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Perfect Roast Pork Belly with Cabbage and Bacon

James Martin’s twice-cooked pork belly comes with bacon-flecked greens and a fluffy apple sauce.

By bbcfood · From Open Recipes · 21 ingredients
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Why it works: Pork and cabbage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and 919 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 4
Prep30 min

Ingredients

Contains: milk (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Heat the oven to 325°F (160°C). Pat the pork belly dry, score the skin in a diamond pattern, rub it with salt and pepper, and set it skin side up on a rack in a roasting tin.

  2. Chop the onion, carrot and celery roughly. Scatter them in the tin with the parsley, thyme, star anise and cinnamon. Add a splash of water, then roast for about 2 hours until the meat is tender.

  3. Heat the 110g/4oz butter and honey in a small pan until melted. Brush this over the pork skin and roast at 425°F (220°C) for 20 to 30 minutes until the crackling is crisp.

  4. Check that the thickest part of the pork reaches at least 145°F (63°C). Rest it on a board for 3 minutes, then keep warm.

  5. Meanwhile, pour off the fat from the tin and set the tin over medium heat. Add the red wine and beef stock, scraping up the juices, and simmer for 10 minutes. Strain, season, and keep warm.

  6. Melt the 50g/2oz butter in a large pan over medium heat. Fry the chopped bacon until crisp and cooked through, then add the shredded cabbage and a splash of water. Cover and cook for 15 minutes.

  7. Add the diced apple to the cabbage and cook for 5 more minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

  8. Boil a pan of salted water. Halve the Brussels sprouts and cook for 5 to 6 minutes until tender, then drain and toss with the 25g/1oz butter.

  9. Carve the pork into thick slices. Serve with the cabbage, sprouts and sauce, and scatter over the chopped chervil just before serving.

By bbcfood. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Pork + cabbagetop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together919 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Star anise + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together312 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

  3. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together10,172 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, carrot, celery, parsley, thyme, star anise, cinnamon):

  1. Parsnipbetter flavor fit
  2. Potatobetter flavor fit
  3. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, carrot, celery, parsley, thyme, star anise, cinnamon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).