Roast Pork Shoulder with Crispy Crackling

Roast pork with crackling is one of the most delicious things to eat and is so simple to do. With all the trimmings (roast potatoes, a selection of vegetables and gravy) it's a truly beautiful thing and here's how to get a gorgeous joint of meat that will make a fantastic roast dinner and provide leftovers for a selection of delicious tasting meals. Ask the butcher to score the fat for you if you're not comfortable doing yourself or give it a go for spectacular crackling.

Roast pork shoulder with crispy crackling

Here's how:

• 1 shoulder of pork - roughly 2.5-3kg 
• 1-2 tbsp sea salt
• 1 tbsp black pepper
• 1 tbsp dried thyme or three to four sprigs of fresh
• 1 tbsp dried rosemary or three sprigs of fresh
• 2 carrots
• 2 parsnips
• 2 sticks of celery
• 1 large white onion
• 1 bulb garlic
• 1-2 tbsp olive oil or rapeseed oil

Firstly take the pork from the fridge, remove any packaging and allow to sit for twenty minutes or so to get back to room temperature and preheat the oven to 180.

In the meantime roughly chop the carrots, parsnips, celery and onion (no need to peel either) and place into a large roasting tin - this will be a trivet for the meat to sit on. Add a whole bulb of garlic broken into cloves which will give fantastic flavour to the meat. 

Now place the meat on top of the vegetables and firstly drizzle over the oil. Next add the black pepper and salt to the outer flesh of the meat and rub in with your hands - you can wear gloves if you prefer. Now add at least one tablespoon of sea salt to the skin on top which will help to crisp up the crackling. Finally add the herbs and then loosely cover with tin foil and place into the oven.

Cook the meat for thirty five minutes per 0.5kg and then an extra 25 minutes and remove the foil for the final 30-40 minutes of cooking for really crispy crackling.

Remove from the oven and allow to rest for about forty minutes before serving.