For an impressive Sunday lunch option, give our pear and cider roast pork a go.
We've opted for a deboned loin of pork which cooks faster and you'll have plenty of surface area for a super crispy finish to the crackling.
We've added in fresh, seasonal pears during the cooking time, and they become lovely and caramelised. Plus, we've added cider to the base of the dish that intensifies the gravy at the end.
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Yields:
8 serving(s)
Prep Time:
30 mins
Cook Time:
2 hrs 5 mins
Total Time:
2 hrs 35 mins
Cal/Serv:
682
Ingredients
1
boned loin of pork
2tsp.
fine salt
3Tbsp.
oil
1tsp.
sea salt flakes
4
pears, halved
3Tbsp.
flour
400ml
pear or apple cider
250ml
chicken stock
Directions
Step 1
Score pork skin at 1cm intervals with a sharp knife, cutting through the rind and fat but not down to the meat. Rub pork all over with fine salt, working it into all the ridges of fat. Chill in the bottom of the fridge for 1 hour. Remove, pat totally dry and brush off excess salt. Preheat oven to 220°C (200°C fan) mark 7. Roll up the pork, tying with kitchen string at 2cm intervals.
Step 2
Put into a roasting tin. Rub in 2tbsp oil and sprinkle with salt flakes, then roast for 25min. Reduce temperature to 190°C (170°C fan) mark 5 and roast for a further 1hr 40min, or 25min per 450g. Test meat is cooked with a meat thermometer – it should read 70°C. Remove from oven and transfer meat to a board to rest, covered in foil.
Step 3
Brush pears with remaining oil, put into a baking dish and cook for 30min.
Step 4
Pour contents of the roasting tin into a jug. Then pour off excess fat, leaving just 3tbsp fat and the sticky brown juices for the gravy. Pour into medium pan, add flour, mix to a paste and cook for 1min, stirring. Gradually pour in cider and stock, whisking until smooth. Simmer over a medium-high heat for 8min or until thickened to your liking.
Step 5
Remove string from pork. Slice and serve with gravy, roast potatoes, seasonal greens and half a roast pear per person.
GH Tip: For crispy crackling, make sure rind is bone dry.
If crackling isn’t crisp enough once the meat is cooked, remove it from meat in one piece. Put on a rack in a roasting tin and return to oven for 30min, turning halfway, to finish cooking while meat rests.
An experienced and highly skilled team of food writers, stylists and digital content producers, the Good Housekeeping Cookery Team is a close-knit squad of food obsessives. Cookery Editor Emma Franklin is our resident chilli obsessive and barbecue expert, who spends an inordinate amount of time on holidays poking round the local supermarkets seeking out new and exciting foods. Senior Cookery Writer Alice Shields is a former pastry chef and baking fanatic who loves making bread and would have peanut butter with everything if she could. Her favourite carb is pasta, and our vibrant green spaghetti is her weeknight go-to. Lover of all things savoury, Senior Cookery Writer Grace Evans can be found eating crispy corn and nocellara olives at every opportunity, and will take the cheeseboard over dessert any time (though she cannot resist a slice of tres leches cake). With a wealth of professional kitchen know-how, culinary training and years of experience between them, they are all dedicated to ensuring every Good Housekeeping recipe is the best it can be, so you can trust they’ll work (and if they don’t – we’ll have the answer for why*) every time (*90% of the time the answer is: “buy an separate oven thermometer”!).
