Pork Belly Tricks No One Knows About | Crispy Roast Pork — Transcript

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1. 0:00This is a piece of pork belly. And this
2. 0:02recipe starts off in a strange way.
3. 0:09The first step is simmering the belly
4. 0:11skin side down in a little water for 2
5. 0:13minutes, then dunking it into cold water
6. 0:15to cool off.
7. 0:18So, cooking pork belly has always been
8. 0:20something that's bugged me. I've never
9. 0:21been 100% happy with the crackling.
10. 0:23Sometimes it comes out great, but other
11. 0:25times I fear I'm going to break a tooth.
12. 0:27Even though I cook it in the exact same
13. 0:29way, it's a really inconsistent piece of
14. 0:31meat to cook. But look at this chicharó
15. 0:33I bought earlier.
16. 0:35This is essentially crackling. It's just
17. 0:37been cooked separately from the meat.
18. 0:39It's so light and crisp, there's no risk
19. 0:41of breaking a tooth here. So, I want to
20. 0:44know if it's possible to get something
21. 0:45this light and crispy on top of a pork
22. 0:47belly. And I just want to roast it in
23. 0:49the oven. I don't want to have to deep
24. 0:50fry it, pour boiling hot oil over the
25. 0:52skin, or shallow fry it to achieve this.
26. 0:55Pork skin and hot fat do not go well
27. 0:57together. And it needs to have tender
28. 0:59meat and cook in around an hour. Not
29. 1:01much to ask, right? Well, I'm pleased to
30. 1:04say I cracked it.
31. 1:08So, I've combined all of the techniques
32. 1:10that are proven to work into one
33. 1:11effective method. I've taken inspiration
34. 1:13from acupuncture, physics, and a
35. 1:1515-year-old blog post that's buried deep
36. 1:17in the internet. The best thing about
37. 1:19this method is there's not much hands-on
38. 1:21work. It takes less than an hour to cook
39. 1:23and there's no crazy high level of
40. 1:24cooking skills needed. In fact, you
41. 1:26don't even need to use a knife.
42. 1:32I'll be the first to admit that this
43. 1:33doesn't look the most appealing at this
44. 1:35point of the recipe, but stick with me
45. 1:37and we'll turn this into this.
46. 1:41Next, grab some toothpicks and pinch a
47. 1:43few of them between your fingers. Then,
48. 1:45just start to jab the skin of the pork.
49. 1:47Pierce as close together as you can.
50. 1:48It's best to work in a pattern rather
51. 1:50than just random jabbing because it's
52. 1:52not easy to see where you've been. You
53. 1:53don't need to go deep. Aim for around
54. 1:55this far. This seems like a bit of a
55. 1:57faf, but it doesn't take long and it's
56. 1:58easier than scoring the skin with a
57. 2:00knife.
58. 2:02This brings me on to pork belly number
59. 2:03two. I'm going to prepare it using the
60. 2:05most common methods of scoring, salting,
61. 2:07and roasting. So, you can see the night
62. 2:09and day difference that this traditional
63. 2:10method makes compared to the new way I'm
64. 2:12sharing with you today. Usually, the
65. 2:14skin is prepared by scoring it with a
66. 2:16sharp knife. There are a few different
67. 2:17ways. straight lines, a crisscross, or a
68. 2:19grid like this. Now, there's a couple of
69. 2:21issues here. The main one is you need a
70. 2:23super sharp knife to be able to do this
71. 2:25properly. If your knife isn't sharp
72. 2:26enough, then you'll have to apply more
73. 2:28pressure to break through the skin. This
74. 2:30makes it really easy to slice too deep
75. 2:32into the meat. This dries it out,
76. 2:34creating tough, chewy patches, not the
77. 2:36tender, melt in-you mouth experience
78. 2:37you're looking for. I opted for the
79. 2:39crisscross pattern, and I made a couple
80. 2:41of slashes a bit too deep, so we can see
81. 2:43what happens with this one.
82. 2:48From here, I'm going to salt both of the
83. 2:49bellies all over. I used around six g of
84. 2:51salt for each. And for those of you who
85. 2:53like the details, they're down in the
86. 2:55description. I'm evenly seasoning all
87. 2:56over the meat and skin. And rub that
88. 2:58salt into the skin a little, like a
89. 3:00light exfoliation. Now, the weirdest,
90. 3:03but possibly the most valuable part of
91. 3:04this recipe is what I found buried deep
92. 3:06on the internet.
93. 3:09Someone known as Origyami Crane found
94. 3:11that rubbing a splash of vodka onto the
95. 3:13skin of the pork gave incredible
96. 3:15results.
