Cantonese Roast Pork Belly

Score the skin in a 1 cm cross-hatch with a sharp knife — cut through the skin but not the fat. Mix five-spice, fine salt, sugar, soy sauce, garlic, ginger, and Shaoxing wine into a paste. Rub this paste aggressively into the flesh side and down into the score lines, keeping the skin side completely dry. Place skin-side up on a wire rack set over a tray. Refrigerate uncovered for at least 12 hours and up to 24 hours. The cold, dry air of the fridge is doing critical work: it desiccates the skin, turning it papery and taut. That dryness is what allows it to blister and shatter rather than turn rubbery under heat.

Brush the skin with rice vinegar and immediately place in an oven preheated to 150 C / 300 F, skin-side up on the rack over a tray of water (the water catches dripping fat and adds steam, which keeps the meat moist while the skin stays dry above). Roast for 1 hour 30 minutes to 2 hours until the meat is rendered and yielding and the skin has turned translucent and tight. The skin will not look like crackling yet — it will be smooth, glassy, and taut. That is correct.

Increase the oven to maximum — 240–250 C / 460–480 F or grill/broiler setting. Remove the water tray. Position the pork skin-side up, close to the top element. Roast for 20–30 minutes, watching constantly. The skin will erupt into crackling in stages — small blisters appear first, then spread, then merge into a uniform, raised, craggy surface. Rotate the tray if one side is blistering faster than the other. Pull the moment the entire skin has puffed uniformly and turned golden-orange. Any pale, unblistered patch means another 3–5 minutes.

Rest the slab uncovered at room temperature for 10–15 minutes. Resting allows the fat and meat to firm slightly so that cutting does not crush the crackling or smear the fat into a mush. Do not cover — any trapped steam will immediately soften the skin you just worked so hard to achieve.

Place skin-side up. With a large, heavy cleaver or chef's knife, cut into 3–4 cm squares or 1.5 cm slices with decisive, downward strokes — no sawing. The crackling will shatter at each cut, revealing layers: amber-orange crisped skin, a thin white fat cap below, then the meat. Arrange cut-side up on a warm platter to show the layers. Serve with hoisin sauce, sliced scallions, and steamed rice or congee.