Hand of pork

Hand of pork is one of those traditionally-cheaper cuts. I say traditionally cheaper, because these days, as soon as a cut becomes known as unglamorous it promptly becomes re-glamorised: celebrity chefs fall over each other to sing its praises, demonstrating their own earthy savvy and thriftiness, and the price rises accordingly. Thus a lot of cuts of meat supposedly cheap are in fact not so spectacularly cheap as you might expect.


Nevertheless, as pork roasts go, the hand joint is still not much more than two thirds the price of a shoulder joint, so it's pretty good value. I ordered this one from the place I get my veg box; it arrived boned, which I wasn't expecting, but never mind. I put juniper berries, peppercorns, bay leaves and cider in the roasting dish, gave it half an hour in a hot oven, then about five hours in a cool-ish oven. The pics show it raw, finished and 'carved'. Had it with braised fennel, parsnip and celeriac, and some swiss chard.