The Best Roast Pork Shoulder and my tips for perfect crackling...

Roast pork shoulder

The centrepiece of my most recent PORKTOBERFEST lunch was a resplendent roast pork shoulder, all juicy and tender with a crisp layer of crackling on top. Normally when I cook roast pork, I simply point you in the direction of the recipe I used - but in this instance I made the recipe up myself, so I'm pleased to be sharing it with you here!

I really only decided the day before the party what the central porcine item would be - I had thought of doing a very slow-roasted rolled pork shoulder, to be torn apart with forks into succulent little morsels like pulled pork - but in the end, I thought a single piece of meat, to be cut into thick slabs, would be more celebratory. And crucially, my local butcher only had unrolled, de-boned pork shoulder! So I did slow roast it at a low temperature, but just not quite as long as I'd do it for melting shreds of pulled pork. (For pulled pork, you could go anywhere from 12 to 24 hours!) I roasted this two kilogram piece of pork at 120C for six hours, with a final 30 minute hot blast for crackling. (And yes, this means I set my alarm for 6AM to get this pork started, and then toddled off back to bed).

And because I am the queen of crackling (a title I have unashamedly bestowed upon myself!), let me share with you some tips for getting the perfect crackling.

I have mentioned this many times before, but it bears repeating: to get good crackling, you need the rind to be dry, dry, dry! Buy it the night before, remove any plastic and let it dry overnight, uncovered, in the fridge.

(I've seen some recipes for Chinese crisp roast pork that say to pour boiling water over the rind before roasting it, but I've never figured out how that wouldn't dampen and thus kill your crackling. I wouldn't personally recommend that method).

While the oven is preheating, I rub the rind with a little olive oil (again, to aid in the quest for crackling!) and sprinkle it generously with sea salt, fennel seeds and caraway seeds. The salt draws the moisture out of the rind, enabling crisp crackling and of course tastes good. I love the aniseedy aroma of the fennel and caraway seeds against the rich pork, but you can use any other flavourings you like (or none at all - plain salt is still good!).

Pork, almost ready for the oven

For this particular roast, I poured some white wine around the pork in the tray (being careful not to get any liquid on the rind itself!), covered it with foil, and roasted it at 120C for 6 hours. Most recipes for roast pork say to give the pork a 30-minute hot blast first, to get the crackling going, followed by a long slow cook at a lower temperature, with a final 30-minute hot blast at the end to finish the crackling. As I mentioned above, I'd gotten up at 6AM just to put the pork in the oven, and I did not want to be sitting around waiting for 30 minutes to turn the oven down! So I just started it off at the low temperature, and only turned the temperature up at the end. Luckily the crackling worked. Success!!

Roast pork

Now you see, my friends, that is the type of crackling you want: a nice even layer of fine bubbles throughout the whole rind. If you have no bubbles, it means your rind was damp when you started (and sadly irretrievable), or it hasn't been cooked for long enough. Either way, you'll have chewy rind - the type that gets stuck in your teeth. Not fun. If you look closely, you'll see there were a couple of slightly chewy sections of rind towards the back, but there was already enough crackling for all of us, and I didn't want the already perfect sections to get burnt!

Conversely, if your crackling-creating hot-blast is too hot, you'll get gigantic, scary-looking yellow bubbles which, again, are chewy and unpleasant. With my oven, I find that 220C-230C works best, but as all ovens differ you'll have to get to know your own. Trust your eyes and remember that you want an even layer of fine bubbles.

I think you could make a sauce out of the pan juices (indeed, all the connective tissue in the pork shoulder will produce a particularly nice, jellied sauce), but there really is too much fat floating the pan around to be able to do this easily. (At this particular lunch, you'll remember we also had a bunch of other dishes to prepare, so I didn't have time to be carefully straining and spooning off the pan juices).

And here it is!

Roast pork shoulder

It looks quite a bit like pork belly when roasted, and being boneless, was incredible easy to carve. Controversial of me to say it I know, when Melbourne seems to be in the grip of Pork Belly Fever, but I like roast pork shoulder even better. You get the crunchy carapace of crackling, you get the juicy and tender meat, but you get a much more satisfying meat-to-fat ratio, without any big mouthfuls of wibbly wobbly fat that you can get with pork belly. The method is ridiculously easy too. If you're a pork lover like me, hop to it!

Perfect Roast Pork Shoulder
An original recipe by Sarah Cooks

Ingredients 
1 x 2kg boneless shoulder of pork, in one flat piece with the rind on
Olive oil
1/2 teaspoon each fennel and caraway seeds, or to taste
Salt
1 glass dry white wine

Method
Remove any wrapping from the pork and lay it out flat in a tray, skin side up. Allow to dry, uncovered, in the fridge overnight.
7 hours before you plan to eat, take the pork out of the fridge to allow it come to room temperature, and preheat the oven to 120C. Drizzle the olive oil over the pork rind, rubbing it in with your fingers (or a pastry brush). Sprinkle over a generous amount of sea salt, followed by the fennel and caraway seeds. Pour the wine around the pork, being careful not to get any of the liquid onto the rind. Cover the tray with foil, and place into the oven. Roast for 6 hours.
Remove the foil, and increase the oven to 230C. Roast for 20-30 minutes, or until the rind has turned into glorious, glorious crackling.
Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 30 minutes. Carve into thick slabs to serve.
Serves 6 lucky people

Roast pork shoulder

The centrepiece of my most recent PORKTOBERFEST lunch was a resplendent roast pork shoulder, all juicy and tender with a crisp layer of crackling on top. Normally when I cook roast pork, I simply point you in the direction of the recipe I used - but in this instance I made the recipe up myself, so I'm pleased to be sharing it with you here!

