Hot Roast Pork Roll with Apple Sauce and Stuffing

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Large roasting tin
• •Heavy-bottomed saucepan for the apple sauce
• •Baking dish for the stuffing
• •Two forks for pulling the pork

Instructions

1. 1

   Score and salt the pork

   Pat the skin bone-dry with kitchen paper. This matters. Wet skin won't crackle. If the butcher hasn't already scored it, take your sharpest knife and cut through the skin in lines about a finger's width apart, going through the skin and into the fat but not into the meat. Rub olive oil over the skin, then rub fine sea salt into every score line generously. More than you think. The salt draws moisture from the skin, and that's what gives you crackling.

   If you can, leave the salted shoulder uncovered in the fridge overnight. The cold air dries the skin further and the crackling will be noticeably better for it.
2. 2

   Blast the skin

   Set the oven to its highest temperature, 240C/220C fan or as hot as it will go. Put the shoulder skin-side up in a roasting tin and roast for thirty minutes. The kitchen will smell of salt and hot fat and the skin will start to blister and pop. You'll hear it. That's the sound of crackling happening. Don't open the door. Let it do its work.

3. 3

   Slow roast the shoulder

   Turn the oven down to 160C/140C fan. Pour a glass of water into the bottom of the roasting tin, not over the skin, just into the tin. This keeps the meat moist as it cooks low and slow. Roast for three to three and a half hours. You'll know it's ready when the meat pulls away from the bone without resistance and yields to a fork pressed gently into the thickest part. If it resists, give it another thirty minutes. Pork shoulder forgives an extra half hour. It doesn't forgive being rushed.

   If the crackling has softened during the slow roast, don't worry. Lift it off the meat in one piece when the shoulder comes out, lay it on a baking tray, and put it under a hot grill for a few minutes until it crisps and shatters again. Watch it closely. The line between crisp and burnt is short.
4. 4

   Make the apple sauce

   While the pork roasts, put the chopped Bramleys in a saucepan with the butter and a tablespoon of sugar. No water. Bramleys have enough moisture in them. Set the heat low, put a lid on, and leave them for ten to fifteen minutes, stirring once or twice. They'll collapse into a rough, fluffy sauce almost by themselves. Taste it. If it needs more sugar, add a little. If it's flat, a squeeze of lemon brightens it. You want it sharp, not sweet. The pork is rich enough. The apple sauce is there to cut through it.

   Don't blend the sauce smooth. A few lumps of apple are good. This isn't baby food. It's a condiment with character.
5. 5

   Make the stuffing

   Melt the butter in a pan over a medium heat and soften the onions for eight to ten minutes until they're translucent and sweet, not coloured. Take them off the heat and stir in the breadcrumbs, the chopped sage, and a good seasoning of salt and pepper. Let it cool for a minute, then stir in the beaten egg to bind it. Press the mixture into a buttered baking dish, roughly two centimetres deep. Bake at 180C/160C fan for twenty to twenty-five minutes while the pork rests, until the top is golden and the edges have gone crisp. The stuffing should hold together when you spoon it but crumble when you bite through it.

6. 6

   Rest and pull the pork

   When the shoulder comes out of the oven, cover it loosely with foil and let it rest for at least thirty minutes. Resting isn't optional. The meat relaxes, the juices redistribute, and everything becomes easier to pull apart. After resting, lift off the crackling and set it aside. Take two forks and pull the meat into rough shreds, working with the grain. It should come apart almost without effort. If you're pulling hard, it needed longer in the oven. Tip the resting juices from the tin back over the pulled meat and turn it through. Season with a little more salt if it needs it. Trust your tongue.

7. 7

   Build the rolls

   Split the rolls and warm them briefly in the oven if you like, just enough that the crust re-crisps. Pile the pulled pork generously onto the bottom half. Spoon a good amount of stuffing on top, breaking it roughly so it nests into the meat. Add a generous spoonful of apple sauce. Snap a piece of crackling and press it into the top, so it sits proud of the roll and shatters when you bite down. Put the lid on. Press it gently. Hand it to someone. Your kitchen, your rules.

Chef Tips

• •Ask the butcher to score the skin for you. They'll do it evenly and closely, which is fiddly to do at home with anything less than a very sharp knife. A well-scored shoulder is halfway to good crackling before it even reaches the oven.
• •The apple sauce is the counterweight to everything else in the roll. Keep it sharp and rough. If you sweeten it too much, the whole sandwich goes one-dimensional. Bramleys are the right apple here, because they cook down to almost nothing and bring the acidity the pork needs.
• •Don't be timid with the stuffing. The ratio matters: you want enough in each roll that every bite has pork, stuffing, and sauce together. A thin smear of stuffing is a missed opportunity. A generous spoonful is the whole point.
• •The rolls matter more than you'd think. A soft, cottony bap will collapse under the weight of the pork and turn to paste. You want something with a real crust, a floury top, and enough structure to hold everything without fighting it. A good bakery roll or a batch of homemade ones will serve you well.

Advance Preparation

• •The pork can be roasted a day ahead and kept refrigerated. Pull it cold, then reheat gently in a covered dish with its juices at 160C for twenty minutes. The crackling should be re-crisped separately under a hot grill just before serving.
• •Apple sauce keeps well in the fridge for up to five days and improves slightly as the flavours settle. It can also be frozen for up to three months.
• •The stuffing mixture can be assembled the night before and refrigerated unbaked. Bring it to room temperature for twenty minutes before baking, or add five minutes to the oven time.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 430g)