How to present roasted pork belly?

[lalalonglegs]

I roasted pork belly for some friends this evening for some friends - it was delicious but it looked awful on the plate: a really huge slab of meat (luckily they were hungry ). I found the bones meant that I had to cut it into these huge slabs but is there a trick to getting it looking a bit daintier?

Shred it and serve on a bed of roast potatoes?

It is an ugly meat, I agree, but so very tasty!

I dunno, it doesn't really hit the plate for long enough for anyone look at it in my house!

Ask your butcher to cut around the ribs so after cooking they are easily removed. Then after removing cut the joint into generous strips while still upside down. I like to remove the skin after half an hour of cooking leaving a generous layer of th fat. The crackling is less likely to result in an expensive visit to the dentist.

colditz What would you do with the crackling if you shredded it?

Grumpla I have to admit, no one complained but it did look very rubbish. I think I've been watching too much Masterchef and am having presentation angst...

Crackling, oh yes, I had forgotten that other people like that with their meals, we tend to use it as a starter, meaning that as soon as its cool enough, we rip it off and eat it.

I usually use some greens as garnish around roasts, could be something simple like parsley. DM uses peeled & boiled baby potatoes with grated parsley.

You can roll it round sage and onion stuffing, and tie it. So it is a round roast when it comes out of oven with crispy crackling (get butcher to score the crackling so you can cut across, making slices of meat with crackling and stuffing for serving).

Thanks all, I will ask the butcher to cut round the bones next time and cook it with them in (as I think they add flavour) but remove for serving.