Got a pork belly roasting joint from Asda at the weekend, and being an engineer checked the cooking instructions carefully - they say 25 mins per Kilo plus 25 mins.
Now I'm no chef but that looked like a typo - should be 25 mins per 500g (roughly a pound), and that's what I did - still a bit pink inside so had to leave it a bit longer.
Rang Asda on Monday - helpful lady found the instructions on the website which say 35 mins per 500g ie. pretty much what I did, and she passed it on to the 'technology' department.
Just had a call from Asda saying the instructions on the pack are correct, and told me if I wanted to take it any further I had to send off the packaging or go back to the store.
After calming down, I rang back and persuaded another chap to get back to the technology dept to check again.
Can someone who know's what they're talking about confirm that 25 mins per kilo for pork is wrong (it was a 1.1kg joint)? Or should I start preparing my apology?
F
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I don't know what I'm talking about but Mr Google says, from these first three hits:
BBC 35 minutes to the pound.
deliciousmagazine 25 minutes per 450g.
roastingtime.com 50 minutes per Kg (23 minutes per pound)
I didn't go any further...
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What temperature did the label state - that obviously comes into the equation.
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I think that you are right and they are wrong.
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Isn't this something your wife should really be worrying about?
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Hottest day of the year, and you're roasting pork? R in the month?
BBD. Look in technical. What's an oven? What's a kitchen?
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It's belly so cooking time will be less than for a leg or rolled joint but 25mins a kilo is way too little. Jamie Oliver suggests a 'sizzle' at 220C than at least another hour for a 1.5kg joint.
Home bible is Hugh Fearlessly Scoffsitall; I'll see what he, asnd Mrs Bromp who does a mean pork belly roast, say tonight
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Thanks guys - yes, SWMBO is traditionally the house chef, and still does some Sundays. But she's nearing the end of her ODP course and is snowed under with coursework at the moment - she needs to do well to get a job to pay for my next car :)
Very good point about the temperature - it does say roast for the first hour at 200 fan / 250 / gas mark 9, which I believe is higher than usual, before reducing to 150 for the remaining time. Having said that, if it was 25 mins plus 25 mins per kilo, there wouldn't be any remaining time for a 1.1Kg joint, so I still think they're wrong.
I did look on the web myself, but I wanted confirmation from a reliable source :)
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200 fan is quite ot comrade so I'd follow their instructions if I was thee.
If you decide on the traditional 25 per lb + 25, don't do it at 200 fan or you'll really cook the goose!
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Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is the man for pork belly and his method works a treat. He'd advise something like this:
Assuming the butcher has already scored the skin for you, rub it with a handful of salt. If the salt is mixed with some finely chopped rosemary or sage, so much the better.
Set the oven to something hot - Gas 7 or so - and let it pre-heat while the salt does its work on the skin.
After 20 minutes or so, wipe the skin thoroughly dry. The salt has drawn out the water that would otherwise stop the skin from crisping.
Put the pork on a rack, or better still on a bed of roughly chopped onions and apples in a roasting pan, and put it in the hot oven. Set your timer for 30 minutes.
When the 30 minutes are up, check on the meat. The skin should be crisping up nicely and the whole thing making an enticing sizzle. You can spoon some hot fat over the top if you think it needs encouragement.
Now turn the oven down to 2 or 3 and put the pan back in. The beauty of this method is that it hardly matters how long you cook it for, since the fat will keep it from drying out. At least an hour to cook it through - thickness determines this much more than weight - then it's up to you.
Finally, leave enough time for a 30 minute rest after you take it out of the oven. It won't go cold but it will be much juicier, and you can use the time to finish off the apple and onion gravy with a little Somerset cider.
Have fun. I'm hungry now.
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Blimey Beesty ~ its easier to go down the chippie.
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>> Blimey Beesty ~ its easier to go down the chippie.
If I had my way...
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This is the geezer for me, I've cooked many of his recipes ~ www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/pork-recipes/pork-belly-roast
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I am just about to make a chicken, leak and mushroom pie for our tea. you wont get one of them down the chippy.
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I've heard about restaurants where the kitchen staff do that in the food, Z, but whatever the TV chefs say, you don't have to copy every detail at home.
};---)
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Only if you send your food back to the kitchen with a snotty message for the chef. I never, ever do that. If I don't think the food is up-to-scratch, I don't use the restaurant again.
Did some hotel kitchen work during school holidays many moons ago.
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Just got another call from Asda - their boffins have been looking into it and they think it should be 20 mins + 20 mins per kilo. So that's less than 45 mins total for my 1.1kg joint. I give up.
They're still 'looking into it' apparently and will call again tomorrow.
