How do I cook pork belly with crisp crackling and soft meat?

Pork belly asks for two incompatible things at once. The meat and fat underneath want long gentle heat; the skin wants a short violent one. Doing them in sequence is the whole technique.

Step by step

1. Dry the skin properly.Kitchen paper, then uncovered in the fridge overnight if you have time. Skin with any moisture in it steams and goes leathery rather than crackling.
2. Score the skin, not the meat.Lines about 1cm apart through the skin and into the fat, stopping before the flesh. Cutting into the meat lets juices out and they stop the skin crisping.
3. Salt the skin, and only the skin.Rub fine salt in and leave it half an hour, then wipe off the moisture it draws out. Salt on the meat side is fine too, but the skin salt is doing a different job — drawing water out.
4. Start it low.150°C for two and a half to three hours for a 1.5kg piece, skin side up, uncovered. This is when the fat renders and the meat becomes soft.
5. Keep it level.Prop the tin or scrunch foil underneath so the skin sits flat. Any low corner collects rendered fat and that patch will never crackle.
6. Turn the oven up hard at the end.230°C, or the grill, for twenty to thirty minutes. Watch it — the change from pale to blistered to burnt takes about four minutes.
7. Listen for the crackle.Properly done crackling snaps rather than bends and sounds hollow when tapped. Any soft patch means moisture, and it will not improve on the plate.
8. Rest the meat, not the skin.Fifteen minutes somewhere warm and uncovered. Covering it with foil steams the crackling soft in about two minutes.
9. Cut it with a serrated knife.Skin side down, so the blade goes through the crackling first with the meat supporting it. A chef's knife shatters the crackling and drags the meat.

Tips

• Never cover crisped crackling with foil. It softens within minutes.
• Overnight uncovered in the fridge is the single best thing you can do for the skin.
• If one patch will not crackle, cut the skin off and grill it separately for a few minutes.

Common mistakes

• Starting hot and finishing low — The skin crisps early and then spends hours reabsorbing moisture from the meat below, so it is soft by the time the meat is ready. The crackling stage must be the last thing that happens.
• Pouring liquid into the tin around the belly — It steams the skin from below. If you want a sauce, make it separately or roast the belly on a rack above the liquid rather than in it.

If it doesn't work

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