Real Pork Roast (Flæskesteg)

You know, the irony isn't lost on me: For over 5 years I lived in the US, where I believe myself to speak the language more or less fluently. Not once did I try to enter a butcher's shop to ask for one of the right cuts of pork to make Danish pork roast - I just got by using the pork bellies that I did find at stores. Despite this, after having been in Switzerland for less than a year, I decided to actually go and ask for a more appropriate cut of pork .. in my broken beginners French, no less.


So here it is - Danish pork roast, the way it's supposed to be. The actual recipe is like that for the pork belly, so this is mainly just for the pictures.

The cooking time is approximately 1 hour per kg (30 minutes per pound). The procedure of having the skin down in the water for the first half hour or so not only softens the skin so it is easier to score, but it also cooks out some of the fat which makes it easier to crisp the skin the right way at the end of the procedure.

I have a different oven now, one that has the broiler in the actual oven room, so for the final crisping of the skin I could use that - in less than 4 minutes the skin bubbled up very nicely and became perfect... and only a little burned. OK, so I should have kept a better eye on it, but I didn't realize trouble arose that quickly. And yes, the gravy isn't brown - I don't have gravy colouring here and didn't have the time to experiment with alternatives for this.