Crispy Porchetta - By Emelia Jackson
The real trick to crispy crackling is getting to know your oven settings (IMO, don’t come at me!). Yes, drying and salting the skin certainly helps but nothing gets your crackling going quite as well as a fan forced grill setting, like this one on my Belling Richmond Deluxe.
6 large cloves garlic, crushed
Zest 2 lemons
2 tablespoons rosemary, finely chopped
2 tablespoons thyme, finely chopped
1 tablespoon fennel seeds, crushed
2 tsp black peppercorn, crushed
1 tsp chilli flakes
2 tsp salt flakes
3kg pork belly
Place the pork belly skin side down onto your chopping board and cut into the meat in a cross section to allow the herbs and spices to permeate. Rub all over with the herbs and spices, roll the belly tightly and tie off with twine. At this stage, you can place the porchetta in your fridge, uncovered for 2-3 days to dry out the skin.
Preheat the oven to 140c fan forced and roast for 1.5 hours or until the internal temperature reaches around 65c. Remove the belly from the oven and switch over to your fan forced grill setting at 240c. Allow to preheat completely before returning the pork to the oven to get crispy, at this stage, you need to watch the crackling so it doesn’t burn! Keep rotating the porchetta so it can get crispy all over!
Rest, serve and enjoy.
