Danish recipe
How to make Roast pork with crackling
Flæskesteg
All of Denmark
A joint of pork roasted with its rind scored into narrow strips, so it turns into crisp crackling. It is served with boiled and caramelised potatoes, red cabbage and gravy, and, often with roast duck, it is the classic dinner on Christmas Eve.
Ingredients
- 1.5 kg boneless pork loin or belly with the rind on
- Coarse salt
- Black pepper
- 6 bay leaves
- 4 to 6 whole cloves (optional)
- 500 ml water
Method
- Heat the oven to 200 °C. With a very sharp knife, score the rind in narrow strips about 1 cm apart, cutting through the rind but not into the meat. Or ask the butcher to do this.
- Rub plenty of salt and some pepper into the cuts. Push the bay leaves, and the cloves if using, into some of the cuts.
- Put the pork on a rack in a roasting tin, rind side up, and pour the water into the tin.
- Roast for about 1 hour 30 minutes, adding a little more water if the tin dries out, until the meat is cooked through (at least 70 °C in the middle).
- If the crackling is not yet crisp, turn the oven up to 240 °C or use the grill for the last 10 to 15 minutes, watching closely.
- Rest the meat for 15 minutes, then slice it between the strips of crackling. Use the juices in the tin to make gravy.
Made it at home? Tick it off and it goes into your kitchen passport.
Roast pork became an everyday dish in Denmark only after the 1860s, when homes got ovens heated by wood-burning stoves.
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