COOKING TO PERFECTION
To help you cook your Stockton & Stratton meat to perfection, we’ve set out some handy guidelines below –
GUIDELINES FOR ROASTING PORK
1) Weigh the joint (if you don’t already know the weight from the packaging).
2) To prepare the joint for the oven, mix some sea salt and herbs together in a dish or saucer. Rub the mixture into the meat. You don’t need to oil the meat before roasting, as Gloucester Old Spot pork naturally has enough fat to guarantee a good result.
DON’T wrap the joint in foil or anything else - if you do, you’ll won’t get good crackling forming properly. And who wants top-quality pork without crackling!
3) Allow 30 minutes per pound / 1h 5 minutes per kg, plus 10 minutes.
4) Oven temperature – preheat the oven to 220oC / 425oF / Gas Mark 7, then pop the joint into the oven for about 25 minutes.
5) After 25 minutes, turn the oven down to around 175oC / 340oF / Gas Mark 3-4. Remove the joint from the oven and baste it well, using a long-handled spoon to avoid burns. Return it to the oven and roast it for the rest of the total cooking time you worked out in (3) above.
So for a 3 lb joint, the total roasting time is 100 minutes (3 x 30 = 90, add 10 = 100 minutes). This means you need 25 minutes at the higher temperature, then 75 minutes at the lower temperature.
5) To be really safe, you should use a meat thermometer to check the temperature of the centre of the meat. The actual temperature you need will depend upon how well you like your meat cooked – but a temperature of around 70oC should be safe. If you don’t have a thermometer, pierce the meat with a skewer or small knife and check that the juices run clear when you take it out. If they don’t, then put it back in the oven.
5) Finally, the last thing to do is… NOTHING! Let the meat rest for at least 20 minutes before doing anything with it. Keep it somewhere warm while you finish preparing the other parts of the meal. During this time the meat fibres will relax, reabsorb some of the juices and the temperatures will even out throughout the meat. This will make it eat better and be much easier to carve.
6) Carving – use the largest knife you feel comfortable with, and make sure it’s really sharp. (If you don’t like using a steel, then use any of the handy gadgets available – but make sure you use something!) Hold the meat steady with a fork, and cut away from you, letting the knife do the work. And there’s nothing wrong with electric knives – maybe not for the purist, but they do the job.
You’ll notice that our pork appears darker than ordinary supermarket meat – this is a natural characteristic of the Gloucester Old Spot, which is the only breed Stockton & Stratton use. Most ordinary meat comes from ‘improved’ breeds – the main improvement is that the pigs grow quicker, so the growers make money more quickly. But Gloucester Old Spots are traditional breeds, having darker and more flavoursome flesh.
If you have let the meat rest sufficiently, the result should be lovely neat slices– if not, you’ll have a plate of cooked mince!