Roast pork with crackling

[Anotherdayanothernight]

I'd like to say I'm a quite good cook but I have never managed to get the crackling on a roast pork to perfection... Please help me out with your top tips

Out of the fridge, rub the skin liberally with salt & leave for a few hours.
Before roasting, wipe off the salt & liquid - don't rinse - & put in a pre-heated very hot oven. Turn oven down & carry on roasting according to weight.

Best crackling I've had is drying the skin with a hairdryer then rubbing in oil and salt and straight into a very hot oven then turn down heat and roast as normal. I think basically the skin needs to be as dry as possible for a good crackle

Thanks, how long would you roast it in high temperature first?

Just had some delicious roast pork with crackling tonight for dinner (am in the Southern Hemisphere). Leave the pork out open in the fridge for a day or two before you roast it. I just drape some paper towel over it. Makes all the difference. Another tip: pork must be absolutely level, so prop it on some balls of foil, or I like apples cut in half, or onions. Nagi from Recipe Tin Rats gave me this tip and it really works. I cooked mine tonight in a kettle bbq, oh my, it was delicious!

www.recipetineats.com/pork-shoulder-roast-with-crispy-crackling/
Follow this and it will be perfect!

slow cook the pork with a bit of water for a couple of hours
take off skin
cut into pieces and coat with oil and
whack into a hot oven and cook until crispy, take out for them to sit in the air
I finish the pork off in the oven

works like a charm

No advice OP, only solidarity. I’m a great cook generally, but I’ve never managed decent crackling. I’ve tried lots of the things mentioned here but it doesn’t seem to work - I think I need to do more practice as we have it so rarely (because I can’t do it!). Frustrating because I adore crackling!

I followed one recipe once that made a big deal over rubbing lots and lots of seasalt into it to aid drying it out. It turned out so salty it was practically inedible and the gravy was a salt fest. So beware that one if you come up against it!

Dry the joint. I spread a small amount of dripping on the top. Bit of salt. 20 mins in ninja airfryer on the highest heat. Then just roast for hour and half ish depending on joint size. Perfect.

Echo all above. I also use a hair dryer to dry the pork skin some times.

Score the fat in a criss cross pattern wuth a sharp knife, then pour a kettle full of boiling water over the joint.

Allow to dry and cool before roasting.

Also, roast at a high temperature for the first 20 minutes or so before turning the oven down for the rest of the cooking time.

I use this recipe just substituting chicken stock for the wine (makes the gravy with no effort) and it has never let me down. Even with a fairly haphazardly dried skin it always works.

Thank you all for your suggestions, will cook the shoulder of pork for tomorrow's Sunday roast and let's hope there's finally some crackling...

Whether you follow the rest of this recipe or not, step 5 is the answer to consistently great crackling.
www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/_slow-roast_hand_and_79484

Essentially, wait until pork flesh is cooked then carefully remove skin. Wrap pork in foil to rest. Then snip the skin into thin strips with scissors and put the bits separated out on a baking tray in a hot oven for however long it takes. (Probably 10-15 mins but check it). I do it at the same time as the potatoes are crisping up.

I think a lot of it depends on the quality of the meat - I have never been able to get supermarket-bought joints decently crackled. I think its because they tend to vac-pac the meat and so its all a bit damp in there and hard to get properly dry.

The best crackling I've made is on pork belly bought from a little butcher near where I live. Its dry from the get-go because its been sat out in the air on his counter. Get it home, rub salt into the scored skin, then I tend to do it low and slow to begin with then crank the heat up right at the end and it just puffs up like a beautiful bubbly cloud.

I take the skin off when the meat is done and put it in the air fryer (I used to put it under the grill before I had an airfryer). That's how I've got the best crackling.