Recipe All Belly Porchetta, skinless

medtran49

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Craig and I both agree that this was the best porchetta we've ever made.
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1 piece around 4-pound skinless pork belly. I started out with a 5.29 pound belly, cut off the thicker end for another use, so that left a fairly equal thickness of pork belly.

Kosher salt
1 Tbsp black peppercorns
1-1/2 Tbsp fennel seeds
1/2 Tbsp crushed red pepper flakes
1 tsp dried rosemary
1 tsp dried thyme
4-5 garlic cloves, microplaned
Microplaned zest from a large lemon, make sure not to get the white pith.

1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 Tbsp kosher salt

Score the outside fat of the pork belly fairly lightly, trying not to cut through to the meat, flip over and score the meat side a little more deeply, but not all the way through.

Make up a cure by toasting the fennel seed and black peppercorns just untl fragrant, cool, then coarsely grind in a spice grinder, along with the dried thyme and rosemary, and red pepper flakes. Mix with the microplaned lemon zest and microplaned garlic cloves. Make sure everything is well mixed together, making sure to break up the garlic. Liberally salt the meat side of the pork belly, then rub the cure in, making sure to get down into the cuts. Tightly roll and tie. Mix the baking powder and salt together, then rub the outside. Sit on a rack in a roasting pan, cover lightly with plastic wrap and let it sit at least overnight up to 2 days. Take the plastic off the morning you are going to cook so outside will dry some.
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Take the porchetta out of the refrigerator. Set up a 2-zone fire with charcoal and a couple of chunks of apple or whatever other wood you want. Place a drip pan in the middle between the coals. Set the fire up to keep temps between 325 and 350. Place the porchetta on the rotisserie and cook for about 3 hours to an.internal of 170 to 175.
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About 30 minutes before the porchetta is done, spoon off most of the grease into a heavy glass measuring cup then put in some parcooked fingerling potatoes or small new potatoes to finish cooking. Keep the drippings to use like bacon fat.

The meat should be moist and tender, and the fat rendered and crisped very nicely.
 
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Two of our favorite ways to use up leftovers, and honestly we like these as much as the porchetta itself, are to make sliders using thin slices of porchetta, caramelized onions, Gruyere cheese and a roasted vege aioli. The other way is on a pizza, ultra thin slices (think prosciutto thin), thinish white sauce with some ParmR, sweated leeks, cooked until dough is almost done and porchetta slices are crisping, then 1-3 eggs cracked onto the pizza depending on size, and finished until whites are just set. After it comes out, break the yolks and let them spread out, eat.
 
Looks Awesome!!!

Question for Craig. I have the same rotisserie setup that he has, but I noticed he had all the coals on one end, whereas I do mine with two beds of coals on either side of the meat (see photo below). My question is, does your setup cook the meat evenly from end to end?

RicoChickCookingTTT.jpg


CD
 
He had 2 beds of coal, they were just at each end, rather than sides. Why he did that I don't know, he'll have to answer. The fat on the very edges of the ends where the fire would have been the hottest was really crisp and dark brown, but not burned and was actually PDG, kind of like chicharrones. The roast itself was evenly cooked otherwise.

That was an end piece on my dinner plate BTW, just with the cut side up.
 
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He had 2 beds of coal, they were just at each end, rather than sides. Why he did that I don't know, he'll have to answer. The fat on the very edges of the ends where the fire would have been the hottest was really crisp and dark brown, but not burned and was actually PDG, kind of like chicharrones. The roast itself was evenly cooked otherwise.

I can see how that would work with all the fat on a porchetta. Not sure it would work on a chicken. I like crispy chicken skin, but that might be a bit too crispy.

But, once again, the meal looked great.

CD
 
Smaller than even grating or zester, unless you use really fine ones. Mine nearly liquifies garlic and ginger, and the zest is extremely fine.

Microplanes come in different sizes BTW. You can get them for hard cheeses for grating for garnish, which can also.be used for chocolate. There are also slightly larger ones for chocolate. Then you can get fine ones for fine zesting or the garlic/ginger as above.
 
Smaller than even grating or zester, unless you use really fine ones. Mine nearly liquifies garlic and ginger, and the zest is extremely fine.

Microplanes come in different sizes BTW. You can get them for hard cheeses for grating for garnish, which can also.be used for chocolate. There are also slightly larger ones for chocolate. Then you can get fine ones for fine zesting or the garlic/ginger as above.

Ah...I was mixing up the terminology. I was thinking mandoline when you wrote microplane. I do have one that looks like this, and it does as you say:

open-uri20180126-46-oq5mnp?version=1516995512.jpg
 
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