Every family has their signature Christmas dish, and for many, roast pork with crackling takes pride of place. It’s the kind of meal that brings everyone to the table early, drawn by the smell of slow-roasted meat and the promise of perfectly crunchy crackling. This recipe shows you how to master it — balancing rich, herby seasoning with a delicious pan-made gravy. The result? A Christmas centrepiece worth gathering around!

Roast Pork with Crackling

This recipe has been adapted by the wonderful Barney Desmazery at GoodFood.

INGREDIENTS

• 1.8kg piece of rolled and tied pork loin with the skin scored
• 2 garlic cloves – sliced into thin slivers
• Small bunch rosemary – broken into small sprigs
• 3 bay leaves – torn
• 1 onion – roughly chopped
• 1 granny smith apple – peeled, quartered, cored and roughly sliced
• 1 tbsp sunflower oil
• 2 tbsp plain flour
• 100ml good quality cider
• 500ml vegetable or chicken stock

INGREDIENTS AVAILABLE FROM

METHOD

1. If you have time, rub salt in the pork skin 2 hours before cooking and leave it uncovered in the fridge. Heat the oven to 230°C (210°C fan). Turn the pork rinds-side down and with a small knife make about 6 deep incisions along the meat. Poke a sliver of garlic, a piece of rosemary and bay leaf in each incision and turn the pork the right way up. If you didn’t salt the pork earlier, salt the skin now.
2. Mix the carrot, onion and apple and scatter along the middle of a shallow roasting tray to make a bed for the pork to sit on. Sit the pork on the vegetables and rub the skin with the oil. Place the pork in the oven and leave for 15 minutes, then turn the heat down to 180°C (160°C) and continue to roast for 1 hour 30 minutes. If after this time you don’t have brilliant crackling, turn the heat up again and check every 5 minutes until the skin has crackled.
3. Remove the pork from the roasting tray to a board to rest and pour off all but about 2 tbsp of fat from the tray. If your tray is robust enough to go on the heat
   then do so, if not scrape the contents into a shallow saucepan and place on the heat. Stir the flour in with the veg and cook until you have thickened gravy.
   Strain the sauce into another saucepan pushing as much pureed apple as you can through the sieve. Simmer again and season to taste.
4. Carve the pork loin with crackling attached into slices using a serrated knife and serve with your favourite vegetables and the apple and cider gravy.

More than a recipe, this roast is a reminder of why we come together at Christmas. The smell of pork roasting, the sound of laughter in the kitchen, and the joy of sharing
food with friends and family — these are the moments that last long after the plates are cleared.