Roast Pork Loin with Crackling and Apple Sauce

October, and the kitchen window has fogged over. There's a pork loin in the oven, the skin scored and salted, and the whole house smells of something worth staying in for. This is the smell of a Sunday going the way it should.

Crackling is the thing. Get it right and it snaps between your teeth, salty and golden, and you feel like you've accomplished something real. Get it wrong and you've got a piece of rubbery skin that nobody wants and everyone politely ignores. The secret, such as it is, is patience. Dry the skin thoroughly. Salt it generously. Give the oven a proper blast of heat at the start, then let it settle into a gentler roast for the duration. That's all there is to it.

Apple sauce is non-negotiable. Bramleys, a little sugar, a knob of butter. They collapse into a sharp, fluffy purée that cuts through the richness of the pork the way nothing else can. I've tried versions with rosemary, with cider, with cinnamon and various other well-meaning additions. I always come back to this. Apples, sugar, butter. Done.

I wrote it down in the notebook last autumn: 'Pork. Crackling good. Apple sauce too sharp, added more butter. Rain all afternoon. Right food, right evening.' That's the kind of meal this is. There are few better feelings than carrying a roast to the table, the crackling still ticking from the heat, and watching someone's face when they hear you snap a piece off.