24 February 2020
I started pursuing how to make Chinese Roast Pork Belly shortly after I started this photoblog. Although not directly related to photography, I wrote a post describing my experience then. In a way, photography allowed me to illustrate what I was attempting to describe. In this update to my original post, I have summarised the steps to making perfectly crispy roast pork into a photo essay. Click on the first photo below to start on the details.
Most of the original ideas came from a recipe that I read in the local newspapers written by popular food columnist and writer, Sylvia Tan. While I started out using my mum’s turbo broiler, I have also experimented with a gas oven (while I was living in London), an air-fryer and an electric fan oven. I like the results on a fan oven best and the recipe you read here is written with a fan oven in mind. Along the way, I have incorporated ideas from an excellent recipe by Nagi from RecipeTinEats (rock salt method) as well as from a YouTube video from Hong Kong (if you understand Cantonese). Along with some other ideas I have gained through the experience of repeated roastings, these are:
- To prevent the slab of meat from curling up during roasting (and therefore making the skin difficult to crackle evenly), cut the pork at right angles to the grain at short regular 3-4 cm intervals leaving the skin side intact. This works better than cross-skewering the meat as some other articles might suggest
- Before putting the meat into the refrigerator uncovered, sprinkle a light layer of salt onto the skin to draw out further moisture.
- Some recipes suggesting leaving the meat in the fridge for 48-72 hours until the skin is dry as leather prior to roasting. I find that 24-36 hours is usually enough if you use the rock salt method.
- Slicing the pork belly into bite-sized pieces can be challenging if you do not have a sharp knife. Try using a serrated knife (bread knife) to work on the skin. The rest of the meat can be easily cut with a santoku knife or cleaver.
Otherwise, this is one of the easiest recipes to follow for the most impressive results. Try it today and let me know how it goes for you!
