[Unatheowl]

OK, I am officially defeated. I simply dont understand it. It either burns or is rubbery. No in between, no crackling. Yes I ve done all thesalt, scoring, rubbing with oil, not rubbing with oil, turning it up high at the beginning, turning it up high t the end of cooking. Again now....burnt to sh*t.

I dont understand the mehcanics of what produces crackling. Im flying blind and cant fix my mistakes. Can someone tell me what happens to the fat and the skin in a scientific way?? THank you

[erindiv]

Do you remove it, cut it up and put it back in the oven for a bit after you take the roast out?

[Unatheowl]

Ihave done. Burnt the crap out of it.

I'm curretly doing it again now and half of it is black and the other half is soft and rubbery.

I am cursed.

[g_uzica]

Fast Ed just did a segment on crackling last night, maybe look up the BH&G website for advise.

[Green Door]

I pre heat oven as high as it goes,
Pork in for 20mins
Turn it down let it cook for 25 -30 mins per 500gms
Last 10-15 mins I turn the grill in the Oven on med. Keep my eye on it.

[Stellajoy]

I can try, we cook a pork roast with perfect crackling every day for our cafe.

So salt is used to dry out the skin, there is lots of water in skin cells. That's also why you score it ( more surface area to dry out) and some people don't even use salt, just rub dry.

I do think the art is all about the salt balance. Too little and you have wet rubber, too much and it drys out and burns.

DH says its all about the temperature. 2O mins at 220 degrees then down to 180 till its cooked. The thing is that you have to have a hot oven to start. A home oven might take 40 mins to heat to a proper 220.

[Chicky whicky]

OK, I am officially defeated. I simply dont understand it. It either burns or is rubbery. No in between, no crackling. Yes I ve done all thesalt, scoring, rubbing with oil, not rubbing with oil, turning it up high at the beginning, turning it up high t the end of cooking. Again now....burnt to sh*t.

I dont understand the mehcanics of what produces crackling. Im flying blind and cant fix my mistakes. Can someone tell me what happens to the fat and the skin in a scientific way?? THank you

I feel your pain. Crackling never ever works for me no matter what I do.

[Unatheowl]

I pre heat oven as high as it goes,
Pork in for 20mins
Turn it down let it cook for 25 -30 mins per 500gms
Last 10-15 mins I turn the grill in the Oven on med. Keep my eye on it.

can you please explain the stages the skin goes through as it is crackling?

I have done this (numerous times) and it just burns.

My SIL has produced a perfect crackling in my oven and has stood by and watch me massacre one She donest understand it either. Seriously I have done it about 7 times.

[Sinister Bonnet]

I didn't think it was even possible to achieve rubbery *and* burnt in the one piece of crackling! Kudos!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/wor...rfect-crackling is an excellent article about crackling.

[Molondy]

I've made roast pork once and it was perfect. I followed Stephanie Alexander who advised to:

- heat your oven to 200
- rub a little salt and olive oil into the score marks in the rind
- cook for 20 minutes then reduce to 180 and finish it off - calculating a total of 30 minutes per 500g.