Do you know about porchetta?

Market Made Porchetta

Presale from 10/9 to 10/29 with in-store pick ups starting 10/30 to 11/1

Our Market Made Porchetta is multilayered in textures, flavors and aromas. It starts with Niman Ranch skin-on pork belly wrapped around boneless pork loin, stuffed with a fragrant blend of fresh herbs, garlic, spices, and lemon zest between the layers. It’s scored, tied, and ready for your oven — no prep needed. It's a Roman street-food favorite that shines with its legendary crisp, crackling skin. It works great as a festive centerpiece served with hearty greens like broccoli rabe and a heavy drizzle of a bold extra virgin olive oil.

Please note: There is a 4-pound minimum when ordering porchetta, with additional ordering available in 2-pound increments up to 18 pounds total. You'll want leftovers, they're are pretty dang spectacular.

Market-Made Porchetta - $16.99/lb

THE WHY

My first experience with Porchetta was in Des Moines, Iowa, at the Niman Ranch Hog Farmers Appreciation Dinner (HFAD). The Marczyk team was responsible for dessert. We had chosen to make apple pie and serve it with our Marczyk’s Best Vanilla ice cream. 800 people. 100 pies. Suffice to say, we were busy. (People who know me know what this means: Iowa heirloom apples, peeled, cored, sliced, from-scratch butter and lard crust, hand-crimped edges…). Lots of work.

At about 1:30 AM, just as we were finishing the apple project in the Embassy Suites prep kitchen, I met Sara Jenkins, co-creator and owner of Porchetta NYC. She was kind of a legend, and I honestly thought “porchetta” was a diminutive piggy name for a restaurant that probably dabbled in porcine delights of some kind. What I didn’t know was that Porchetta was totally a thing, and that Porchetta from Porchetta NYC was basically like Ratatouille from Gusteau’s.

She was panicked. Instead of five nice, boneless, fully trimmed pork middles showing up, five whole, bone-in, damn-near-half-a-pigs were hanging in the walk-in. She needed a butcher.

Sara jumped in on the apple project and asked the question: “So…anyone here know how to break a pork middle?”

No one said anything.

“Anyone here know what a pork middle is?”

I said I did. Within five minutes, we had the first slab on the block.

I got to work with the Zen-Master-Yoda of Porchetta for four hours, and that is when I learned about Porchetta. Sara Jenkins spent four hours talking about nothing but Porchetta. It was illuminating.

We boned, trimmed, tied, scored, stuffed, herbed, spiced, and seasoned the beasts to let them rest in the kitchen “overnight.” It was 6 AM by then, and they had to cook for eight to nine hours minimum! I grabbed a quick nap and reported back to the kitchen at 9:00.

By now, I knew just what was going to happen. The perfectly scored, rolled, and tied roasts (these things are three feet long) would cook gently for hours at a very low temperature. During this time, the pork would become fully cooked until practically melting, like a pig roast. The skin would start to unfurl at the score marks, forming little diamond-shaped skin morsels. And there would be fat.

The purpose of this low-and-slow cooking is to render most of the fat from the meat and skin. The method also yields perfectly soft, almost braised meat that is hard to describe. All the collagen and connective tissue become one with the meat and fat.

With real Porchetta, you get practically half of the pig rolled into a “slice.” You have belly, loin, tenderloin, rib meat, a little shoulder, and sirloin, all cavorting with incredible spices, herbs, and garlic, cooked forever. This is good.

The magic really happens once the Porchetta is fully cooked. To finish the roasts, we carefully discarded the accumulated fat and returned the meat to a very hot 450°F oven. Within about 10 minutes, the skin started turning from dull tan to chestnut brown and, most amazingly, it kind of puffed up! (I am slow to the take on lots, but this was revelatory.)

What you end up with is basically the best pork roast you’ve ever had, along with perfect, crispy, puffy pork rind in cute little diamond dice. The thing is magnificent.

