A pickled, smoked leg of pork which I recently served when we had visitors to the farm for Sunday lunch. This would make a lovely lunch for Easter Sunday - which will be here before we know it !When I first moved into my own home & started cooking for myself and friends, I was a bit daunted by the thought of cooking and serving a full traditional Sunday roast – so I stuck to easy roast options like whole chicken. That was many years ago now and over time, and as my confidence grew, I have experimented with all sorts of different types and cuts of meat.
As I’ve mentioned often on the blog, the beef and ‘lamb’ (more like tough, fatty mutton !) which we get here is mostly of a very poor quality, so I tend to stick to pork roasts, especially when I am entertaining. The butcher in our nearby city does a nice rolled pork roast, and we can also choose between de-boned joints or those with the bone still in (I prefer to cook meat on the bone as cooking it on the bone helps to enhance it’s flavour, I feel). Sometimes I pre-order a gammon ham for a special treat as it’s usually only available around Christmas time, and then the leftovers I slice thinly and use for luncheon meat.
Several weeks ago we were expecting friends for Sunday lunch and I decided to order a pickled, smoked pork leg from our butcher for a change (pictured above). It weighed 4 kg’s so took some time to cook (I usually give 30 minutes per 500 gm’s/1 pound) but was tender and delicious once done. I served it with oven roasted mixed vegetables, roast potatoes, gravy, apple sauce and sauerkraut and it all went down a treat !
I don’t cook with much salt at all, and as we are not used to a lot of salt in our food we found the pork to be quite salty (due to the pickling process no doubt), so the next time I think I will soak the leg in water overnight first. (I usually rub my pork all over with salt, pepper, crushed garlic & olive oil before roasting, but was glad this time that I had decided to leave the salt out !)
With Easter Sunday coming up soon, and with pork being a popular meat (at least here in Africa ?) to serve for Easter Sunday lunch, I thought that I’d list some cooking times for different joints of pork incase anybody found them useful (I never cover my meat when roasting, but prefer to cook it in an open tray or roasting pan) -:
PORK LEG ROAST (Roast at a Moderate temperature of 180’C/350’F/Gas Mark 4)
With bone – 30 minutes per 500 gm*
Boneless – 23 minutes per 500 gm
PORK LOIN ROAST (Roast at a Moderate temperature of 180’C/350’F/Gas Mark 4)
With bone – 30 minutes per 500 gm
Boneless – 30 minutes per 500 gm
*Grams/Pounds – 500 gm’s is around 1 lb so if you work in pounds you can calculate the cooking times accordingly
As I’ve mentioned often on the blog, the beef and ‘lamb’ (more like tough, fatty mutton !) which we get here is mostly of a very poor quality, so I tend to stick to pork roasts, especially when I am entertaining. The butcher in our nearby city does a nice rolled pork roast, and we can also choose between de-boned joints or those with the bone still in (I prefer to cook meat on the bone as cooking it on the bone helps to enhance it’s flavour, I feel). Sometimes I pre-order a gammon ham for a special treat as it’s usually only available around Christmas time, and then the leftovers I slice thinly and use for luncheon meat.
Several weeks ago we were expecting friends for Sunday lunch and I decided to order a pickled, smoked pork leg from our butcher for a change (pictured above). It weighed 4 kg’s so took some time to cook (I usually give 30 minutes per 500 gm’s/1 pound) but was tender and delicious once done. I served it with oven roasted mixed vegetables, roast potatoes, gravy, apple sauce and sauerkraut and it all went down a treat !
I don’t cook with much salt at all, and as we are not used to a lot of salt in our food we found the pork to be quite salty (due to the pickling process no doubt), so the next time I think I will soak the leg in water overnight first. (I usually rub my pork all over with salt, pepper, crushed garlic & olive oil before roasting, but was glad this time that I had decided to leave the salt out !)
With Easter Sunday coming up soon, and with pork being a popular meat (at least here in Africa ?) to serve for Easter Sunday lunch, I thought that I’d list some cooking times for different joints of pork incase anybody found them useful (I never cover my meat when roasting, but prefer to cook it in an open tray or roasting pan) -:
PORK LEG ROAST (Roast at a Moderate temperature of 180’C/350’F/Gas Mark 4)
With bone – 30 minutes per 500 gm*
Boneless – 23 minutes per 500 gm
PORK LOIN ROAST (Roast at a Moderate temperature of 180’C/350’F/Gas Mark 4)
With bone – 30 minutes per 500 gm
Boneless – 30 minutes per 500 gm
*Grams/Pounds – 500 gm’s is around 1 lb so if you work in pounds you can calculate the cooking times accordingly
