It would be instructive to point out that it's clearly my lot in life, whenever devising an inspired plan, to tear it to shreds with truly staggering dumbassery. This porchetta, which I have been scheming for months to procure and prepare, is a case in point. Bear with me as the folly unfolds.
Simple enough here. Just your average 27-lb. cryovacked half of a hog.
Out of the plastic it was glistening and beautiful and impossibly large. Right now I'm thinking, "What kind of dent are twelve people going to be able to put in this?"How the hell am I supposed to get this down to the smoker?" and,
"Have the vegetarians really given meat a chance?."
Rubbed the inside with about 20g of rosemary, 80g of salt and 50g of pepper. Lots of garlic would have made sense too. Next time. Then I rolled it up, and therein lied my colossal act of stupidity...one that didn't even occur to me until a day later as I sat mentally running over what I could have done better. I rolled the belly (at top in previous picture) toward me and the loin. So instead of wrapping the bacon around the loin, I proceeded to insulate the bacon from the heat. With the loin. Because that makes sense.
Blissfully unaware of my ignorance, I proceeded with the cooking.
The above pic was taken about two hours in. Average grill temp (being taken three different places) at that time was 300 degrees, internal temp was at 84.
Here we are four hours in. The internal temperature was coming up faster than I expected, so I'd allowed the smoker temperature to drop (now avg. of 270) with internal at 123 degrees. My goal was to pull it at 140 or so internal and let it rest for an hour.
After the obligatory rest the skin came off neatly, exposing massive amounts of unrendered, non-crispy fat. Tasty, but next time I'll be getting it without the skin on.
And here's what the sliced, final product looked like. Because I'd been such a chickenhead while rolling it up, and because the skin had kept most of the fat from rendering I spent a few harried minutes trimming up the slices for dinner service.The pork itself was excellent. Juicy, flavorful loin. Dark "bacon" specked with fat. Everything strongly perfumed with rosemary (I may lessen the amount I use next time) and very well seasoned. Almost, but not quite, too much salt. And juicy as hell.
So after months of anticipation, how'd it rate? I'd say it was poorly executed, if forgiving. The guests loved it and ate about half. It showed tremendous promise assuming I learn from my mistakes. And for your average weekend shortcut you can always make this with a shoulder. Me? I'm already planning when I'm going to call in the order for round two. The upside just seems too great.
4 comments:
I have never had porchetta, but it looks delicious. I think that I'll have to make one myself. I know the place to get the properly prepared pork after all. One question:
Would it be non-traditional if one were to cook the pork to a higher temperature as in BBQ so that the fat renders more fully and the meat is on the verge of falling apart? That truly would be Italian pulled pork.
Any thoughts?
Alan
P.S. Mike from Lonnie Ray's called to say he has tamales, so I'll be headin' up there to buy some tonight.
Cooking to a higher temp to render fat is a possibility. But I'm going to try going skinless first and see how that goes. That may replicate the rendering and crisping I'm looking for. We'll see. Life's an experiment.
I got the call too, and bought him out of tamales at lunch. He said he'd have more by about five o'clock, but be sure to check first.
OK - I had to call my mom and ask her about this -- the fat is suppose to smoke - not be "rendered". In other words - what makes this dish unusual is the fat is an intregal part of the meat - sort of like those little spots of fat in mortadella - you don't try to cook it out - you try to smoke it so it becomes part of the end product.
Otherwise, I would say - my invitation got lost in the mail somehow. *foot tapping wildly*
Maria
True, true...it is supposed to be extremely fatty. But the skin kept the fat from smoking and crisping up at all. I don't mean to say I wanted all (or even most) of the fat to render out. It all sat there underneath the skin, insulated from the heat (which, incidentally, in a smoker, is undoubtedly lower than with a traditional porchetta).
Did she say anything about cooking with the skin on or off? Next time I may just fire the thing up as hot as I can get it (maybe 400) and blaze away without the skin on.
And I clearly needed to run this by understanding blood relatives first before approaching the more discerning food fans out there. Next time, next time. ;-)
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