Roast Belly Pork III

Although i am satisfied with the crackling in Roast Pork II, I had to try out a different way besides poking the skin. I had marinated 5 pieces of belly pork and it had been in the fridge to dry out since last night. i started the grill and scored the skin of one piece with a very sharp knife, like how you would score the diamond cut on the squid(see the first picture). I put the scored piece and the plain one for grilling. After 15 minutes of grilling with both top and bottom fire, i found that the scored piece had already started to crackled, while the plain one was just soft enough for poking. So, i started poking the softened skin with the craving fork and then returned it to the grill. This time with the top grill only for another 15 minutes. The scored piece was already crackling from the edges and looking good while the poked piece had no reaction at all. Turned on the grill for another 15 minutes and then only the poked piece was starting to crackle slightly while the scored piece is almost done crackling all over the skin. I sprinkled salt on to the skin 5 minutes before the time is up. The poked piece had to go another 2 rounds of 15 minutes before it totally crackled. To prove that scoring was the way to go, i scored the other 3 pieces and grilled the same way as the above and they were perfect(second picture). So, the conclusion to perfect crackling is SCORING THE SKIN and have the belly pork in 2 inches strips rather than one whole big piece.




Method:

Prepare the belly pork strips like in Belly Pork I and II. (http://lilyngs.blogspot.com/2005/10/roast-belly-pork.html & http://lilyngs.blogspot.com/2006/05/roast-belly-pork-ii.html )

Score the skin after blanching in vinegar bath and sprinkle with salt(the salt might pull out some moisture) ( I found that it was hard to score after drying in the fridge , that's why i am recommending to score before drying).

Leave uncovered in the fridge to dry out for at least 12 - 24 hours.

Grill until skin crackles.

Cool before cutting in bite size for serving.



Serves