Pork Belly Whole

We very much respect the husbandry involved by the farmers who rear the outdoor bred pork we sell. Because the animals live outdoors, they tend to carry more fat than the slimy pale pink supermarket pork many have become used to.

Pork meat should be a mid to dark pinky red, and taste utterly wonderful. Once you have tried pork from a free ranging, socialised, happy pig such as those sold by Northfield Farm, we hope that you will never return to the miserable intensively reared British pork or that more commonly available, imported Danish and dutch pork.

Free-range outdoor-bred pork belly, with its glorious layers of fat and richly coloured lean meat, is THE joint for slow cooking. At its easiest, score the rind of your belly joint and rub with olive oil, salt and pepper. Lay it on a couple of peeled and roughly chopped onions in a roasting tin.

Add a mug of water (or wine or apple juice), cover tightly with foil and cook in a low oven 130-140ºC for about 3-4 hours. Uncover at the end of the cooking time, raise the oven temperature to 200º + and cook for a further 20-30 minutes to allow the rind to crackle.

There are many further recipes available, using spices and inspiration from the rest of the globe – pork belly is a firm world favourite – for sprinkling with fiery spices from Mexico or the deep south of America, or as part of a delightful curry in malaysia, goa or vietnam.