I really only decided the day before the party what the central porcine item would be - I had thought of doing a very slow-roasted rolled pork shoulder, to be torn apart with forks into succulent little morsels like pulled pork - but in the end, I thought a single piece of meat, to be cut into thick slabs, would be more celebratory. And crucially, my local butcher only had unrolled, de-boned pork shoulder! So I did slow roast it at a low temperature, but just not quite as long as I'd do it for melting shreds of pulled pork. (For pulled pork, you could go anywhere from 12 to 24 hours!) I roasted this two kilogram piece of pork at 120C for six hours, with a final 30 minute hot blast for crackling. (And yes, this means I set my alarm for 6AM to get this pork started, and then toddled off back to bed).

And because I am the queen of crackling (a title I have unashamedly bestowed upon myself!), let me share with you some tips for getting the perfect crackling.

I have mentioned this many times before, but it bears repeating: to get good crackling, you need the rind to be dry, dry, dry! Buy it the night before, remove any plastic and let it dry overnight, uncovered, in the fridge.

(I've seen some recipes for Chinese crisp roast pork that say to pour boiling water over the rind before roasting it, but I've never figured out how that wouldn't dampen and thus kill your crackling. I wouldn't personally recommend that method).

While the oven is preheating, I rub the rind with a little olive oil (again, to aid in the quest for crackling!) and sprinkle it generously with sea salt, fennel seeds and caraway seeds. The salt draws the moisture out of the rind, enabling crisp crackling and of course tastes good. I love the aniseedy aroma of the fennel and caraway seeds against the rich pork, but you can use any other flavourings you like (or none at all - plain salt is still good!).

Pork, almost ready for the oven

For this particular roast, I poured some white wine around the pork in the tray (being careful not to get any liquid on the rind itself!), covered it with foil, and roasted it at 120C for 6 hours. Most recipes for roast pork say to give the pork a 30-minute hot blast first, to get the crackling going, followed by a long slow cook at a lower temperature, with a final 30-minute hot blast at the end to finish the crackling. As I mentioned above, I'd gotten up at 6AM just to put the pork in the oven, and I did not want to be sitting around waiting for 30 minutes to turn the oven down! So I just started it off at the low temperature, and only turned the temperature up at the end. Luckily the crackling worked. Success!!

Roast pork

Now you see, my friends, that is the type of crackling you want: a nice even layer of fine bubbles throughout the whole rind. If you have no bubbles, it means your rind was damp when you started (and sadly irretrievable), or it hasn't been cooked for long enough. Either way, you'll have chewy rind - the type that gets stuck in your teeth. Not fun. If you look closely, you'll see there were a couple of slightly chewy sections of rind towards the back, but there was already enough crackling for all of us, and I didn't want the already perfect sections to get burnt!

Conversely, if your crackling-creating hot-blast is too hot, you'll get gigantic, scary-looking yellow bubbles which, again, are chewy and unpleasant. With my oven, I find that 220C-230C works best, but as all ovens differ you'll have to get to know your own. Trust your eyes and remember that you want an even layer of fine bubbles.

I think you could make a sauce out of the pan juices (indeed, all the connective tissue in the pork shoulder will produce a particularly nice, jellied sauce), but there really is too much fat floating the pan around to be able to do this easily. (At this particular lunch, you'll remember we also had a bunch of other dishes to prepare, so I didn't have time to be carefully straining and spooning off the pan juices).

And here it is!

Roast pork shoulder

It looks quite a bit like pork belly when roasted, and being boneless, was incredible easy to carve. Controversial of me to say it I know, when Melbourne seems to be in the grip of Pork Belly Fever, but I like roast pork shoulder even better. You get the crunchy carapace of crackling, you get the juicy and tender meat, but you get a much more satisfying meat-to-fat ratio, without any big mouthfuls of wibbly wobbly fat that you can get with pork belly. The method is ridiculously easy too. If you're a pork lover like me, hop to it!

Perfect Roast Pork Shoulder
An original recipe by Sarah Cooks

Ingredients 
1 x 2kg boneless shoulder of pork, in one flat piece with the rind on
Olive oil
1/2 teaspoon each fennel and caraway seeds, or to taste
Salt
1 glass dry white wine

Method
Remove any wrapping from the pork and lay it out flat in a tray, skin side up. Allow to dry, uncovered, in the fridge overnight.
7 hours before you plan to eat, take the pork out of the fridge to allow it come to room temperature, and preheat the oven to 120C. Drizzle the olive oil over the pork rind, rubbing it in with your fingers (or a pastry brush). Sprinkle over a generous amount of sea salt, followed by the fennel and caraway seeds. Pour the wine around the pork, being careful not to get any of the liquid onto the rind. Cover the tray with foil, and place into the oven. Roast for 6 hours.
Remove the foil, and increase the oven to 230C. Roast for 20-30 minutes, or until the rind has turned into glorious, glorious crackling.
Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 30 minutes. Carve into thick slabs to serve.
Serves 6 lucky people