Spit Roasted Pork Belly

Cooked over a charcoal fire

This meal was prepared in honour of a visit from my parents in law from Hertfordshire, and my sister in law and family from south Wales. It's the begining of the Easter school break and our house was the meeting point for two young cousins to go off and spend a few days with their grandparents. It's not often that we are all together at our place so this special event called for some extra special effort.

I had a large piece of pork belly in the freezer that had been sitting waiting for an occasion just like this. It was also the first time I'd put pork belly on my outdoor rotisserie and I couldn't wait to see how it would come out. Intuitively I thought it ought to be ideal. It's the right size and shape and has plenty of skin to crackle up nicely and keep the meat moist on the inside.

The whole meal was a bit of a feast for the ten of us. In addition to the pork belly, I had a whole chicken in the Weber and some quality chipolata sausages along side. In the oven went roast potatoes plus home made balls of bacon and herb stuffing. Steamed carrots and green beans finished of the plates.

I'm a bit of a puritan when it comes to mixing meats and I wouldn't normally serve more than one meat at a time. Pork and chicken, however is a rare exception. The sauce that comes from a combination of pork and chicken stock also works very well.

Having defrosted the pork belly the night before, the first task was to remove the rib bones so I could roll the belly around the spit. I used a small sharp Opinel knife and kept the bones to make a stock for the gravy. I could have easily asked the butcher to do this for me, but at the time I didn't think to. It was fairly easy as it happened, it just took a bit of time.

Like any garden spit roast, you need plenty of time. This one took about 3/4 of an hour of preparation from starting the charcoal fire to assembling the pork belly on the spit. Getting the fire on at the right time is critical. You want the coals to be white hot when the pork goes on and this can take 20-30 minutes depending on the charcoal you are using. I normally focus on getting the charcoal started, and then use that time to prepare the spit. This spit roast was over the coals for three and a half hours.

A few musings on charcoal. I used high density imported lump wood charcoal as it is readily available and has a good burn time. Charcoal, when packaged and transported gets a bit of a hammering and you always get a good quarter or so of the charcoal as tiny bits or powder as a result of this. I do my best to separate the decent sized 'chunks' from the small bits and pieces. The chunks are perfect for starting a hot charcoal fire as the gaps allow plenty of oxygen to get between them. The bits and pieces I then sprinkle over the established coals using a small gardening trowel when it's time to add a bit more fuel.

After the first 20 minutes - Crackling starting nicely

For this spit roast, I used 2 to 2 1/2 kg of chunks at the beginning, and about an hour or so later started adding the small bits to keep the fire just hot enough to maintain a gentle sizzle on the pork. At the beginning, the white hot chunks are pumping heat at about 1000 deg C (1,800 deg F), then this reduces fairly constantly as the charcoal is consumed. After the first hour, the coals had died right down and definitely needed topping up. I added some more sprinklings around the edges every further 30 mins or so to keep the temperature fairly consistant.

After 50 minutes

And now a few musings on my outdoor rotisserie. I bought this almost three years ago in May 2009. It came with a small battery powered motor that takes two large 'D' sized batteries, the type frequently used in torches. Just before writing this article, I trawled through my photos, blogs and notes to work out exactly how many times I have used it since. On average it has been used about four times a year, between April and October. Each use means about 3 to 3 1/2 hours of continuous rotation. The original two batteries are still going, 13 uses and 45 hours later. I still can't believe it and even when I ran it yesterday it wasn't giving any signs of letting up. I've had a pair of batteries on standby since I bought it.

1 hr 15 mins - First topping up of charcoal

PREPARATION TIME: 30 minutes

COOKING TIME: 3 and a half hours

INGREDIENTS (serves 6 as a generous main course):

- Pork belly (de-boned) - approx 30cm x 20 cm x 2 cm thick
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 large sprig of rosemary

2 hrs 40 mins - Our first guests arrive

METHOD:

First prepare the charcoal fire as above, then rub the pork with olive oil and salt before rolling around the spit with a large sprig of rosemary in the centre. Tie firmly with kitchen string. Arrange the charcoal around the edges so that there is none immediately beneath the meat. Otherwise the dripping fat will ignite and you do not want thick, sooty flames destroying your meal. Place the spit over the hot fire for the initial intense sizzle at the beginning, then after the first 45 mins to an hour when the coals have gone right down, add small amounts of additional fuel regularly to keep the pork at a gentle sizzle.

Carve into thick rounds and serve with a light gravy made from the stock from the bones.

