Home-Made Crackling with Ale and Apple Dipping Sauce - Serves 6

We thought it was only fitting that we let you into a little secret of how to make damn awesome pork crackling at home, as it's very hard to beat freshly cooked, still warm porky goodness. Granted, it's a bit of a faff to do when you just fancy a quick snaffle (although these will keep for a few days in an airtight container), but hey, that's where we come in. 

This is a simple enough oven method and you can order pork rind easily from a local butcher. we primarily use shank rind (from the leg), but different rinds produce different results, so if you like a lighter, fluffier style, go for a leaner cut. Once you've mastered making the base pork crackling, it's time to bust our the flavours; chilli, paprika and fennel work particularly well and are easy to play with at home. Our own fennel flavoured pork crackling is awesome and award winning, though if we're honest, it sells pretty terribly as not everyone is sure what it'll be like. Dear friend, consider this your chance to find out!.  

The quick and nifty apply sauce is the perfect accompaniment to our crackling. 

Piggin' Ingredients:

Home-made pork crackling

• 500g pork rind, unscored
• 1 tablespoon fine sea salt

Ale & apple sauce

• 225g cooking apples, peeled, cored and roughly chopped
• 2-3 teaspoons caster sugar, to taste
• 5 tablespoons ale

Recipe:

Remove any excess fat from the pork rind, so it's about 1cm thick. Put the rind into a large colander and pour over a kettleful of boiling water, then pat dry with kitchen paper. Transfer to a baking sheet, rub over 1/2 tablespoon of the sea salt, and put in the fridge (uncovered) for 1 hour to dry out. 

Preheat the oven to 140 degrees C / 120 degrees C Fan / Gas Mark 1. Dry the pork rind once again with kitchen paper, the chop into small bite-size pieces. Toss the pork in the remaining salt, then place on a rack set over a large roasting tin and roast for 1 hour. 

After the hour, pour out the fat that has drained into the tin. Turn up the heat to 200 degrees C / 180 degrees C Fan / Gas Mark 6 and continue to roast the crackling for about 30 minutes until deep golden and crispy. Remove from the oven and allow to cool. 

For the apple sauce, put the apples, 2 teaspoons of sugar and 4 tablespoons of the ale in a medium pan over a medium heat. Cover and cook for 10 - 15 minutes, stirring occassionally, until soft and pulpy. Remove from the heat and stir in the remaining ale and another teaspoon of sugar if needed.