Text 265, 139 rader
Skriven 2008-01-05 19:42:00 av JIM WELLER (1:123/140)
Ärende: Grocery Guy 3
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Porchetta!
 
One of the coolest things I got to help out with during my
apprenticeship at Fleisher's was boning out whole pigs for the
making of porchetta roasts.

What? You've not heard of the mighty porchetta? Well let me tell you
it's A) amazingly delicious and B) nose to tale eating for people
who only cook once a year.

"Yes," I hear you saying, "we've all read about the whole hog roasts
that you've done out at Mark' s white trash beach villa on LI. Will
you just shut up about cooking whole animals? Who is ever going to
cook a whole friggin pig no matter how fancy you make it sound with
all those Italian names."

You know what people? You aren't going to cook most of the stuff
from the 240-some posts on this site either but I know your
food-tourist ass is going to read about it anyway, so shut up and
stop the hating.

So what is a porchetta? It's is a whole pig that has had all of it's
bones removed except for it's head, making a sort of floppy pig
suit. The pig cape is then brined in salted water for two to three
days along with the boneless loin (or loins) of another pig.

Once the pork has brined the pig is laid out on it's back, the loin
is put onto one side of the pig's belly along with fennel tops,
rosemary, thyme and garlic and then rolled up like a big porky
joint. Once the pig is rolled and tied it is then strapped to a spit
where it can be slowly rolled over a heat source like cherry or
apple wood logs or for 6-10 hours, rested and then sliced, crossways 
to reveal the layers of porky goodness with the fennel and extra
pork loin at the center.

So how do you make one of these things? OK, sure. You'll need the
following items for a porchetta that will feed 20 people:

1 30lb piglet
1 full sized pork loin (about the length of the torso of the piglet
2 heads of garlic, sliced
6-8 fennel tops, chopped
10 sprigs of rosemary stripped from the stems
Coarse sea salt
Coarse black pepper
Also:
A fire pit with spit
A good amount of dry hardwood like applewood (try a U-pick-it place
for their trimmings)
1 heavy cleaver or very heavy butcher knife
1 small saw like a hack saw with a coarse blade
1 Forschner 5 inch semi-stiff boning knife (item number 40016)
Baling wire

OK. Clear some space, a lot of space, for the pig boning. A dining
room table should do fine. You'll probably want to cover it with
some heavy plastic sheeting. Place the pig on the table and have
someone who trusts you hold the rear legs apart with the hogs back
against the table while you take your cleaver and crack the pelvis
and spine down the middle in line with the spine. Use short,
controlled blows. The cleaver should be sharp and heavy, let it do
its work. Your partner should be putting tension on the legs so the
pig splits in half more easily. Do not chop all the way through the
spine or pierce the skin! Be gentle and easy. Do not be in a hurry
or either you, your helper, or the pig will suffer some grave
consequences. Hog split up to the head base?

Sweet. Now take your saw and AFTER cutting around the first joint
above the trotters, saw off all four trotters. Next slice up from
the trotter stumps along the bone to the main bones they connect to.
Next CAREFULLY bone out the leg bones from the legs. Cut around
where the legs attach to the pelvis, you know the one you just split
with a cleaver, and free them from the pelvis socket. Done, without
cutting through the skin? Right, now bone around the pelvis, which 
will suck as it is an incredibly convoluted spacial relations test,
and the continue up the spine freeing all the meat and socking away
the bones to be roasted and boiled later to make stock. Hey! Don't
forget to gently steel your knife every 10 minutes or so. Remember,
same 20' angle on both sides and softly. You're just trying to
realign the edge not sharpen it!

OK, you've made it up the spine from the pelvis to the part with the
ribs. Run your knife down each side of each rib, letting the blade
just surf along the sides of the ribs and don't go too deep. Cut
around the ends of the ribs and then run the blade under the rib
side that is still attached to the belly. Now cut around the base of
the rib to sever the connective tissue and twist the rib loose with
a horrible crackling sound.

Ribs off? So, continue to bone out the spine till you come to the
shoulder blade where you left off boning the front legs. Cut around
the blade on one side and bone the flesh away from the flat side,
making a sort of flap and then bone around the other side of the
blade without cutting the flap loose from the rest of the meat. Now
cut loose the back side of the blade. Be careful as the other side
of the blade has a bunch of curves and a big blade in the middle
plus a lot of connective tissue. Once this is loose you can cut the
rest of the arm free of the shoulder meat and throw it into your
stock pot.

Last step! Bone the rest of the spine up to where it meets the head
and cut the connective tissue loose from the base of the head. Not
working? Sure it isn't. Use your saw to cut the spine loose from the
head. Be careful! Do not cut through the skin!

Done? Now make a brine with about 1 cup of salt and 1/4 cup of sugar
for each gallon of cold water. Stir until it's dissolved and then
place the pig and the loin into a big heavy plastic bag with the
brine and throw it into the fridge for a day.

I hope you haven't throw away the plastic tarp yet. Now remove the
pig and loin from the brine, pat them dry and bring out the rest of
the ingredients. Now spread out the pig skin side down and place the
loin off to one side of where the spine was. Sprinkle everything
liberally with salt and pepper and then spread out the fennel tops,
garlic and rosemary. Now, with your baling wire handy, roll the pig
up tightly with all the items inside and tie it securely with the
wire in as many places as you please.

What now? Put that thing on a spit! You can rent them from some
places in Queens or Brooklyn where whole animal backyard roasts are
more common. You'll need a car. Start your logs with charcoal and
let them burn down to chunky coals before you mount the porchetta
VERY securely to the spit as it will be shifting as it turns. Place
the pig on a rung that places it close enough to the coals to roast 
but not close enough to burn the skin. Let that go for 6-10 hours.
When in doubt use a meat thermometer.

Let that thing rest 30 minutes and then slice into 1/2 inch to 3/4
inch slices and eat my child EAT!

Cheers

YK Jim


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