Topic: Crackling, crispy pork : adjuncts thereto

[Peripatetic Phil]

It's called a "Meat Tenderizer" / "Fleischzartmacher" and was recommended by Dal Puri a few weeks ago.

Sadly this device fell at the second fence.  Whilst it had proved perfect for what must (with the benefit of hindsight) been a piece of pork from a rather young pig, today's free-range pork from Waitrose proved completely impervious to said device, even after removing the skin from the the flesh (as recommended by Michael T. after his butchery course) and in the end I had to use a pointed knife -- the Fleischzartmacher made no impression at all.

But a recent exchange between Kattis and Onions led to a sudden revelation :

ah ok thank you will try it next time i suppose maybe the salts helps draw the water from the onion ??

Spot on!

When making crackling or crispy pork, one is recommended to either score or stab the skin, then rub in salt.  For crispy pork in particular, one is then recommended to leave for a hour (or longer), wipe with kitchen paper, re-salt and repeat, as many as three times.  What I suddenly realised, on recalling the exchange between Kattis and Onions, is that one adds salt to draw the water out of the pork skin, not to add salt as I had always assumed.

Thank you Kattis/Onions -- it has taken me only fifty years to realise this

** Phil.

[Curry addict bob]

Regarding The scoring part I usually ask the butcher to do this I have some very sharp knifes but I still struggle to make any impact on the pork fat I've even used razor blades but I always seem to struggle! I then rub olive oil and rub in sea salt but I very rarely get good results on the finished cracklings  Unlike my late mother & and mother in law.

[Gav Iscon]

A retractable Stanley knife with the blade out to the required scoring depth works well.

[Curry addict bob]

Yes that should do the trick Gav.

[livo]

I did a delicious Pork Loin roast just 3 days ago with a box cutter.  Single sided razor with a reinforced back edge of the type that goes into the grocery store metal retractable box cutter. Sometimes used in glass scrapers as well. In the actual box cutter the blade only protrudes far enough to cut through cardboard cartons (supposedly) .

The cuts were fine and I rubbed the salt but I still had to remove the skin towards the end and give it extra oven time while I rested the meat.  Worth the effort though.