News & Events
Porchetta in the Round, Up From Kentucky
By Florence FabricantPublished: August 6, 2008
Hybrid pigs raised in Kentucky are carefully developed for the flavor of their meat. The animals, a cross between Duroc and Yorkshire breeds, are 95 to 200 pounds when slaughtered ? commercial pigs are usually 300 ? then deboned by hand. The meat is rolled with rosemary and other seasonings, tied and roasted
The finished product, Porchetta Primata, is beautifully bronzed, marbled with some fat and ready to slice and eat, needing only some exotic mustard or other condiment. Unlike some imported porchetta products, it is produced without the preservative sodium nitrate.
A six- to eight-pound section, called a tronchetto, held above by Christopher Marcano at Fairway, is sold by the pound at most shops. A whole boned stuffed pig, about 45 pounds, would make a magnificent centerpiece on a buffet table and can be ordered from Fairway.
The porchetta is $23.96 a pound ($5.99 a quarter-pound) at Fairway, $19.99 a pound at Agata & Valentina, $28 at Todaro Brothers, $24.99 at Grace?s Marketplace and $21.95 at Nicola?s Specialty Foods. A six-pound tronchetto is $149 plus shipping from chefswarehouse.com.
Ibeco bellota hams, from Spanish pigs fattened on acorns, have arrived in this country. The ham, sliced, is $100 a pound at Agata & Valentina; $150 a pound at Dean and DeLuca; and, at Desparand Foods, $159 a pound machine-sliced or $169 a pound hand-sliced. It is also sold at tienda.com for $34.50 for four ounces.