Peccary Porchetta

Our friend Nancy dared us to make this Italian version of slow roasted pork roast and we had no choice but to take her up on it. As you know, the Big Guy's hunting partner bagged a little Peccary also known as Javelina during the annual hunt in February and left us with some choice pieces, some of which have gone into chorizo and others coated in panko and fried.

Of course, in our version of porchetta we took some liberties and included a piece of wild piglike beast. Coated in herbs and left to marinate overnight in the refrigerator it was tucked into a seasoned butterflied pork loin which in turn was wrapped in spice coated pork belly with the skin intact and then tightly tied.

It's pretty darn hot in our neck of the woods so to have the oven on for an extended period of time would be ludicrous. The Big Guy cooked the roast on the barbecue, indirect method for almost 4 hours starting it off at a very hot 425 for a half hour, then lowering the heat to 250. He does this using a charcoal double barrel "Q", but you could certainly accomplish the same thing on a gas barbecue if you wish, though I'm assuming the smell of this piece of "poik" cooking in the oven would be darn near intoxicating.

The end product is very tender and moist and the crackle is ...well it's just amazing. The combination of spices is pretty darn delicious as well. Be sure to let the roast rest at least 20 minutes before slicing it as thinly as possible because it really does taste better that way.

Quite honestly, it is a pretty labor intensive method of cooking a pork roast and while delicious and tender, it's not something I would choose to eat a lot of because of the incredibly high fat content. Yup you heard right - this is the Cream Queen speaking. Hey, I choose my excess calories wisely.

Anyway, if you are going to try this on your own, check out Kevin's version at Closet Cooking for the directions that we rather loosely followed. I'm not going to include our version since it is doubtful that many of you will have the opportunity to enjoy javelina.  I will though pass along a few "hints".

1. Be sure to use a shoulder or butt roast as Kevin indicates in his recipe. The loin we used, although moist and delicious may be just too lean a cut of meat.
2. Make sure the pork belly you purchase is large enough to wrap around the entire piece of pork you're using. Our pork belly (actually 2 of them) were very thick and quite lean, so we sliced each piece in half and just used the fatty skin side portions, which didn't quite cover the entire roast. I'm not sure it made a lot of difference in flavor, but it just doesn't look as pretty.
3. Be sure to prick the skin side of the pork belly really well as we did, or "cut diagonal criss crossing lines across the fat side of the pork belly" per Kevin's instructions or you'll have a real mess on your hands once the roast starts to cook.
4. Roll and tie the roast as tightly as you can. It will cook more evenly and the slices will look prettier on the plate after it's cooked.
5. We found the fennel flavoring to be quite strong, so you may wish to decrease the amount of fennel seeds by one half.

Oh there's just one more thing before I forget. Nancy, when will you be dropping by to pick up the leftovers?

 

Comments

[Nancy]

I wish I could say I was on my way now, but the leftovers would probably have been devoured by the time I arrived. It looks absolutely delicious and as moist as the porchetta we enjoyed in Italy. This is one recipe I will have to attempt. Thanks for cooking it and proving to me that maybe even I could do it.

[June]

Nancy - of course YOU can do it! I have absolutely no doubt! AS for leftovers, I figure it'll be amazing in sandwiches and caramelized topping a salad like we've had in the past. Thanks for putting the boots to us to give it a try. LOL

[Mary]

What a fabulous piece of meat. It looks moist and you've rolled it perfectly. I've bookmarked your recipe. it's too good not to try. I hope you have a great day. Blessings...Mary

[June]

Thank you Mary - that's kind of you to say. I'm very lucky to have great help in the kitchen when it comes to doing things like this! Let us know what you think when you try it out, OK?

[Nanan]

Now that is a thing of beauty!!!!!!!

[June]

Lea - thank you! You'll be seeing quite a bit of it during the week. LOL