How do I make good crackling?

[Emochild]

The Internet is giving me conflicting advice and my mum is on holiday so I can't ask her

So how do you make good crackling?

Cook your pork joint... Cut fat off around the joint when you take it out to rest.Turn up temperature in oven to 220/240º. Put fat back into roasting tin, but drape it over an oven proof plate or saucer., so the fat can drip away. Sprinkle with some salt (if you haven't already ) It will take 15 minutes or so - check it and turn down oven a bit if it needs longer.

I do the same as book but I drape my crackling over the stuffing while I'm letting the meat rest so it goes crackly and the fat drips in to the stuffing

Delicious!

Cooking it separately sounds a bit like cheating -but I'll give it a go

Score the skin before you cook the joint. Make sure none of the skin is sitting in the bottom of the roasting tray otherwise it will act like a wick and soak up all the fat. Put loads of salt on before cooking. Turn up the heat for the last 20 mins if you think it's not crackly enough!

I score the skin. Boil the kettle. Tip boiling water over the meat so the skin contracts. Cook as usual.

Keep skin as dry as possible, score into small squares and salt . put joint into very hot oven for first 25 minutes of cooking then cook as normal, should be good crackle and if not then cut off and blast with heat as advised above

Bung it in the top of the roasting oven. No problem, except paying the edf bill for a 4-oven Aga.

It's one of those things that is made into a big deal but is actually pretty straightforward. I get mine as dry, as scored and as salted as possible and have a good 25 mins or so of really high initial heat.

if it is a supermarket joint get it out of the plastic as soon as you get it home and lightly cover it with a cloth/kitchen roll , even overnight in the fridge, this will dry out the skin and give a much better result

make sure it is deeply scored so the fat under the skin can get out

make sure joint is room temp before going into a very hot oven for the first 20-30 mins

a little bit of salt can help, but really dry skin and a really hot oven are the best for getting that very light souffled style crackling, as opposed to a rock hard concrete set bit of overcooked skin.

Drying out the skin, with kitchen roll, does definitely help. Plus scoring and salt. I used to try with coarse salt but have actually achieved better results with finely ground salt sprinkled onto very dry skin.

We tend to do it on high to get it going, then turn down. And yes, we have also taken it off and cooked it for longer whilst the meat rests if it hasn't fully crackled by the time the meat is done (in particular with smaller joints).

I dry the skin with kitchen roll, then rub salt into the scored skin. I stick the oven up on its highest temp (gas mark 9) and put the pork in for 20 mins then reduce the temp to gas mark 5 for the remainder of cooking time.

Brine your joint in salt water over night, it improves flavour and makes it easier to cook. You can also cut the crackling off before you cook the joint, and then grill the crackling when the joint is resting.