This is my running commentary while I perfect pork belly (again). I say again as I did perfect it however it was over a 2 day period and really not suitable without extreme planning.

PORK BELLY COOKED 25th Feb 2012

1kg piece of pork belly (note it was from coles and quite thin)

1. Preheat oven to 225C
2. Score belly very well and cover with salt to start the crackling process.
3. create a bath of apple juice / cider / stock in a pan with spices (pepper, coriander seed, 5 spice etc)
4. Put the pork in the bath making sure the liquid doesn’t touch the skin, only the meat/fat.
5. Into the oven, for 20 mins to get the crackling started (This was the plan but nothing seemed to kick off, I may have ruined it by putting oil on this, not to do in future) – THIS STAGE MAY NOT BE NEEDED AS GRILL DOES THE CRACKLING ANYWAY.
6. After 20 mins, turn down to 140C and roast for 2 hours, turning after 1 hour.
7. The meat was cooked at this stage so I turned the oven off and cranked the grill. Pork under the grill for 5-10 mins and the crackling was perfect. The meat was also falling apart, perfect.
8. VERY HAPPY.

NOTE: Next time try without the 20 mins on 225C, I may need 3 hours depending on the size of the meat. Also, try a spice rub with the salt on the crackling such as 5 spice and salt.

19-01-2019: I had 1.5kg of rindless pork belly in the freezer, I decided to re-visit this recipe. I put the piece of pork into a large dish with 50% apple juice and 50% chicken stock, rubbed the meat with salt, pepper and Chinese 5 spice. Cooked it in the oven covered (alfoil over dish) at 140c for 2 hours. At this point I checked the internal temperature, it was 95c+ / 200f+ so now it is chilling with bricks on it to flatten out.