How can you possibly go wrong with pork stuffed with pork? Here piggy, piggy, piggy…
For those of you who have never heard of porchetta, it is a savory, fatty, mouthwatering, moist, boneless pork roast with a crispy crust and is THE pork dish of Italy. Traditionally, the body of a pig is gutted, deboned, and arranged with layers of stuffing, meat, fat, and skin. It is heavily seasoned. Then it is rolled, spitted, and roasted over wood for roughly 6 hours. Porchetta has been selected by the Italian Ministero delle Politiche Agricole, Alimentari e Forestali as a “prodotto agroalimentare traditional,” i.e. one of a list of traditional Italian foods held to have cultural relevance. The dish is said to have originated in Central Italy but came to the US with the Italian immigrants sometime in the early 20th Century. As it is with everything else, once something comes to the US, it changes. I mean, who has 6 hours to roast a pig over wood after having spent the majority of the day gutting it, boning it, stuffing it, putting it on a spit and then sewing it back up. Sheesh, this is a time intensive process. Also, once you get it cooked, who has a family large enough to devour 250 lbs of succulent, delicious roast pork? Given these various constraints, people started using suckling pigs. They’re smaller, easier to work with, less time consuming both in prep time and cooking, can be roasted in either a wood oven or a regular household oven and is perfect for a family meal. But then you have to find someone who has suckling pigs, not an easy task in DFW. So people started using pork shoulder. Finally, somebody stumbled upon the idea of using pork belly and wrapping it around a pork loin. Hmmm…let me see if I got this right. Pork belly, i.e. lardon, wrapped around juicy, moist, tender pork loin. I may have died and gone to heaven. Of course, if you tell your cardiologist you are making this for dinner he will probably tell you that you ARE going to die and go to heaven. 😀 This obviously is not a heart healthy meal but it sure is good and I would die a happy man.
So, now the question becomes how can you improve upon pork stuffed in pork roasted in the oven. As I was surfing the web looking at various porchetta recipes I stumbled upon Deep-Fried, Sous-Vide, 36-Hour, All-Belly Porchetta which answered my question. Sous vide! That’s how and that is exactly what we did. Here’s how:
Ingredients
- 1 large cut of pork belly, roughly 24 inches long and 12 inches wide
- 1 pork loin, roughly 4 – 5 lbs, trimmed, removing all fascia (also known as silver skin), leaving simply the eye
- 6 garlic cloves, minced
- 3 sprigs of rosemary, roughly 4 inches each, chopped
- 6 sprigs of thyme
- 1 Tbsp fresh ground black pepper
- 1 Tbsp + 1 Tsp salt
- 1/2 Tbsp baking soda
Instructions
First, slice your pork loin lengthwise so it lays out flat on your cutting board. Then score it.
Now, season it with 1/2 Tbsp salt and 1 tsp black pepper. Rub the garlic, thyme and rosemary into the meat making sure it is rubbed into the grooves from scoring the meat.
Roll the pork loin back up. Score and season the pork belly with 1 tsp salt and 1 tsp black pepper. Now, place the pork loin on top of the pork belly and roll it up.
When rolled, tie it together with cotton cooking twine.
Now, mix the remaining 1/2 Tbsp salt and 1/2 Tbsp baking soda together. Generously rub this mixture onto and into the skin of the pork belly. The baking soda raises the pH of the pork belly which breaks down the protein in the skin thereby tenderizing it and allowing it to crisp up beautifully when frying at the end.
Next, if you are going to sous vide your porchetta, put your porchetta in a vacuum bag and seal. If you’re not into sous vide or don’t have a sous vide setup look at the notes at the end for roasting instructions.
Place the bag in a 68 C/155 F water bath and let cook for 36 hours. Yes, that’s right. I said 36 hours! Put it in the water bath and forget about it for a day and a half.
After 36 hours remove the porchetta from the watery bath and immediately immerse into an ice bath. You will notice the juice in the bag immediately congeals. When cooled, remove it from the ice bath, remove the porchetta from the vacuum bag and remove the congealed juices (also known as aspic) from the porchetta and reserve for the sauce. Because I don’t have a full deep fat fryer or a turkey fryer, I had to cut the porchetta into two pieces. This is a good thing because there is no way Baby Lady, Quickstep and I could possibly eat this much food. So we froze the other half to finish later.
Next, I heated some oil/lard in my trusty wok to 400 F. We then fried the pork loin Chinese style in the wok pouring hot oil over the top while it is frying.
When done, remove from the oil and set aside. Take the congealed juice, heat it over medium heat, add 1 Tbsp of dijon mustard and incorporate. Slice the porchetta and heat slice in a nonstick pan to get the meat to serving temperature. Serve with sauce and enjoy! We certainly did.
NOTES: If you want to try this but don’t have a sous vide setup don’t apply the salt and baking soda at the point in the manner of sous vide cooking. Instead, place the assembled pork in your refrigerator for 24 hours to allow it to air dry (48 hours works better if you can wait that long). Then, remove from the refrigerator and allow it to sit at room temperature for 2 hours. Preheat your oven to 500°. Season porchetta generously with the salt and baking soda mix. Roast on rack in baking sheet, turning once, for 40 minutes. Reduce heat to 300° and continue roasting, rotating the pan and turning porchetta occasionally, until reach a temperature 145° F, roughly 1-1/2 to 2 hours more. If skin is not yet deep brown and crisp, increase heat to 500° and roast for 10 minutes more. Let rest for 30 minutes before carving.
