5kg of pork belly with ribs and excess fat removed
25g salt
2 tbsp each of thyme, rosemary and sage
1 tbsp fennel seeds
8 garlic cloves, chopped or crushed
2 tbsp olive oil
6 tbsp honey
freshly ground black pepper
METHOD:
Preheat the oven to 230C. Lay the pork belly skin-side down onto a clean flat surface.
Sprinkle the salt and coarsely ground black pepper over it, rubbing them well into the meat with your fingers. Sprinkle the herbs, fennel seeds and garlic evenly over it.
To tie up the meat, you will need around ten pieces of string, each about 30cm/12 inches long. Carefully roll the meat up width-ways and tie it very tightly with string in the middle of the joint. Then tie at either end about 1cm/½ inch from the edge and keep tying along the joint until you have used up all the string. The filling should be well wrapped, if any excess filling escapes from the sides, push it in.
Rub the remaining olive oil, salt and pepper all over the joint and place in a greased large roasting tin.
Roast for 15 mins on 230C then reduce the oven temperature to 150C and cover with foil for around 3 hours.
Remove the joint from the oven and coat with honey, drizzling some of the juices from the roasting tin all over it too.
Slice the joint thinly on a board and serve with the sauce in the roasting tin that the meat has created.
Best served with roast potatoes and a nice glass of red!