What better way of celebrating Earth Day and the end of
Ramadan than with a nice roast pork shoulder?
Cooking pork is isn’t all that – it’s the anxiety about crackling that can make a man lose his mind.
Salt it or not salt it? I’d say salt it?
Oil it or don’t oil it? I’d say oil it but I’m not 100% sure about that.
Scald the skin with hot water? Well, I can see some logic in that but all the authorities say how important it is for the skin to be really dry before you roast it so if you’re going to scald it, it has to be done at least a day in advance, and I can never think that far ahead.
Here’s some I did earlier, quite a long time earlier - I had a better oven in those days:
and here’s one cooked by some fine chefs in Vienna – I can’t even imagine what ovens they have:
In the current case, at the end of the roasting period, the pork looked good but the skin looked at best so-so. Bits of it looked like acceptable crackling but a lot of it didn’t.
And having done a little bit of research earlier I happened to have found a source that said when in doubt detach the skin and stick it in the microwave. I had never done this before and frankly it sounded like the devil’s work but I felt I had nothing much to lose so in it went and OMG it worked really very well indeed. Perhaps not the VERY best crackling ever but not at all bad:
On the plate it looked like this - and yes I know those roast potatoes lack poise - another source of anxiety.