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>>They're still 'looking into it' apparently and will call again tomorrow.<<
If you play this correctly 'RADA' like you get 'mileage' out of it,
I'd push for a rib of beef if I were thou :)
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>> If you play this correctly 'RADA' like you get 'mileage' out of it,
>> I'd push for a rib of beef if I were thou :)
I'll go back to the store clutching my stomach gasping that I followed the instructions, it looked a bit pink but thought it must be ok despite going 'oink' on the plate, and ask whether they think I should call the local food safety people :-)
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...it does say roast for the first hour at 200 fan / 250 / gas mark 9...
That is hellish hot and is going to do quite a bit of cooking to what is a fairly small joint.
After an hour in that inferno it will carry on cooking for 20 minutes after you take it out.
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>> That is hellish hot and is going to do quite a bit of cooking to
>> what is a fairly small joint.
Point taken, but the other recipes all seem to suggest cooking for an hour after the initial full-blast period. The fact that the 'initial' hour mentioned in the instructions would be more than the total cooking time seems odd.
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Focus,
Agreed, I think the instructions are aimed at a larger joint.
I reckon the joint would cook safely, but we can't be sure unless we tested it.
Nor is it the way I would choose to cook a smaller joint.
Well done for getting ASDA to at least take a bit of interest, even if they do seem a bit confused.
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I think I followed the instructions as written, but based on 25 mins per 500g instead of kilo. Even then it ended up pink in the middle and I had to put it back in.
However I'm not 100% sure now that I did follow the instructions exactly ie. did I leave it in for a full hour at 200 or was it just half an hour?
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Many years ago I came home late one night from the student union bar somewhat the worst for wear and feeling peckish. I found a Matthews Turkey roast in the fridge (remember those, about the same size as a dvd cake?) and bunged it in the oven. I then passed out on the sofa.
When I woke up the next day, the kitchen was full of smoke, there was a layer of greasy, black soot on every single surface that took weeks to clean and the Matthews Turkey Roast had shrunk to the size of a fifty pence piece.
Last edited by: BiggerBadderDave on Thu 20 May 10 at 16:47
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Personally I'd put it in a pan with onions, carrots, celery, bay leaf, peppercorns and boil it for three to four hours.
Allow to cool then bake in the oven until crisp - maybe 30 minutes at 200, possibly under the grill at the end.
That will give you belly pork like you've never, ever eaten it before. Meltingly soft inside.
Otherwise, 20 minutes a pound and 20 minutes over is the general thing for pork, but for a thin joint like yours I'd think that 50 minutes at 200 should do it. Finally, provided it has been frozen, serve it pink. Freezing kills the tapeworm eggs just as effectively as does cooking. Much, much nicer just slightly pink as it doesn't run the risk of drying out.
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You're like me then BadDave - I likes my meat well done too :-D
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I can't cook:(
When it's brown it's done, when it's black it's b............!
Works for me:)
Pat
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You really need a meat thermometer. The cooking time depends on the shape of the joint too. I ignore what it says on meat packaging and go by what Delia says for 'well done' as I like my meat cooked through properly not pink in the middle. It'll also depend on which oven shelf you use for it too.
There's bound to be a 'or until juices run clear' type of get out on the pack.... it is a bit dangerous though with pork. Beef you can generally undercook without risk of food poisoning but pork you can't at all.
www.graigfarm.co.uk/roasting_tips_cooking_times.html#times
The above have got 30 mins per kg for pork + 30 minutes.
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find someone who rears animals as a hobby but slaughters them when the time arrives
you will never ever buy meat from a supermarket again
did i mention my ham shank slowly cooked in whisky and marmalade?
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...find someone who rears animals as a hobby but slaughters them when the time arrives
you will never ever buy meat from a supermarket again...
Spot on - provenance is everything.
I bought a premium-priced piece of sirloin from a supermarket which tasted of nothing at all, inoffensive, but no flavour.
Spoke to a farmer this week who rears, butchers and sells his own.
He tells me the supermarkets buy some of the best beasts at auction, but thereafter 'don't do the job right'.
According to him, they slaughter the animals at too young an age, and then sell the meat without ageing it properly.
We are only talking about a difference of months in the first case, and weeks in the other.
But the proof of the pudding, or in this case steak, is in the eating.
Generally, 'my' farmer's meat has flavour, whereas the supermarket stuff does not.
And the price is about the same.
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"it is a bit dangerous though with pork. Beef you can generally undercook"
Not really. Undercooked pork is no more dangerous than any other meat. The thorough cooking idea goes back to the days when pig meat could carry tape worm cysts and only thorough cooking would destroy them. Unless you are eating meat from an animal that has eaten infected human waste you will be OK.