REMCooks 
Lovely! I prefer 72 hours at 60C/140F since it is more juicy and just as tender.
I’ll try with pork loin and deep frying next time though!
Thanks for the compliment. 🙂 Frying was the messy part. It always is. I’m going to break down and buy a turkey fryer as it does a much better job forming the crust and there isn’t nearly the mess to clean up. My cardiologist is just going to bitch at me.
I’ve heard about those turkey fryers. Fire patrol has more reason to bitch than the cardiologist!
Yep. People do some really stupid things with turkey fryers. I’m a fire lawyer and have seen all kinds of things. My wife is stunned I’m even talking about getting a turkey fryer. 😮
I am too, now that I know you are a fire lawyer!
I love porchetta, although my family’s method of preparing it has changed over the years. Last winter, i prepared one the “old” way, much to the surprise of my Zia. This winter i’ll prepare one in one of the “new” ways. Rest assured, none will be cooked sous vide. I’ll leave that for someone in the next generation to discover and try. I’ll leave a note telling them to come here if they want to learn how it’s done. I’ll include that last picture. If that doesn’t get them here, nothing will. Well done!
Hi John. Thanks for your nice compliment. I just noticed your recipe for porchetta from last winter. It looks and sounds wonderful. I also loved the part about your Zia and Uncle having one prepared for their wedding reception and the local bakery allowing them to use their oven to cook it. Pretty sweet.
I wish I was your neighbor and could take a little taste. It must have been mouthwatering good. What sous vide machine do you have?
Thanks. It was delish! I bought a immersion circulator from Underground Circulators in North Carolina and coupled it with a 12 x 18 lexan tub. I paid $495 for the immersion circulator and $30 for the lexan tub and lid. So far, I like it a lot.
My husband keeps reading about them. Thanks for the information…I’ll pass it along.
You’re more than welcome. It’s a very interesting technique. I like my setup because the 12 x 18 lexan tub is large enough to do a whole pork loin.
This is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen…I can’t wait to try this! And actually, if you can get your pork from a well raised pig, it’s far more heart-healthy than many of the things we consume in a modern American diet!
Thank you for your very nice compliment! I am pleased you liked this recipe enough to comment. I agree that commercial pigs are not what they used to be. Fat conscious dietitians have taken all of the flavor out of commercial pork which is sad. Nowadays you need to brine pork to add flavor, something unheard of 30 years ago. I would love to get a fresh pig but I would have to buy a whole pig and simply do not have the storage space. As such, you simply make do with what you have.
Hmmm, I just may need to try this! No Sous Vide at home but a lot of will, patience and hunger 🙂 Beautiful recipe and I loved the look of the dish too.
Absolutely beautiful, Richard! I don’t do sous vide but have enjoyed reading about the process. I’ve ben to a North Carolina family reunion “pig pickin'” as the call them, where my granddad and cousins did smoke a whole pig over a fire pit (in a deep hole dug in the ground). It did take all day long, but man, that was the best, most tender pork that just fell apart when you pulled with your hands. So good. Lord, what memories your gorgeous pork evoked. I’m sure yours is just as good, too!
Hi, Peggy. Thanks for your nice compliment. There are things I really liked about this dish and things I did not particularly care for. Sous vide is a wonderful technique and I’m glad I am venturing into it, slowly. It can change texture, the mallard effect doesn’t exist in sous vide and regardless the amount of seasoning (unless it’s salt) it really doesn’t incorporate into the meat. I’m finding rubs are pretty much useless and I haven’t tried marinades. Like I said, it’s a slow process. This was very tasty and the crispy frying was a neat technique although not as easy at it seemed. Nonetheless, the pork loin interior seemed a little soft. I was going to repeat this dish at Christmas, except roasted in the oven, but then the idea of a suckling pig piqued my interest. Someday I will do this again but roasted and see if I like it better.
This looks really great but I was wondering why you would cool the final dish down in an ice bath. Nice work and great site.
Hi, Andrew. Thanks for dropping by and the nice compliment. Hope to see you back. To answer your question, you want to cool the meat because you are going to fry it in hot oil to get your desired crust. As such, you want the meat cold so as not to overcook it when frying.
Aloha…was wondering if you could use a heat gun to crisp the skin? no frying needed if you are only crisping the outer layer of skin.
Perhaps. I haven’t tried that. I would be concerned about the cutting board or other apparatus upon which you placed the pork because it will be subjected to pretty significant heat to cause the outer fat layer to crisp.
I recently bought the Anova Sous Vide for 199 and have done inside chuck roll, chuck short ribs and today pork loin for 12 hours at 138°…..AWESOME, cast iron skillet to crisp up at the end OMG!!!
jon
I’ve done an all belly sous vide porchetta before and it turns out well, but it’s too rich. I like your idea of rolling the loin inside to balance it out. I think I’m going to roll pork shoulder inside instead of loin. I think it will hold up well in a long cook since it’s a tougher meat with lots of fat and connective tissue.
That sounds like a great idea. Let me know how well the shoulder held up compared to the loin.