Pigs in Parcels.

Cooking Meat

This page is not intended as a definitive guide to properly cooking meat, but as we get asked cooking times by many people it seemed like useful content to add to the site.

There are many types of meat products and many reasons why they should be properly cooked. The cooking times given on this page are approximate and remember ovens can vary. The government Food Standards Agency have web resources covering food safety, preparation and cooking.

Cooking Sausages

Our sausages are 70% meat with rusk, spice and water. The spice varies for the flavors and in some varieties there may be more water content and some varieties use bread crumb whereas most use a wheat rusk as the binder.
All the sausages are hand made and use natural hog casings. They are matured for a day or so before packing for fresh consumption within a week.
The texture can be quite crumbly and they can be prone to split if cooked vigorously. Our sausages are definitely best pricked!
Never try to cook our sausages from frozen, for best results defrost completely.

Oven Cooking. We mainly cook sausages in the oven in a shallow baking tray at around 200°C, and results are pretty good. We don't pre-heat the tray and we don't normally prick them. Turn the sausages during cooking to ensure even browning.
One tip we were given that seems to yield perfect results is to add some cold water to the tray before cooking. Most of it evaporates during cooking and the sausages brown nicely. You could even use the juice at the end to add to any gravy.

Pan frying or Hot plate. We suggest the pan or hot plate is primed with a little oil (even if non stick) and is not too hot before the sausages are put in. Indeed the sausages will be best if removed from the fridge a short time before cooking.
Heat the sausages slowly to start and turn regularly, prick to allow steam and fat to escape.
Ensure the sausages are cooked through before serving.

Grilling or BBQ. Make sure the heat is not too fierce to start with (especially on the BBQ), and prick well. Again the sausages will be best if removed from the fridge a short time before cooking.
Keep turning the sausages and slow cook for best results. on a BBQ take care that the fat does not cause flare ups and burn the skins.

Cooking Pork Joints

There are two parts to cooking pork joints. Firstly there is perfectly cooking the pork, and secondly there is producing perfect crackling!
Well the good news is that the crackling on our free range pork is consistently great with very little worry, proving that good cooking starts with the best of ingredients!

We find most joints can be roasted in the following way including belly, leg, loin and shoulder. Belly is especially difficult to over cook, but take care with the leaner cuts not to dry them out too much.

First you need to get your joint out of any packaging and dry. This can be in a cooking tin in the fridge for an hour or two before cooking. Scoring is not necessary to guarantee good crackling, but it does help with the serving. I choose to rub a little salt into the skin, but again this is not necessary if the skin is dry.

The weight of your joint will effect the cooking time. The thickness and whether it is boned will affect the overall technique.
As a rule pork should be cooked for 20 minutes per pound plus an extra 20 minutes at about 180°C (That's 44 minutes per kg plus the extra 20 minutes).
We normally start the joint off in a pre-heated oven at 220°C for 20-30 minutes and then turn the heat down to 180°C for the remainder of the cooking time.

Near the end of cooking check the pork is cooked by skewering through the thickest part of the joint and looking for clear juices, and check the crackling by tapping with a fork. If the crackling is not perfect but the meat is cooked then remove the joint to a carving dish and take off the crackling whole with most of the fat and return to the oven in the roasting tin at 200°C until ready.

In any event the meat should rest for 15-30 minutes before carving and serving.

Slow Cooking Joints

Slow cooking is used in several ways and should result in very tender and succulent meat. Many slow cook recipes are regional dishes involving many other ingredients and sauces, and may involve covered pots or open pans. Many recipes require the joint is seared before slow roasting to keep in the juices.

Typically oven temperatures are nearer 100°C.

There are many great recipe books out there covering slow cooking and we haven't got any particular favorites or recommendations. However there are some specific cooking requirements for slow cooking which make it more specialized in some cases.

We would recommend you get a meat thermometer to check that slow roasted joints have attained the required core temperatures for long enough. A meat thermometer has a probe which is used to measure the internal temperature at the thickest point. Some include a timer, and they should include instructions for minimum temperatures.

The following table is an example of the time required to properly cook a joint at various core temperatures:-