Porchetta

[Bella S.F.]

We are switching from pulled pork to porchetta for a group of friends. After going through a number of recipes we have taken what we like from a few and have a game plan. We are going to season the pork butt/shoulder, wrap it up, and let it sit in the frig. for a couple of days. I want to cook it low and slow, but I am not sure how low and how slow. I love Nigella Lawson's recipe, "Slow Roasted Aromatic Shoulder of Pork. That one cooks for something like 24 hours. I do not think that I need to cook the porchetta that long. When I have had it in the past, it was served more as slices instead of the shreds of meat you get with really long cooking.

Has anyone made porchetta? How many hours and at what temp?

I want to cook veggies along with the pork to get good flavor. I was thinking of using fennel, onions, carrots, garlic, and potatoes. I would think that they should not be in the pan at the start of cooking, because I do not want them to disappear completely. When would you add them to the pan?

Thanks for any help you can give me.

[snowangel]

Bella, my favorite recipe/method is from the Zuni Cafe Cookbook by Judy Rogers. There's a description of the dish and method right here -- including advice on vegetables.

This is a really good recipe!

[Bella S.F.]

snowangel,

Thanks for the quick reply. I have the Zuni Cafe Cookbook and was using

that for one of the recipes. Although I love capers, I just couldn't imagine them

in porchetta. They just didn't seem to make sense to me, although Judy Rogers

does seem to know what she is doing.

Next question... Rogers' recipe calls for about a 3 pound shoulder. I probably

should have mentioned that I have a 13 pound one. Perhaps we should cut it

into 2 pieces. Or should we cut it up even smaller? And then... there is the

cooking time. How long would you cook it? That is also why I was unsure of

when to add the veggies. If the roast is cooking forever, wouldn't the veggies

just disappear.

Some of these questions are probably things that I should be able to

answer myself. I am going to blame my total brain fade on the fact that it is

almost the end of the school year and my brain is on its way to mush.

[joesan]

Hi Bella - I was also going to recommend the Zuni cookbook recipe. It is truly excellent and produces very nice pan juices also.

It's not strictly speaking 100% authentic, after all if it was you'd be using a whole baby pig and not a pork shoulder, but it is a very good approximation of what you'd find in Italy. Don't worry about the capers - use some of the salted ones, not the ones in brine or vinegar, and I think you'll find them very tasty. The only thing I left out when I made it last week were the sage leaves. I use extra rosemary because to my palate that gives a balance more like you would have in Italy.

I didn't cook vegetables in with the pork because it feels more authentic to me to have it with just some herb roasted potatoes and a salad later. Also the pan juices are so good with this that I didn't want them all to be absorbed by the vegetables.

As regards the cooking time when I've cooked a joint of 3-4lbs to the full time given on the recipe it felt a little too dry so I normally cook it half an hour less. It's a pretty forgiving recipe though. I think for such a large piece such as you have I would cut it into two pieces and cook for just about the time given in the original recipe or maybe half an hour more. The absolute best would be to use a meat thermometer if you have one and cook to the correct internal temperature.

Also do try to stuff and roll it ahead of time to let the stuffing flavour develop into the meat.

By the way it can sit for quite a while so you could make it earlier in the day to ensure that you have enough cooking time and just hold it under foil in a warm atmosphere. It also is very nice cold, try it in a salad with cold apple puree. Delicious!

[Bella S.F.]

Well, we cut the close-to-14-pound pork shoulder/butt into two roasts of about

5-6 pounds each. (We froze the rest to use to make chorizo with.) We used the

Zuni Cafe recipe as was recommended. We tripled all of the rub ingredients and

also added about 2T. of coriander seeds. They appeared in many of the other

recipes we had looked at. We cut, rubbed, rolled, and tied the roasts on

Thursday. Yesterday, we baked them at 300 degrees for 2-3 hours and ended

up turning the oven down to 250 -275 untill it was golden, moist, succulent,

amazing... enough adjectives yet???

About an hour into the cooking, we added 4 bulbs of fennel,

5or 6 onions, a good number of red potatoes, (all cut into wedges), and a couple

of heads of garlic cloves to both pans of meat. The veggies were also amazing.

Oh, what pork fat can do! One of our friends kept incisting that I had to teach her

How to make potatoes and onions like that. I had to keep telling her that the

potato and onion recipe starts with a highly seasoned pork butt.

This is an amazing winner of a recipe, and really very little work.

[joesan]

Congratulations Bella - I'm glad it worked out so well for you. I think it's a terrific recipe.

Hope you're going to post your chorizo recipe!

[Bella S.F.]

joesan, I keep trying new chorizo recipes. I am still in search of one to rival what we can get in the Mexican groceries around here. I will happily add something to the Chorizo thread from a number of years ago when I do.

The porchetta continues to amaze us. The next time we make it, I need to find a way to end up with more pan juices. There is far more pork left to the amount of pan juices. I don't want to just "water" them down with stock. Perhaps I will leave more fat on the roast than the amount recommended. Is anyone able to increase the pan drippings and still have the yummy pork taste. I realize that if I did not put the vegetables in the pans with the pork, there would be a lot more sauce. However, I can't trade how the drippings flavor the veggies, even for more sauce.