Slow-Roast Pork Belly with Burnt Apple Purée and Crackling Shards

⏱ 260 min · Serves 4

Twelve hours of salt, three hours of low heat and one fierce blast — this is pork belly at its most theatrical. Silky, yielding meat under a glass-brittle crackling shard, with a smoky burnt apple purée cutting through the richness and a cider jus to pull it all together. Worth every minute.

Per serving: 865 kcal · 46.0g protein · 24.0g carbs · 64.0g fat

Ingredients

• 1.2kg pork belly, boned, skin on and scored
• 2 tbsp flaky sea salt
• 1 tsp fennel seeds, crushed
• 1 tsp black peppercorns, crushed
• 1 onion, thickly sliced
• 2 sticks celery, halved
• 4 sprigs thyme
• 300ml dry cider
• 200ml chicken stock
• 4 Braeburn or Bramley apples
• 30g unsalted butter
• 1 tbsp cider vinegar
• 1 tsp caster sugar
• 1 tbsp cold butter, to finish the jus
• Flaky salt and black pepper, to season
• Watercress, to serve

Method

1. The day before: pat the pork skin bone dry, rub the flaky salt, fennel and pepper into the scored skin and flesh. Sit uncovered on a rack in the fridge overnight to dry out — this is what gives you glass crackling.
2. Next day, wipe off excess salt and pat dry again. Heat the oven to 150C fan. Scatter onion, celery and thyme in a roasting tin, sit the belly on top, skin proud of the vegetables. Pour the cider and stock around (never over) the pork.
3. Roast for 2 hours 45 minutes, until a skewer slides through the meat with no resistance. Lift the pork onto a board, skin up.
4. Turn the oven to 240C fan. Return the pork on a clean tray and blast for 20–25 minutes until the skin blisters, puffs and crackles all over. Rest 15 minutes.
5. Meanwhile, burn the apples: halve two apples and sit them cut-side down in a dry hot pan over high heat for 6–8 minutes until deeply blackened. Peel and core the remaining two apples, chop and cook with the butter, vinegar, sugar and a splash of water for 10 minutes until collapsing.
6. Scrape the charred flesh from the burnt apple halves (leave some blackened bits — that's the flavour) into the cooked apple. Blitz smooth with a stick blender, season and keep warm.
7. Strain the roasting juices into a small pan, skim the fat and reduce by half until glossy. Whisk in the cold butter off the heat.
8. Snap the crackling away from the belly with a heavy knife and break into dramatic shards. Cut the meat into four thick portions.
9. Spoon burnt apple purée onto warm plates, sit the pork on top, pour over the jus, spear with a crackling shard and finish with watercress and flaky salt.