My intuition proved correct. Pork belly is perfect for this type of cooking. The crackling cooks quickly at the beginning, and protects the meat inside to allow it to slow cook beautifully. All in all it was a winner and will definitely grace our table again. And again.

 3 hrs 30 mins - Ready for carving

Roast Pork Belly in the Weber

After this experience, I'm struggling to see why I would roast any other cut of pork in the Weber. The abundance of crackling and the layers of fat make this one of the best roast meats around. The Weber is perfect for pork belly. The high starting temperature gives the crackling a head start, and as the temperature slowly reduces, it allows the meat to gently baste in its own juices.

Being a Sunday, there was enough time to really make the most of it. I had bought a fairly big piece of pork belly from my local butcher a few weeks before and had been really looking forward to getting it in the Weber. The threat of rain didn't put me off a bit, as the lid was going to be on the barbeque anyway. I took the belly out of the freezer on Saturday night and started mentally planning our Sunday meal. We always have a roast (or barbeque) on a Sunday so I thought fairly traditional accompaniments were in order.

The pork was simply rubbed with olive oil and salt, and then laid on a bunch or rosemary twigs from the garden in a Pyrex dish to retain the basting juices. The rosemary leaves (if that's what they are) were kept for the garlicy roast potatoes and swede. We had French beans and carrots for the rest of the veggies, and a simple gravy made from the pan juices and extra stock, and an oniony, herby stuffing made from fresh breadcrumbs.

ROAST PORK BELLY

INGREDIENTS: (serves 6):

- Large piece of pork belly (1.5-2kg)

- Olive oil

- Freshly ground rock salt

- Rosemary twigs

METHOD:

First, prepare two indirect fires in the Weber and while you are waiting for them to be ready, prepare the pork. Rub the pork with olive oil and sprinkle a generous amount of rock salt on the skin. The skin needs to be scored first (my butcher did it with a Stanley knife) to help release the fat and to make it easier to divide the crackling.

Lay the pork belly in a small roasting dish over the rosemary twigs and put the dish in the centre of the Weber, between the two fires. Put the lid on (all vents open). Check the pork from time to time, basting occasionally with a spoon.

This one was in the weber for 2hrs 20mins and then wrapped in foil out of the oven to rest for a further 20 minutes. This gave me time to make the gravy before I cut the pork into portions.

To serve, remove the ribs from the underside (great to nibble on as a chef's perk) and slice through the skin to divide the pork into large chunks, about 5cm square. Two of these chunks make a decent serving and everyone gets a good mixture of crackling and meltingly tender meat. Finish it off with a moderate helping of gravy. The meat is really moist so you don't need much.

ROAST PORK BELLY GRAVY:

INGREDIENTS:

- 2-3 tbsp fat from the roasting dish (pour off the rest of the fat and discard it)

- 2-3 tbsp plain flour

- knob of butter

- 1-2 cups of good quality chicken stock

- Salt and pepper

METHOD:

In a deep pan or sauce pan, make a roux by combining the fat and flour over a gentle heat. Use a bit of boiling water to get all of the lovely bits out of the roasting dish before adding to the roux. Slowly add the stock as the sauce thickens, add the butter, stirring constantly, season and taste. How thick you like your gravy is a matter of choice. My preference is somewhere in the middle, just thick enough to hold it together.

GARLICKY ROAST POTATOES AND SWEDE

INGREDIENTS:

- Peeled potatoes and swede cut into 2-3cm chunks

- 3 cloves of garlic, crushed or finely chopped

- 3-4 tbsp olive oil

- Handful of fresh rosemary

- Freshly ground rock salt.

METHOD:

Pre-heat the oven with an empty baking dish in it to 180 deg C. Meanwhile, plunge the potatoes and swede into a large pot of salted boiling water. Once the water returns to the boil, turn off the heat and leave it for 5 mins or so with a lid on. Drain the vegetables, put them back in the same pot, add the olive oil, garlic, rosemary and salt. Put the lid back on and shake the pot vigorously to give the vegetables an oily, garlicky, starchy coating. 

Turn them out into the hot baking dish (no need to add any further oil), spread them out and roast them for around 50 minutes. I added a few extra unpeeled garlic cloves in the pan to have as crunchy little treats with the meal. Next time I'll add them a bit later as they were a bit too crunchy!

All in all this was one of our best roast dinners for some time. It smelled awesome cooking away in the Weber, and tasted even better. I'm definitely making sure I always have some pork belly in the freezer.