre scored. They will not have done it narrow enough or deep enough. Make that so. Getting a bit Star Trek there. Always a good sign for internet pork cookery I feel.
2. When the crackling looks like it will separate easily take the joint out of the oven. Take the whole of the crackling off the joint and put the joint back into the oven wrapped in the foil. Take the crackling and flip it upside down and with a spoon remove all the soft or semi soft fat from the back so you are only left with the really crunchy outer layer.
I'll say that again
"and with a spoon remove all the soft or semi soft fat from the back so you are only left with the really crunchy outer layer"
All that soft fat on the back of the crackling is just soggy and gums the mouth up. Get rid of it.
Put the thinner crackling back on the pork meat whist still with a few minutes to go. Don't bother resting, it will make the crackling go soft. The foil will have made your pork meat still moist.
If you do this then you will have pork meat that is not dried out and pork crackling very crisp. The captured juices from the tin foil will mean your Bisto derrived gravy will taste sensational also, so you can even lie about that and say it was all home made.
So first rule of pork club?
1. Score your fat properly
Second rule of pork club?
2. Get rid of any excess soggy fat from behind the outer rind with a spoon before end of cooking.
Third rule of pork club?
3. Cover the meat apart from the fat in tin foil to keep the juices in. You want it to autobaste all the way through cooking and then use the liquor as a good base for your gravy.
Learn these simple rules and you will have a very moist pork joint, you will have crispy crackling and you will have a good tasting gravy. And you will probably have a knockout new partner as well, even though you are a bit ugly.
Paddy_N_Murphy said:
Well, that escalated quickly!
First rule surely is well sourced meat.
Edited by Gandahar on Sunday 13th October 16:36
If you cook pork properly there should be no need to remove the crackling to remove excess fat from behind it, as the crackling will separate itself naturally... the fat will remains on the meat, rendering down and keeping it moist.
And in my opinion you really need salt on crackling. It helps prevent it becoming chewy, and of course enhances the flavour. The key is to salt it heavily, leave it overnight in the fridge, then wipe off the excess salt before cooking.
And in my opinion you really need salt on crackling. It helps prevent it becoming chewy, and of course enhances the flavour. The key is to salt it heavily, leave it overnight in the fridge, then wipe off the excess salt before cooking.
calibrax said:
If you cook pork properly there should be no need to remove the crackling to remove excess fat from behind it, as the crackling will separate itself naturally... the fat will remains on the meat, rendering down and keeping it moist.
How does fat remove itself naturally from the crackling ? How can it remove naturally from the fat and yet remain on the meat? This is not what happens in real life. The fat behind the crackling just sits there. If you cook it long enough you will still have it sitting there behind the crackling when you serve. By this time it will be cooked and brown but it will still be "fatty" and be thick. Certainly not crisp.
This sub fat needs to be removed, you cannot remove it by just cooking and it rendering down so it disappears.
Gandahar said:
How does fat remove itself naturally from the crackling ? How can it remove naturally from the fat and yet remain on the meat?
This is not what happens in real life. The fat behind the crackling just sits there. If you cook it long enough you will still have it sitting there behind the crackling when you serve. By this time it will be cooked and brown but it will still be "fatty" and be thick. Certainly not crisp.
This sub fat needs to be removed, you cannot remove it by just cooking and it rendering down so it disappears.
You can. If you cook the crackling at a high enough heat the rind does separate, you can pull the crackling off and leave the fat on the meat. I've done it loads of times.This is not what happens in real life. The fat behind the crackling just sits there. If you cook it long enough you will still have it sitting there behind the crackling when you serve. By this time it will be cooked and brown but it will still be "fatty" and be thick. Certainly not crisp.
This sub fat needs to be removed, you cannot remove it by just cooking and it rendering down so it disappears.
Gandahar said:
Lets take a simple chop for a starter. A chop is relatively thin so hard to keep from not drying out. I have an imaginary chop from a farm shop with thick fat and rind rather than cut down from the supermarket.
We use double chops, with one of the bones removed. Lovely.We Cheat
I have an oven with a grill on the roof of the oven- Whack the temp up to 240 on the combo grill/fan setting, wait for temp, and stick the wel scored and salted pork in.
The crackling forms in the first 20 mins, I then drop temp down to 150, cook until tender, and then whack back up to 240 for last 20 mins.
perfect crackling every time.
I have an oven with a grill on the roof of the oven- Whack the temp up to 240 on the combo grill/fan setting, wait for temp, and stick the wel scored and salted pork in.
The crackling forms in the first 20 mins, I then drop temp down to 150, cook until tender, and then whack back up to 240 for last 20 mins.
perfect crackling every time.
If we're talking crackling, we ought to be talking belly, or shoulder.
I've had best results by drying the rind uncovered and salted in the fridge overnight, then doing the slow cooking first, and then giving it a blast at the end of the process when even more moisture has been driven off during the cook.
I've previously had mixed results by blasting first, slow cooking second.
Even with wet supermarket pork, if you drive off enough moisture you'll still get good crackling.
I also pour over boiling water the day before to shrink the skin like the Chinese do when making Peking Duck.
ETA - that was a £5.50 piece from Morrison's.
I've had best results by drying the rind uncovered and salted in the fridge overnight, then doing the slow cooking first, and then giving it a blast at the end of the process when even more moisture has been driven off during the cook.
I've previously had mixed results by blasting first, slow cooking second.
Even with wet supermarket pork, if you drive off enough moisture you'll still get good crackling.
I also pour over boiling water the day before to shrink the skin like the Chinese do when making Peking Duck.
ETA - that was a £5.50 piece from Morrison's.
If, despite your best efforts, your crackling hasn't crackled, cut it off and nuke it in the microwave between two plates.
It will sound like WW3 has just kicked off, but it will crisp up nicely.
Thanks to PHer 'Don' for this idea. I've since discovered it also works quite well with bacon.
It will sound like WW3 has just kicked off, but it will crisp up nicely.
Thanks to PHer 'Don' for this idea. I've since discovered it also works quite well with bacon.
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