Porchetta Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What temperature should porchetta be cooked to in the oven? ›

Heat oven to 450 degrees. Transfer pork to a rimmed baking sheet and roast 35 minutes. Reduce temperature to 325 degrees and cook an additional 2 hours 45 minutes to 4 hours, until a thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the meat reads 180 degrees, which will give you sliceable, tender meat.

Place fat-side up on a wire rack in a roasting pan. Roast for one hour, until the fat is crisp. Reduce heat down to 325º F (160°C) and cook until the internal temperature reaches 168° F (75°C), about 60 to 80 minutes longer; test in several spots to be sure of your measurement.

The skin wasn't dry enough. Make sure to pat the pork completely dry before rubbing in the salt and oil as excess moisture will stop it from crisping up. It's important to score the skin if you want it really crisp. You'll need a sharp knife for this, or ask your butcher to do it for you.

Though you can make porchetta from a single cut of boned pork belly or shoulder, a combination of fatty belly and lean, tender loin – with the skin left on the belly for maximum crisp – offers the best of both worlds. You'll probably need to go to a butcher to make sure you get pieces of the right shape.

An overnight rub with baking powder and salt to lower the pH and final blast of high heat ensures a crispier skin.

Wait until the thermometer reads at least 140 °F (60 °C). According to the USDA, pork needs to be cooked to between 145 °F (63 °C) and 160 °F (71 °C) in order to be safe to eat. However, you can take the pork out of the oven a few degrees prior to the 145 mark to avoid overcooking.

One of the best ways to eat porchetta, and what we Romans love in any type of weather, is as a sandwich with no other ingredients than bread and meat: the famous panino con la porchetta… The simpler the better! The bread should be strictly homemade to perfectly absorb the fat and seasoning.

In the Upper Midwest porchetta, more often spelled "porketta", was also introduced by Italian immigrants to the iron ranges of Minnesota and Michigan. Porketta remains a popular local dish in towns such as Hibbing, Minnesota, with distributors such as Fraboni Sausage.

And since overcooking shrinks meat fibers and squeezes our juices, overcooked pork is tough and dry.

You can use a mix of regular table salt (which will penetrate the skin) and salt flakes (for a crisp crust). You can use oil to help the salt stick to the meat but if you really rub the salt in, you don't need the extra fat.

How to get extra crispy crackling on pork? ›

Preheat oven to 230°C, 210°C fan or Gas Mark 8. Put the joint in a roasting tin on the top shelf for 20 minutes. This sudden blast of heat is the key to crispy crackling. Reduce the temperature to 180-190°C, 160-170°C fan or Gas Mark 4-5 and follow the cooking times below to ensure the joint is cooked through.

Both names sound similar, but pancetta (another Italian delight) derives from cured pork belly, whereas porchetta comes from pork roast!

Bake in the preheated oven until pork is slightly pink in the center, 1 to 1 1/2 hours. An instant-read thermometer inserted into the center should read at least 145 degrees F (63 degrees C).

Cook pork, roasts, and chops to 145 ºF as measured with a food thermometer before removing meat from the heat source, with a three-minute rest time before carving or consuming. This will result in a product that is both safe and at its best quality—juicy and tender.

Cooking Procedure. Regardless of the method of barbequing, pork should be cooked to a standard internal temperature of 160 degrees F, as measured by a meat thermometer.