Pork Belly. WTF am I doing wrong?

[RoadToRivendell]

I kind of like to think of myself as a pretty good cook, but I simply cannot conquer the pork belly.

My crackling never works, always rock hard.

What am I doing wrong?

Put it under the grill after the meat is cooked. It should bubble and crackle

Score the fat, rub salt in and leave for 1/2 hr then rinse, dry, more salt and cook. Hot oven then turn down.

I think you need to do as LIZS says. Hot oven then slow burn.

It can depend on the breed of pork. I buy local pork belly when I can get it (Todenham Manor) and the crackling is always perfect - crisp and crunchy - without me doing anything special. I cooked some supermarket pork today exactly the same way and the crackling was so tough it reminded me of one of those chew toys for dogs!

Let it sit out on the side so the skin dries out before you start preparing it.

I used to do a Heston (i think) recipe where you cut the fat off and cook both together, but take the meat out to rest and whack the oven up to crisp the crackling more. I believe the crackling was on a rack to make sure the underneath wasn't undercooked.

Take the skin off before you cook it, cook the belly for hours on top of veg and stock, when it’s nearly ready chuck the skin in a fryer.

Do I need a special scoring knife?

I think I need to get to the butcher.

'chuck skin in a fryer' - do you mean pan fry in oil?

I did a nice 6 hour pork belly the other day. Apple juice, cinnamon bark and green and black cardamom in the baking disk 1/2 way up the meat of the belly. Skin scored every 0.5cm in long strips, oiled then rubbed with spices. 5h at 160c then up to an hours at 210 - I only needed 40 mins. All the crackling was crispy - a first!

If your taking the skin off you won’t need to score it. Yes, but you will need quite a bit of oil, if you have a deep fat fryer then use that. If not a saucepan of oil will do the trick.

Pour freshly boiled water over the skin, pat really dry and put back in fridge to dry for a bit if you have time. This will open up the scores on the skin. Heat oven to the highest temp. Rub skin with salt and oil. Put it in the oven for 30 minutes at the highest temperate then lower to mark 1 or 2 for 3 hours plus. Also make sure the skin doesn’t dip in the middle. Lay the pork on onions, garlic, carrots etc for the gravy stock.