Preheat the oven to about 240° C. Crackling relies on having a dry heat, so try to arrange your pork on a grid in a shallow baking tray rather than a high-sided roasting dish. Season the rind liberally with salt and pepper. Bung in at the top of the oven for about twenty minutes at this temperature and then turn the stat down to about 190° C.
Cook it for the usual length of time (you can check with a skewer to see if it's done), but don't baste it at all. About five minutes before cooking time is up, put the oven back up to max and put some honey on the crackling (which should already look pretty good). Keep an eye on the crackling after this for the last five minutes as it can easily start to burn. This should result in you having absolutely gorgeous crackling which is sweet and crunchy.
The only things that can go wrong with this method are if you are keeping moist vegetables warm in the oven, or your roasting dish's sides are too high. Other than that you should get perfect results every time. Don't forget to invite me over for when you do it!
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| | last updated: 13th February 1997 |