Dan Krause
TVWBB Fan
My wife has been bugging me to make some pulled pork for the New Year. Feeling a little inspired and missing out on using my smoker, I decided to class things up a little and do southern take on porchetta.
I started off with a pork picnic roast (my first time cooking one) with the skin on.
You can find them with the bone already removed but usually with no skin and the I really wanted the skin (besides the boneless variety costs more per pound).
Here it is out of the package. Some may find meat like this gross; I think it is beautiful.
I really need to get a good filet/deboning knife. As it is my chef's knife was able to get the job done. It may not be the prettiest butcher job ever but it works.
Yes that is the bone in a ziploc bag in the background. I put it in the freezer so that it can be used later for soup.
I deeply score the skin to allow the fat to render so that the skin can crisp up.
The meat is rubbed with olive oil on all sides and then heavily seasoned with mostly salt and pepper and some sugar, granulated garlic, rosemary powder, ancho chili flakes, cayenne pepper powder, and fresh grated lemon zest.
This may be one of my best seasoning mixes to date. It smelled so good before I even cooked it.
Here is the prepping my WSM. I am using a mix of hickory and apple wood chunks for smoke.
Life is better with fire.
Here is the meat going on the smoker.
Got the smoker dialed in around 275'ish for most of the cook.
And here is what I have going so far:
Still got a couple of hours to go, but if all goes well it should be as tender as pulled pork in the center and crispy like bacon on the outside. A traditional porchetta is a whole boneless pig that is stuffed with herbs and seasonings and roasted over a fire. My version is just the leg and "rub" seasoning. Additionally, a porchetta has the consistency of a really juicy and tender pork chop with a internal temperature of around 170F. Mine should be a little softer in the middle due to fact that I am taking it to an internal temp of around 180 to 190F (whenever it is probe tender). Lastly, my version incorporates more of a smokey flavor due to the wood and methods I am using.
Hope you enjoyed. I will post pics of the final product later tonight.
I started off with a pork picnic roast (my first time cooking one) with the skin on.
You can find them with the bone already removed but usually with no skin and the I really wanted the skin (besides the boneless variety costs more per pound).
Here it is out of the package. Some may find meat like this gross; I think it is beautiful.
I really need to get a good filet/deboning knife. As it is my chef's knife was able to get the job done. It may not be the prettiest butcher job ever but it works.
Yes that is the bone in a ziploc bag in the background. I put it in the freezer so that it can be used later for soup.
I deeply score the skin to allow the fat to render so that the skin can crisp up.
The meat is rubbed with olive oil on all sides and then heavily seasoned with mostly salt and pepper and some sugar, granulated garlic, rosemary powder, ancho chili flakes, cayenne pepper powder, and fresh grated lemon zest.
This may be one of my best seasoning mixes to date. It smelled so good before I even cooked it.
Here is the prepping my WSM. I am using a mix of hickory and apple wood chunks for smoke.
Life is better with fire.
Here is the meat going on the smoker.
Got the smoker dialed in around 275'ish for most of the cook.
And here is what I have going so far:
Still got a couple of hours to go, but if all goes well it should be as tender as pulled pork in the center and crispy like bacon on the outside. A traditional porchetta is a whole boneless pig that is stuffed with herbs and seasonings and roasted over a fire. My version is just the leg and "rub" seasoning. Additionally, a porchetta has the consistency of a really juicy and tender pork chop with a internal temperature of around 170F. Mine should be a little softer in the middle due to fact that I am taking it to an internal temp of around 180 to 190F (whenever it is probe tender). Lastly, my version incorporates more of a smokey flavor due to the wood and methods I am using.
Hope you enjoyed. I will post pics of the final product later tonight.
