Can anyone help me with cooking times for a HUGE pork joint, urgent!

JodyBPM

I have a 3.75kg boneless crackling leg joint to cook for 4pm today.

How long should I cook it for in my electric fan oven? I thought it was 35mins per 500g plus 35mins, but that comes out as about 5 hours!!!

I know I will need to reduce for the fan oven, but even 4 hours seems too long to me.

Can anyone help? (I'm guessing I should go preheat the oven now!)

Thanks guys:)

Mrs_Chip

Yes, that is about the right time per 500g. Can you cut it in half and stick the two bits in ( I am guessing you need al lof it - lots coming for dinner?), that will halve the cooking time.:)

JodyBPM

I don't really want to cut it in half, as it won't look so nice served up at the table... I have the oven pre-heating, guess I should sling it in around midday and just keep an eye on it...

Oh and there's only 7 of us for dinner (and 3 of those are children). We're just pigs! Suspect we will be eating pork curry/ pork stirfry/ pork sandwiches for a while! (in my defence the joint was whoopsied in Sainsbury's and was only £8, which is about what I normally end up paying for one half this size..)

Mrs_Chip

If you are going to use it for other meals, you could cut the end off at least, pork is quite a dry meat and better not to cook twice if you can avoid it.

Or just bung it in now and cook it all day!

I could easily chomp my way through the crackling on a huge joint of pork, it's my favorite bit!

thriftwizard

Pork's best with a long, slow roast, so as long as you can manage. Might cost a bit more but sometime's it's worth a little extra to make the most of a great bargain.

vax2002

Open tin, basted every half hour medium heat, cooked until it can be pulled apart with a long fork.

JodyBPM

OK, oven is preheated now, so I'm going to sling it in on a high heat for 45 mins to get the crackling started, and then turn it down and just keep checking on it...

Hopefully it should turn out alright!

The leftovers, some I will slice and freeze for sandwiches, and some I will cube and freeze, so that I can add these into slow cooker dishes. I just defrost and then chuck in for the last hour or so of the slow cooked meal so that they heat through. Mainly use in sauce based dishes so hopefully it shouldn't dry out...