97. 3:20So, of course, we have to find out if
98. 3:21this works. Apparently, you don't need
99. 3:23much, just a splash. And just rub it all
100. 3:25over the surface of the skin. That's all
101. 3:28the preparation done. It really couldn't
102. 3:30be much easier. Now, I like to leave it
103. 3:32to brine for 12 hours in the fridge, but
104. 3:34you could roast this straight away. I
105. 3:35dry brine all of my meat covered in a
106. 3:38large container. You just want a lot of
107. 3:39air around the pork. Lots of recipes
108. 3:41recommend doing this uncovered in the
109. 3:43fridge, but I don't like my apples,
110. 3:45tomatoes, and whatever else is uncovered
111. 3:47in here coated in essence of raw pork.
112. 3:50That doesn't really float my boat.
113. 3:57Some things have changed overnight.
114. 3:59There's condensation on the container,
115. 4:01some water on the tray, and both of the
116. 4:03skins look a little drier. These are all
117. 4:04good signs.
118. 4:07One of the most overlooked and simple
119. 4:09steps is doing something about this dip.
120. 4:11It's here where the meat thins out. This
121. 4:13part of the skin is always the last to
122. 4:14crackle. So, the best method is to level
123. 4:16it out. You can use a piece of onion, a
124. 4:19slice of potato, a stick of celery. If
125. 4:21you haven't got any of those, and a bowl
126. 4:22of foil will work just as well. Now,
127. 4:24with a sheet of foil, just fold up the
128. 4:26sides so they sit below the skin. Crimp
129. 4:28the corners. And you want to be left
130. 4:30with something like this where the skin
131. 4:32and the top layer of fat are the only
132. 4:34things not covered. This foil container
133. 4:36is doing two things for us. The first is
134. 4:38going to protect the meat from the high
135. 4:39temperatures of the oven. And the second
136. 4:41we'll talk about a bit later. Next,
137. 4:43place it onto a wire rack that's on a
138. 4:44roasting tray. The other belly is just
139. 4:46going onto the rack unleveled and
140. 4:48uncovered as it is. For a 500 g piece
141. 4:51like this, it'll take around 45 minutes
142. 4:53to be fully cooked at 170 C 340F.
143. 4:59This is about as high as I like to go
144. 5:01with my oven in this first stage of
145. 5:02cooking. Any higher and a belly of this
146. 5:05size and shape will cook too quick and
147. 5:06risk becoming tough. This temperature
148. 5:08can be so much lower, though. The lower,
149. 5:10the more tender the end result will be,
150. 5:12but the longer the cooking time. I want
151. 5:14to show you the quick end of the scale
152. 5:15today because it only takes around an
153. 5:17hour in total, including the second step
154. 5:19that we're about to get into. This
155. 5:21brings this affordable, tasty cut of
156. 5:23meat into the realm of weekn night meal
157. 5:25options.
158. 5:26[Music]
159. 5:28You want it to be anywhere between 80
160. 5:30and 85 C at this first stage. This took
161. 5:3342 minutes for me. There's no crackling
162. 5:35so far, but there's this bubbling
163. 5:37starting to happen, and the belly has
164. 5:38rendered a lot more fat than the
165. 5:40traditional method. Speaking of, this
166. 5:42one is showing some signs of crackling
167. 5:44around the edges. The two deep slices
168. 5:46from scoring have opened up, and the
169. 5:48skin is starting to look like the hard,
170. 5:49teeth breaking crackling we all know too
171. 5:51well.
172. 5:53Once your oven's up to 250, load the
173. 5:55pork back in and watch that crackling
174. 5:57pop. Rotate the tray a couple of times
175. 5:59during the process and after 10 to 15
176. 6:02minutes, you will have incredible
177. 6:04crackling. Now for possibly the hardest
178. 6:06part of the whole recipe, leaving it to
179. 6:08rest for at least 20 minutes. The
180. 6:11jabbing has given us this rather than
181. 6:13this. The vodka has helped the skin go
182. 6:15from this to this. The leveling out has
183. 6:18given us this instead of this. This
184. 6:21method has worked so well on so many
185. 6:23levels. A lot of the fat has rendered
186. 6:25out, leaving us with this light, crisp
187. 6:27cracking.
188. 6:30There's no worries about breaking a
189. 6:31tooth.
190. 6:35Contrast this to the other belly.
191. 6:36There's still that thick layer of
192. 6:38unrendered fat, and the crackling just
193. 6:40hasn't puffed. It would have got there
194. 6:41with another five, maybe 10 minutes of
195. 6:43hard roasting, but by that point, the
196. 6:45meat would just be dry and
197. 6:47disappointing.
198. 6:49Making pork belly look good on a plate
199. 6:51is sometimes easier said than done.
200. 6:53There are literally hundreds of ways it
201. 6:55could be presented.