“It’s hard to beat roast pork with mustard fruits, as the sweetness goes so well with the pork,” says Neil Perry. “It’s worth seeking out a quality free-range or organic pork rack, the flavour is better and it’s more sustainable too.”
His advice for crisp crackling is to store the pork in your fridge with the skin uncovered to dry the skin. Failing that, the Margaret chef has included a back-up plan using smoking oil to get the crackling set (see note). “However, if your oven is nice and hot to start, and the skin is dry, you should be sweet. Just make sure the core temperature is 70°C and this pork will be foolproof.”
Ingredients
Method
Place pork rack on a tray and refrigerate, uncovered, to dry out skin (1-2 days).
Bring pork rack to room temperature (3 hours). Using a stanley knife, score skin at 3mm intervals (see note). Rub vinegar, olive oil and 1 tbsp fine sea salt into cuts.
Preheat oven to 220°C fan-forced. Place pork on a wire rack in large deep roasting pan. Roast pork until crackling forms (45 minutes). Reduce oven to 140°C fan-forced. Pour 500ml (2 cups) water into pan around pork and roast until internal temperature reaches 66°C on a meat thermometer (40-50 minutes). Turn oven off and rest pork in oven, with door slightly ajar, until internal temperature reaches 70°C on a meat thermometer. Rest at room temperature (30 minutes). Strain fat from pan, then stir resting juices through pan juices (see note).
Transfer pork rack to a chopping board and cut into cutlets. Arrange pork on a large serving platter. Drizzle with extra-virgin olive oil, vinegar and pan juices. Serve with mustard fruits
on the side.
Note
Ask your butcher to score the pork skin for you. If your crackling doesn’t form, place the pork roast on a wire rack in a deep-sided roasting pan. Heat 250ml (1 cup) vegetable oil until almost smoking and pour over pork skin to crackle (be careful as hot oil may spit). If pan juices are too thin, reduce over high heat to a glaze consistency.
Allow extra time for drying and resting — refer to the method for details.
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