This recipe is from my first cookbook, Comfort and Spice. I was a little pork belly obsessed at the time. I still am. How could you not be? It is the best bit. It feeds well into my next book which will be out very soon, all about bacon, the most famous bit of bacon being streaky, made of pork belly (or as some say, belly pork).
This recipe works well each way but if you have 6 hours, do it. You will likely worry about the crackling, we all do. Ensure the skin well is scored and scored just to the fat and not the skin. If you score to the skin, the skin will lose moisture which will not only dry out the flesh but also make the crackling soft. Make sure the skin is dry before you put it in the oven. If you have the time, pour the boiling water over the belly the night before and let it dry uncovered in the fridge overnight. A hair dryer is your best friend for good crackling. Give it a blast before you put it in the oven. If all of this fails (it shouldn’t be we all have those days I know), give it a good blast under a high grill once cooked, watching it all the time so it doesn’t burn. In a matter of minutes the skin will blister and crisp.