Sara serves hers a number of ways, but my favorite is on ciabatta with braised broccoli raab and really good extra virgin olive oil.

Simple. Perfect. Delicious. A true expression of tradition and love of craft.

THE HOW

The process comes down to six steps:

Pre-plan → Temper → Roast → Finish → Rest → Serve

1. PRE-PLANNING

You’ll need to account for the following when planning your timing:

• Roasting: Allow roughly 1.5 hours per pound. There’s a curve here: smaller roasts take less time per pound, larger ones take more, up to a point. It’s like English: for every rule, there’s an exception. This is a GUIDE.

• Finishing: Allow 45 minutes for removing fat from the pan, reheating the oven, and finishing the roast.

• Resting: Allow 30–60 minutes. The larger the roast, the longer the rest.

• Boom.

2. TEMPERING

From your work-backward time, allow 2–4 hours of tempering at room temperature.

Remove the Porchetta from its packaging, dry it with paper towels, and place it on a plate or roasting pan. Cover loosely with foil or a towel.

This is, candidly, an optional step. I know some people might think it would make the meat unsafe. This is how I was taught; it works. You have to make choices, and I’ll leave these up to you.

3. ROASTING

Oven temperature: 275°F

Place the Porchetta in a roasting pan with sides high enough to capture the inevitable fat, but not so high as to inhibit good airflow in your oven.

I like to raise mine on a rack, but this is optional. Either way works. If you don't use a rack, I recommend cooking on parchment or a Silpat.

Once this thing gets going, there will be fat, so stay vigilant because fat is fuel. I don’t want to scare you, but you can’t imagine what a shit show eight ounces of pork fat on fire causes. Your oven is too low to ignite the fat, but be careful about how much accumulates. Drain or skim as necessary, especially with larger Porchettas.

This is a long, slow, mostly unsupervised process. Enjoy it. The smell is otherworldly.

When the roast reaches an internal temperature of about 180–185°F, it should also be really tender. Check with a fork by inserting it into an edge and testing for fall-apartness. It should be close to that. The skin should be brown, but not overly so, with much of the fat rendered out.

Once you've reached this perfect point of doneness, remove the Porchetta from the oven and carefully remove all free-running fat from the pan. Don’t worry if this takes a few minutes. The Porchetta is cooked, and you're about to put it back in the oven to finish.

(This is why I use a rack. I can simply lift the Porchetta off the pan, discard the fat, and replace the rack. If you go directly on the pan, you have more to deal with.)

Increase the oven temperature to 450°F.

4. FINISHING

Oven temperature: 450°F

It's going to be smoky. If you have a hood or fan, set it to high. Be ready for some smoke.

You’ll need to be on your toes for this step. Lots of heat, lots of fat.

Return the Porchetta to the oven. After about 10 minutes, check the skin. It should begin to crisp and puff up. You are essentially making pork rinds or chicharrones.

Once the skin is chestnut brown and the little squares have puffed and separated, you’re there! It will be very hard to get everything totally uniform, so don't sweat it.

Remove the roast.

Smoky? Told you. Shut the oven down and keep the door closed.

5. RESTING

Place the Porchetta (glorious thing that it is) on a cutting board or platter and let it rest for a minimum of 30 minutes, or longer for larger Porchettas.

This allows the juices and fats to redistribute and create maximum deliciousness.

6. SERVING

I like the mash-up method.

Bring the Porchetta to a board, remove the strings, and slice with a sharp knife. You might have a hard time with the skin and getting uniform slices, but don’t sweat it.

This is peasant food, so nothing fancy is necessary (hence the mash-up method). If the skin is hard, just chop it up and use it as garnish.

The most important thing is to give everyone a bit of each element of the Porchetta: a little white loin, a little dark loin, some belly, and plenty of crispy skin pieces!

I love Sara Jenkins’ simple accompaniments of good bread, braised broccoli raab (or another bitter green like mustard greens or even kale), and GREAT olive oil.