As long as meat is cooked well on the outside is is normally safe as any bacterial contamination will on the surface of the meat and destroyed by heat. That is why a steak cooked rare is perfectly OK but a burger should be cooked through thoroughly as any surface contamination will have been spread throughout the burger when the meat was minced.
For best flavour and tenderness pork should have a slight hint of pinkness. Lamb should defiinitely be pink in the centre and beef anywhere from pink to red according to taste.
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Ah. Didn't know that about pork. I still prefer my meat like St Joan though....
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...Undercooked pork is no more dangerous than any other meat...
How is it beef can be eaten raw, but I've never heard of anyone doing so with pork?
I could just about live with 'a slight hint of pinkness' provided I was doing the cooking and I knew the provenance of the meat.
To me, pork, like chicken, needs to be cooked through.
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>> To me, pork, like chicken, needs to be cooked through.
Ditto - don't like the look of it if it's pink and/or smells 'porky'. Especially if it's chicken :)
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>> To me, pork, like chicken, needs to be cooked through.
I've always stuck by the principle of twenty minutes per *pound* then another twenty minutes where those two beasties are concerned. Habit learned from my mother who taught me to cook when I was about nine.
With steak, it's a case of "wipe its backside and walk it slowly past the grill" but I have to defer to Mrs. H who leaves me to dine in solitary splendour if there's too much blood on my plate!
Last edited by: Webmaster on Fri 28 May 10 at 11:52
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>> With steak, it's a case of "wipe its backside and walk it slowly past the
>> grill" but I have to defer to Mrs. H who leaves me to dine in
>> solitary splendour if there's too much blood on my plate!
>>
Avec Vino??
Last edited by: Webmaster on Fri 28 May 10 at 11:53
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>> How is it beef can be eaten raw
It's hard to get raw meat at a restaurant, though. I think this is due to most of them having only frozen meat.
Raw steak sandwiches with a little salt and butter are very nice. Cut the meat across the "grain".
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Raw steak sandwiches with a little salt and butter are very nice. Cut the meat across the "grain".
Is that raw, as in tartare, or is it Blue? I can't imagine anyone eating totally raw steak.
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next time you are in france then, try a nice steak tartare with frittes.
yummy
>> Is that raw, as in tartare, or is it Blue? I can't imagine anyone eating
>> totally raw steak.
>>
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Raw, sliced up with a sharp knife, a tiny sprinkling of salt, in between slices of buttered bread. Score the meat across if it's more than about 1/8" thick.
I dislike steak tartare and such, it may be made with decent meat, but it's been mucked about with.
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>> it's
>> been mucked about with.
thats what seperates us from dogs.
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>> >> (steak tartare) it's been mucked about with.
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>> thats what seperates us from dogs.
No, it's what separates us from the Frogs.
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>> No, it's what separates us from the Frogs.
Well played that man.
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>> www.graigfarm.co.uk/roasting_tips_cooking_times.html#times
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>> The above have got 30 mins per kg for pork + 30 minutes.
It says 30/lb (66/kg) - you don't work for Asda do you? :)
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So it does... having a blonde moment there!
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>>next time you are in france then, try a nice steak tartare with frittes.
Yummy
I might give that one a miss!
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Meat thermometer for the win.
I have one which doubles as a fork - ideal for bbqs - with a digital readout, 2 x AAA batteries, where you can set the type of meat, and it has a function where it tells you if the meat is cooked properly or not (chicken/pork/turkey) and it's done-ness in the case of beef or lamb.
Cheap as chips as well.
I'm now on my second one, after the missus' fatarse moron cousin WASHED the original one with the rest of the cutlery... ho hum....
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>> This the sort of thing Ian?
>>
>>
Very similar.
And essential in this neck of the woods - if you are working with a X minutes per 500g recipe, and our local electricity supplier decides it's powercut time for an hour or two, then the recipe goes for a burton!
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Think I'll get myself one - takes away the trial and error element.
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>> Think I'll get myself one - takes away the trial and error element.
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Indeed - and for the price of a half-decent joint of meat, will justify itself in short order.
"Daaaaad, this meat is all dry and chewy..."
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>> Indeed - and for the price of a half-decent joint of meat
£15? And that's only half-decent?? That's where I'm going wrong then :)
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>> >> Indeed - and for the price of a half-decent joint of meat
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>> £15? And that's only half-decent?? That's where I'm going wrong then :)
>>
Hey, note my nickname - I don't have Tescos!
I paid R89 for mine - that's the equivalent of 2kgs of silverside or topside beef here at present, or about 4kgs of chickens!
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And don't tell us how much you pay for the bottle of Stellenbosch red to wash it all down... :-( !
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yeah, but how much was the gun you needed to buy to protect your family?
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or the flame throwing machine attached to his car sills
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Roast pork - Crankcase
