The Wammerl is the pork belly prepared for this roast with rind.
goal :
Juicy meat with nicely puffed rind at the same time
challenge :
The meat requires slow and gentle cooking in a humid environment, while the rind needs a very dry climate for puffing
Material needed :
- cutting board
- chef’s knife
- box cutter
- casserole
- mixing spoon
- sieve
- Oven with grill or convection function
Ingredients for 4 people:
- approx. 1.5 kg pork belly with rind, preferably the lean part. Quality should be at least pasture pig.
- 2 large carrots
- 150 g celery root
- 1 leek
- 1 butcher onion or 2-3 small onions
- 3 garlic cloves crushed unpeeled
- 2 cm ginger slices
- 30 grams of tomato paste
- 100 ml low-salt soy sauce
- 300 ml very dry white wine (alternatively red wine, it depends on personal taste)
- Water or light stock (vegetables, poultry or veal)
Preparation :
- Sprinkle the pork belly with a little salt on the meat side. 3-4 pinches should be enough. The salt binds the liquid in the meat fibers and does not extract any liquid at this low concentration. Leave to rest for 30 minutes.
Pro alternative : Dissolve 10g of salt in 1l of cold water and put the pork belly in it, leave it in the fridge for 8-12 hours - Fill the casserole with 1 cm of water
- Add 2 tbsp salt and stir
- bring to a boil
- in the meantime: use a carpet knife to cut the rind crosswise or just across the grain so that the layer of fat is severed and the meat underneath remains intact (cut approx. 1/2 cm deep)
- Place the meat, skin side down, in the boiling salted water. Remove the pot from the stove and let it rest for at least 20-30 minutes.
Preparation :
- Preheat the oven to 140-150°C top and bottom heat
- Heat some clarified butter or heat-resistant oil in a casserole
- Cut the vegetables into approx. 2 cm pieces, keeping the root and leafy vegetables separate
- Sear the meat first with the flesh side until golden
- turn and sear with the rind
- when it starts to pop, remove and set aside
- Place the root vegetables in the casserole and sauté until golden
- Reduce heat to 3/4 and add the leafy greens (onions and leeks with garlic and ginger).
- continue to roast, stirring frequently, until golden
- Add the tomato paste and stir constantly so that the tomato paste is finely roasted
- Pour in the soy sauce and stir until almost completely reduced
- Add the wine and reduce while stirring until there is almost no liquid left in the saucepan
- Lay the pork belly, rind side up, on the roasted vegetables
- Fill up with water or light stock until half of the meat is submerged
- Close the pot with the lid and slide it onto a rack in the middle of the oven
- After 1.5 hours, briefly lift the lid and add aromatics. If there is not enough liquid left in the pot, fill it up again with some hot water. Close the pot again
- Cook in the oven for another hour, now the side dishes can be prepared
- After a total of 2.5 hours, remove the casserole from the oven
- Put a tray of fat in the oven and heat the oven to 200°C hot air (ideally: hot air grill).
- Take the pork belly out of the pot and put it on the rack in the oven
- Leave the oven door ajar. It is best to stick a wooden spoon in the door at the top. In this way, a very dry climate is achieved, which the rind needs for puffing
- after about 15-20 minutes the rind is crispy and the roast can be sliced
- in the meantime pass the stew through a sieve and reduce until the right taste is achieved. possibly bind something
