Crackling low 'n' slow

[Steve]

It's commonly stated that you can't get good crackling when cooking low 'n' slow.

However, I found a letter in this month's Delicious magazine asking about crackling and the answer was quite interesting. When asked about cooking crackling properly, Chef Richard Corrigan said the following:

The key to crisp crackling is to remove the skin, with the fat, from the meat. Salt both sides, then place on a baking rack in the oven.If you use a tray, the fat won't drip away and this will make the crackling soggy. Make sure you take all the meat off the skin too, as this could also make the crackling soggy. If your crackling is burning, the oven is too high. Ideally, cook the crackling slowly at 100C for 3 hours.

This makes interesting reading for smokers, you could get a skin-on shoulder, remove the skin and fat, and put it on a rack above the cooking meat. This way you'll get the fat dripping on the meat, basting it and if it's true that crackling cooks well at low temperatures you could get a nice bit of crackling as a bonus.

I've not tried this yet, but I will. Thought I'd share the tip so others can give it a go.

[joker smoker]

hiya Steve, I have tried this succesfully in the oven and unsuccesfully in a smoker however Richard Corrigan is a chef who I have great admiration for so maybe, as the old proverb goes, I'll have to try and try again.

[nickdel]

Hi Steve

I tried this last Sunday as cooked a rolled shoulder and had mixed success. I only threw it on as an after thought towards the end of the cooking. I didn't even salt it and it only had a couple of hours. It came out reasonably crispy and I reckon if I had scored, salted and cooked it for longer it would have turned out OK.
I had stopped putting smoking chunks on at that time but I threw one on for good measure and when I tasted it at the end it was mildly smokey. I'm cooking a proper Butt this weekend (trained my butcher!) so I'll do it properly this time and let you all know how it turned out.

Nick

[Steve]

Good to get some feedback on this technique as I have totally forgotten to try it. Mental note, must give this a go.

[MadCow]

I always used to do this when cooking a whole rib on the bone for exhibitions ... well the way I perfected it was to start out cooking the pork with the skin on (skin was scored) and after a couple of hours I would remove the skin and set it alongside the main joint with some rub on the fat side (also put the rub on the fat side of the meat at this time too) and cook this way until the meat was done ... most of the skin had turned to crackling but once I removed the pork joint from the cooker to rest then I turned it up to high heat (was using a Traeger of course) and the cracking was great !!

[bencops]

http://justcookit.blogspot.com/2009/02/ ... t-two.html

I would expect this not to work in a water smoker of course, but then a traeger would be perfect.

Another way I've read is to slow cook it submerged in fat (like confit) and then finish, drained at high heat but this didn't work for me (just came out burnt).