Oven-Roasted Pork Belly with Garlic – Ukrainian Salo Snack

Step-by-step recipe

1. Although oven-roasted pork belly is easy to make, there are still a few important points. The most important one: the pork belly must be absolutely fresh, ideally never frozen. At any farmers' market you can always buy fresh salo that suits you. The meat-streaked belly is usually more than 5–6 cm thick. While you are at the market, pick up some homegrown garlic – it is more fragrant and pungent.
   
2. Grind the spices for the pork belly in a mortar. Put black peppercorns, allspice berries, coriander seeds, bay leaf and salt into the mortar and grind them – not especially fine, but thoroughly, so there are no very large pieces. You can of course use ready-ground spices, but their aroma is far weaker than freshly ground. Amounts of salt and spices as a guide: 8–10 black peppercorns, 1–2 allspice berries, 1 tsp coriander seeds, 1 bay leaf and 1 tsp salt.
   
3. Fresh pork belly doesn't need to be soaked in water, let alone washed. With a sharp knife, cut the fat almost all the way down to the skin to make squares held together only by the skin. The squares should be roughly as wide as the fat layer is thick. It is important that the squares don't fall apart and stay attached to the skin.
   
4. With a thin sharp knife, make a deep hole in each square for studding with garlic. Sprinkle the pork belly all over with the spice mix, without missing a spot. Then rub the spices in, spreading them evenly. Peel the garlic, set aside about a third of the cloves and crush them in a mortar or grate them, and cut the rest lengthwise into 3–4 pieces – you'll get thin slivers. Coat the whole piece with the crushed garlic, trying to get most of it into the cuts between the squares. Stud the pork belly with the garlic slivers. Then let the garlic-coated pork belly rest for at least 20–30 minutes, preferably an hour.
   
5. Place the pork belly on a baking tray skin side down and put it into an oven preheated to 200°C for 45 mins. You may need to add a little more time for the fat to roast through. But as soon as you hear the fat start to sizzle, see it browning and fat running out onto the tray, the pork belly is done – you don't even need to taste it.
   
6. As my grandmother used to say: “For God's sake! Let it cool down!!!” After that, as a rule, things get a bit out of hand. A slice of the very freshest bread and a few slices of pork belly. The finished pork belly keeps in the fridge – just seal the container tightly so that everything doesn't absorb the smell of garlic.