Porchetta | Basics with Babish

hey folks today's episode is appropriately sponsored by the National Pork Board to celebrate their hams Across America campaign which is all about paying it forward with pork all throughout the holiday season which is exactly what I'm going to do with today's decadent holiday roast an all belly herb stuffed crisp skin porchetta let's get down to basics [Music] all right so as you might imagine the first thing we're going need is a big old piece of pork belly rule of thumb here is about half a pound per person and then because we're gonna roll this into a roulade we need to get rid of some of the excess skin because skin inside the roll is not gonna get crispy it's just gonna be kind of gummy and gross so as you can see I'm rolling up the belly and scouring the skin where it starts going inside the roll then using that as a guide for where to remove the excess skin this way all the skin on the belly will be exposed directly to the warm loving heat of the oven just a quick test roll to make sure that this worked and it did so now it's time to start stuffing this thing with all the herbs and spices that make it a porchetta first thing we're gonna do is deeply score the meat on the inside of the belly each cut maybe two inches apart going about an inch deep and in both directions for a crosshatch pattern that's going to allow all of our seasonings to penetrate deep into the meat and leave no bite blend or boring that I'm just trimming off some of the edges here to make the belly into a perfect rectangle so we have a nice even roulade and then it's time to start spicing things up I'm starting with a whole bunch of freshly grated nutmeg maybe about a quarter of a nutmeg nut and then next up a whole bunch of orange zest you might notice that I'm not using any measurements here and that's because it's gonna depend entirely upon the size of your pork belly next up some fresh herbs I've got a few handfuls of finely chopped sage here also a few sprigs worth of finely chopped rosemary and you can kind of mix and match all these herbs and flavors as you see fit but when it comes to this much fat and belly I say the more the merrier to wit a fervent festoon mint of fresh fennel fronds or you could use fennel seeds if you can't find the fresh stuff then I saw this on Maddy Matheson's porchetta episode and I thought it was a great idea some freshly toasted pine nuts just got to make sure to press these into all the crevices so they don't roll out and lastly but not leastly a very generous sprinkling of kosher salt and a very generous grinding of freshly ground black pepper remember this is a lot of pork and a lot of richness so it's pretty hard to overdo it I also like a little sprinkling of chili flakes and the final and maybe most essential ingredient that I almost forgot about a dozen cloves of crushed garlic then we're just gonna spread everything around and Pat everything out to make sure that it's evenly distributed and pressed down into the crevice and then at long last it's time to roll up we want to roll this as tight as we can so it cooks evenly and so there are no gaps when we serve it next up the absolutely essential step to ensuring crispy skin scoring the absolute hell out of it you want to make lots and lots of lateral cuts just deep enough that they go through the skin but not so deep that they go too far into the fat and just do this all over the surface of the porchetta this is gonna help the fat render out and turn the skin light and crisp instead of chewy and hardest glass that we're tying the whole thing up tightly at two or three inch intervals then we are making a rack set and a rimmed baking sheet appear out of nowhere placing the porchetta on top and then refrigerating uncovered overnight in the fridge this is going to help dry out the skin so we end up with a crispier final product then we are preheating our oven to a very low temperature about 250 degrees lining our baking sheet with foil for easier cleanup setting the rack back inside without pinching our thing out inserting a temperature probe as deep as we can into the thickest part of the roast and then roasting slow and low for anywhere from three to eight hours depending on the size of your belly until we reach an internal temperature of 160 degrees Fahrenheit and there might be a lot of fat in the baking sheet so for safety's sake break out your barbecue gloves and just pull the thing out by hand as you can see the scoring on the outside of the roast has opened up a little bit allowing the fat to render out but if we now crank our oven up to 500 degrees Fahrenheit and blast this guy for about 20 minutes keeping a close eye on it to make sure that it's not burning we're gonna end up with this juicy impossibly crispy mahogany beauty rail let it rest for at least half an hour and then it's time to carve that's right you are Andy and now a moment of silence as we observe the cross-section of our porchetta nice oh boy I could listen to that all day and for serving hot that's pretty much it you could whip up some Italian salsa verde and serve with potatoes or green vegetables but this roast is an event a monumental display of richness and flavor but much like Thanksgiving or pizza porchetta has just as much if not more potential as leftovers I've got this big old hunk of it that I'm going to use to make porchetta sandwiches I'm just gonna slice it as thinly as I can and you will be delighted to find out that the skin is still crisp even after spending the night in the fridge and something the sandwich really needs is Italian salsa verde which again you could also serve while the roast is hot this is a very simple uncooked sauce we're starting with about a cup of packed fresh parsley the juice and zest of one lemon maybe zest before you juice a couple tablespoons of capers drained of their brine a nice splash of white wine vinegar for a little bit more acidity a couple finely minced anchovy fillets for a little bit more of that old-school Italian richness these won't make it taste fishy I promise two or three cloves of fresh garlic roughly chopped you could also press them instead of chop them if you want a stronger garlic flavor maybe half a cup of high-quality olive oil the kind of stuff that you'd want to dip your bread in a generous pinch of chili flakes if you want a little bit of heat and of course kosher salt and freshly ground pepper start light with these because we're gonna process and then you can taste for seasoning and adjust as necessary pulse a few times just to get everybody nice and chopped up but we don't want to puree if we still want it nice and kind of chunky and like I said taste for seasoning adjust as necessary and we've got a nice fresh zesty acidic sauce to cut through all the richness of our porchetta which we are going to stack tall and proud on a piece of focaccia or the robust bread of your choice top with our salsa verde spread evenly and we're also gonna add a couple big handfuls of arugula which is going to bring a very welcome peppery bite to our sandwich which we are now going to secure with skewers and chopped in half for the cross section of your Boxing Day dreams the pork belly is incredibly rich it's like half fat so I'm gonna divide this into four pieces serve up on a plate cut side out to show off all those pretty layers and grab myself a corner for analysis and this is probably my favorite way to enjoy porchetta you've got nice tender slabs of pork dabbled with crispy crunchy bits of pork skin a singie salsa verde a nice I see pile of arugula it's so good I can't just keep it all to myself and Sawyer and Jess and here's what the National Pork Board comes in who are encouraging me to pay it forward with pork and I've mentioned it before I love Pinos Prime Meats it's where I got this pork belly they always take really good care of me so I thought I'd make them this gigantic porchetta sandwich this time with the skin cracklings as a layer in the center and I realized that this was not the most practical sandwich so I try to divide it into individual pieces and I headed over to Pinos to Surprise them for lunch and as I mentioned this episode is sponsored by the National Pork Board and their hams Across America campaign I think it's a great way to pay it forward to somebody who might need or deserve something special this holiday season last year this program saw over half a million pounds of pork donated across America which equates to 2.2 million servings of pork the National Pork Board represents America's pig farmers who are committed to giving back to their communities throughout the entire calendar year but especially at holiday time so however you guys decide to pay it forward I hope you join hams Across America and help spread a little seasonal cheer Happy Holidays to you and yours and I will see you guys next year [Music] [Music]

