How do i get the best pork crackling?

This age old question has been banded around butchers shops and dinner tables since the age of time, well, since the burning of the dinner anyway !!

I have always sold pork scratchings in my shops and always made them myself. I have always had deli counters in the shops and have traditionally cooked hams, roast beef, roast pork, pies etc. When you are producing products yourself and not going for the 'easy', but sometimes necessary, option of buying the product from someone else you make a lot of mistakes, throw a lot of things in the bin and money down the drain!!

Well, none of us have bottomless pockets, so below are a few things I've learned along the way to hopefully save you time effort and frustration.

1) The pork crackling comes from the outer skin of the pig so make sure you buy a joint that has the skin on it or you're efforts are in tatters before you even begin.

2) Buy the pork joint the day before you need it, not only will this save you running around more than you need to when you've got the outlaws coming for dinner, its a really important control point for starting the process of that great crackling.

3) If they don't ask you (they should)  ask the butcher to 'score the rind'. This process is where the butcher will make knife marks or lines in the skin to allow the joint to cook more easily, carve more easily and give great crackling by allowing the hot juices that eventually turn into steam to escape during the cooking process and not stay trapped under the skin and cause it to go soggy, uurgh!!

3) As soon as the joint is home remove ALL the packaging around the joint and place it on a plate / cooking tray with the largest section of skin facing up. Once the packaging is off put a generous amount of salt onto the skin and rub it in. This will help draw out all the excess moisture in the skin that we want rid of to get that great 'crunch' that everyone loves. Forget all the rubbish about using olive oil or some other ridiculously expensive new fangeld  branded liquid that is going to give you the best tasting roast whilst fixing all your problems, curing world hunger and making you a millionaire instantly as long as you allow them to have your email address. I've seen them all before and none of them work, none of them trust me, i'm a butcher!

4) Place the salted, uncovered joint into the fridge over night so that the salt can do its job and the skin can dry out. The joint itself won't dry out because skin and the cold of the fridge will keep it in. 

5) Take the joint out of the fridge about 1 hour before you want to start cooking it and leave it covered over on the side in the kitchen, this will relax the muscle fibres of the pork and stop it going tough when it hits the heat of the oven. There will be excess liquid on the plate / tray when you take it out of the oven, tip this away before you start cooking or you will steam the joint and not roast it and not get good crackling.

6) As with all roasting joints, you should start low and finish high cook on a lower heat first and then finish the roast on a higher heat for great flavour and finish. Starting lower stops pork from drying out and also stops the steam from the joint soaking into the skin and ruining the crackling ( i won't bore you with the science of this but if you really want to know send us an email and I'll bring round the biology text books) 

Have fun and enjoy your great pork joint and its crunchy crackling.

Right I'm off to scrub the block.......