Juicy porchetta, crisp, salty crackling and sweet caramelised apples is a flavour combination made in heaven. Add to that a beautiful blue cheese and pear salad and you’ve got a truly mouthwatering dish.
The key to ensuring the porchetta is beautifully tender inside with an incredible crackling on the outside is by taking it up to temperature slowly and on a low heat.
Roast Porchetta Temperatures
- Roast at a higher heat for 35 minutes to get the crispy crackling
- Turn down the oven temperature and cook slowly to 82 °C for tender pork
- Use a leave-in thermometer like the RFX or DOT to monitor your pork temperature
- To finish, probe the porchetta using a Thermapen to make sure it's at temp all over, and it feels nice and tender
Ingredients
For the porchetta
- 2kg piece bone-in, skin-on pork (roughly 225g per person), fat trimmed to 1/4 in thickness and skin scored all over
- 4 tsp cumin seeds
- 5 smoked garlic cloves
- Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
- 60ml olive oil
- Seasoning
For the apples
- 3 red eating apples
- 8 small 30g butter
- 30g brown sugar
- 8 cloves garlic
- 6 tbsp olive oil
For the salad
- 200-300g blue cheese, crumbled (50g per person)
- 200g rocket
- 3 pears, cut into batons
Directions
To make the roast porchetta
- Blend the garlic, lemon zest, cumin seeds, salt and black pepper together. Pour in the oil.
- Rub all over pork. Transfer to a large bowl, cover and refrigerate for at least 6 hours, preferably overnight.
- Remove the pork from fridge 1 to 2 hours before cooking it.
- Pre-heat the oven to 220 °C/ 200 °C fan / gas 7.
- Transfer the pork to a deep baking sheet and roast for 35 minutes.
- Reduce the temperature to 170 °C / 150 °C fan / gas 3.
- Cook until the meat comes to an internal temperature of 82 °C. We used the DOT
- Digital Oven Thermometer to alert us once the temperature was reached.
To make the caramelised apples
- Core the apples and slice into 3 cm slices.
- Gently heat the butter and pop the sliced apples into the pan.
- Add the sugar and allow both sides to gently caramelise.
Method for the salad
- Toss all of the ingredients together.
- Serve with the caramelised apple, some sliced pork and a piece of crackling.
Laura Tulloch
Thermapen Chef & Caterer - @laura_sussexfoodie
"I love my Thermapen, it really helps me cook with confidence. As a caterer the health and safety of everyone you cook for is paramount, but that doesn't mean you have to compromise with your cooking. A simple reassuring check with the Thermapen throughout the process is all that's needed to allow you to enjoy, and confidently serve what you've made."
