Hi, im looking for guidance for cooking times for a 7kg boned leg of pork, medium, i intend to sear the the joint to crisp the crackling on the BBQ after patting it dry.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Rolled or butterflied? This will make a bit of difference to the timing.
I’d suggest 140F/60C for temperature. You’ll still get a slight blush of pink.
Hi, thank you for your reply, its rolled, its just the timing i need help with, i have one go to get it right lol.
And I figure you’re after a nice slicing texture. I’d go with 12 to 18 hours.
That would be correct figuring lol, i will go with that, would you do as i intend, sear on the BBQ or remove the skin prior to sous vide and cook it flat in the oven?
I don’t have a BBQ. 
So I’d probably pan sear it or give it a blast in the oven. But BBQ should work fine.
Cool, thanks very much for your help, greatly appreciated.
1 Like
Ok i cooked the boned leg for 19 hours on 71deg C, at some point the vacuum bag failed, it was a bit like squeezing a marrow into a marigold glove to be fair but no real damage done.
The meat was tender like pulled pork when warm and very sliceable when cold, everyone commented on how tender it was.
The crackling was a disaster in as much as when placed on the well fired charcoal BBQ the fat ignited and started to char, so i removed the joint and peeled off the skin with a view to cooking it with the charcoal removed from underneath, it still didnt crisp up so if i did it again i would remove and cook it flat in the oven as a seperate entity.
All in all though i was very pleased with the result, thanks Ember for your advice.
Just for future, I’d be inclined to go with 60C for a nice slice while hot. It’ll give you a very mild blush. 65C will give you solid white, but will slow the conversion to pulling texture.
For crackling to work you need not only a high heat but a dry heat. Airflow will help remove moisture. I’ve had a bit of a play with a heat gun (of the kind used for striping paint) but that I had to play with was not powerful enough. However, it gave a good indication that it would do the job.
The thing with crackling is that it needs the fat to have the underneath side stay lush but high dry heat to get the surface to blister and pop.
I’d say you did just about as well as can be expected, maybe cooked a bit longer than necessary at that temperature but that’s a matter of personal preference.
That’s a pretty big piece of meat to wrangle on a charcoal grill. You did right having some distance from the heat source but it’s hard to do with that amount of meat on most home-sized grills.
In the days before SV i learned from Walter Jetton, LBJ’s barbecue chef, that you need about 24-inches from a bed of charcoal to eliminate charing. He would get a beautiful crisp and bronze finish on those pigs.
I get decent crackling on my SV Porchetta using my oven. You shouldn’t have to remove the fat cap, but of course it makes getting the crispness you seek a lot easier.
Pay extra attention to getting a dry surface, sometimes hard to do if you’ve scored the fat. It takes some work. When thoroughly dry, and just before searing, apply a Kosher salt and baking soda rub and you should achieve a great outcome. It doesn’t take much, bout a half teaspoon of baking soda to 2 tablespoons of salt should do you.
Thanks both for your replies, Cn your right about the wrestle on the bbq, ive got a large kettle webber but with a cast iron grill kit far better for not sticking, and i usually run with 50/50 charcoal cover.
Ember it seems the common denominator here is dry heat fro the crackling, all good stuff to take on board, to say i was under pressure to get this right was an understatement lol, good though Anova has earned her place in the kitchen
1 Like