Porchetta Roasting and Grilling Discuss Porchetta in the Brick Oven Cooking forums; Drake, Re: pork shoulder in 400 degree oven after baking. What internal temperature do you cook them to - are ...

[rberg02]

Drake,
Re: pork shoulder in 400 degree oven after baking. What internal temperature do you cook them to - are they cooked to a carving temperature (140-150 degrees internal temp.) or a pulling temperature 190-200 degrees internal temp.)? I have always slow roasted or braised them the next day to pulling temp. when the oven temp has dropped to around 300-350 degrees. I'm always looking for new ways to cook pig.
Ron

[DrakeRemoray]

Ron,

Cooked to a pulling temp...I aim for 180 or more...

The outside gets carmelized, but is it so fatty it never burns...

Lots of garlic and rosemary.

Drake

[christo]

I've read the whole thing and still not sure exactly what a Porchetta is..... and what makes a stuffed baked pork loin not one.

Is it a piece of pork with skin on one side and rolled about some kind of garlicy filled goodness of filling?

Paul - please provide your recipie - the weekend is already calling to me!

Thanks

[Hendo]

Originally Posted by christo

I've read the whole thing and still not sure exactly what a Porchetta is .... and what makes a stuffed baked pork loin not one. Is it a piece of pork with skin on one side and rolled about some kind of garlicy filled goodness of filling?

My understanding is that Porchetta is traditionally a boned whole pig (or close to it), skin on, that is seasoned inside the cavity with garlic, salt, rosemary and other herbs, tied up and cooked slowly over several hours.

I found this photo of one on the web – WOW!



while an earlier photo in this thread shows part of the torso:



Now imagine making a vertical cut along the length of the torso, seasoning and rolling it. You’d end up with one loin instead of two (a mezzo Porchetta?!), like this:



This, I’ve just discovered, is what my butcher sells as Porchetta, and is designed to fit in a conventional oven. So yes – it can just as easily be one loin with some belly, seasoned, rolled and slowly cooked. It’s more common from my (limited) experience to see a whole (double loin) torso in Italy – perhaps they have bigger ovens!

Paul.

[Hendo]

Originally Posted by christo

Paul - please provide your recipie - the weekend is already calling to me!

Now having said all this, my daughter regularly uses a de-boned shoulder for her Porchetta, as that’s what the recipe (by a prominent Adelaide restaurateur) specifies. And the garlic is chopped rather than being left whole. But she says she wouldn’t vary anything as it works out so well and tastes so good!

Ingredients:
De-boned pork shoulder approx 3-4kg (6½ - 9 lbs)
8 cloves garlic
1 bunch rosemary
1 bunch sage
1 tsp fennel seeds
3 Tbsp salt

Method:
Lay the meat out flat, skin side down, on a chopping board or bench. Chop garlic, rosemary and sage and mix with fennel seeds and salt. Rub herb mixture evenly over the surface of the meat. Roll tightly and secure at intervals of about 2” with kitchen string.

Rub skin with olive oil and salt. Place on a wire rack in a baking tray with two cups of water and bake in a slow oven 110-120°C (230-250°F) for 5-7 hours. If you have access to a wood oven, preheat to about 180-200°C (355-390°F), place Porchetta in oven, close the door and leave overnight.

Remove from oven and rest until it reaches room temperature before slicing.

Well I’ve gone full circle with this thread. I’ve just had my question answered about cooking a Porchetta in a brick oven - it was with my daughter all along!!! I still think I’ll be traditional and use a rolled loin & belly though – it could be a long night!

RT – my daughter really does swear by this recipe, so I can only hope that you can convince ‘she who must be obeyed’ that the seasoning is reliable and proven.

Cheers, Paul.

[christo]

Thanks Paul!!

Looks like I'm going to be hunting a deboned pork shoulder for the weekend!

Christo

[BrianShaw]

Originally Posted by christo

Looks like I'm going to be hunting a deboned pork shoulder for the weekend!

Me too... all of these porchetta pics are making me really, really hungry.

[asudavew]

Do you think after a low-temp, long, slow-roasting that it will require a fire to heat up the oven at the end, in order to crisp the skin?

[Hendo]

I'm yet to do one myself, but as I understand it, the skin just slowly dries out and crisps up, compared to the 'high heat' method where it blisters and puffs up quickly. My daughter says that it starts to crisp up nicely after about 4 hours, so I can only suggest you check it from time to time.

Good luck!
Paul.

[Bacterium]

Cool thread....just another step of maximising the oven heat once its been fired

Eg.
-Entree
-Main
-Desert or Bread (for the next day)
-Roast Nuts or Marshmallow

and now Porchetta