Channel: Babish Culinary Universe

Views: 3,269,284

Rating: 4.9467144 out of 5

Keywords: binging with babish, basics with babish, porchetta, porchetta recipe, porchetta sandwich, porchetta oven, porchetta matty, pear qwerty horse, babbish, cooking with babish, how to make porchetta, how to make porchetta at home, how to make porchetta in the oven, porchetta italy, porchetta street food, serious eats porchetta, what is porchetta, matty matheson porchetta, porketta, porchetta roast, porketta sandwich, how to cook porchetta, how to cook porchetta in oven

Id: YMF27Q9nLNY

Length: 8min 1sec (481 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 19 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/The_Golden_Yeti]

I love how he makes me feel like I can absolutely do that if I want to. Like I've never thought of making Porchetta, and I love it, but I could if I wanted to if this video is as simple as it seems... I should.

Thanks Babish, you literally inspire me.

[u/Zenis]

The "blast heat in the oven for 20 mins" method seems safer and more achievable than Matty's "ladle scalding oil over the skin in your home kitchen" method to make the cracklins.

[u/MahjongNucleus]

If you really want a decadent porchetta, get a Berkshire pork belly. Its pricey, but worth it if your porchetta is going to be your holiday meal.

[u/NVB_1987]

Anyone notice Guga Foods replied to the video!!

[u/readonlypdf]

Hams across America.... that sounds like a Pork Project.

[u/silverinferno3]

That last bit with him bringing the sandwich to Pino's was really sweet, and I really liked the lady smiling as she watched it all happened. Even observing a little bit of kindness can brighten up your day!

[u/chalo1227]

That cut sound was orgasmic, now I wanna try to do this

[u/galacticdude7]

that sound when he cut into the porchetta... damn

[u/scramlington]

Yesterday I was actually worrying that I hadn't found a porchetta recipe that I actually liked despite deciding that I wanted to cook porchetta for Christmas Eve.

And then this happened.

It's a Christmas miracle! Thanks Andrew, you saved Christmas (Eve)!