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A few years ago I worked in an Italian bakery/coffee/ sandwich shop, and the owner had a connection with a food importer who would occasionally hook us up with meats and cheeses that weren't exactly approved for import.
One of them was called porchetta. I've googled it, and the results I get are entirely different from what I saw come in to the shop.
The product that we got appeared to be a boned out pork shoulder rolled up in a net. It was definitely raw and dry cured, but it wasn't hard like bressaola, it seemed like it had been brined, - maybe even with some vinegar - and rolled up with spices and then briefly dry cured.
I'd peel the net off and the smell was of feet and there was a bit of mold and I'd slice it thin. Like I say, it wasn't hardened at all, but it definitely had been aged.
Any idea on what this was and how to recreate it?

Pancetta. Porchetta is a baby pig

Martin/

I've had porchetta years ago while on vacation in Italy. Everyone seems to go crazy for that stuff. I think its a young pig thats rolled up in certain herbs and spices like rosemary and black pepper. I found a recipe for it in an italian cookbook once, though it didn't taste quite the same as the one I had over there.
I hope someone can help and provide a good recipe for this. I would be interested in making this too.

It wasn't pancetta.

Mike - now that yopu mention it, there was rosemary involved. The cut definitely wasn't a baby pig - maybe it's called that because the rolled and tied roast is meant to look like a baby pig?
Hell, the real deal probably is a baby pig though.

This is the recipe I use. There is no dry cured version of porchetta that I have ever heard of. Porchetta is a roast (loin or shoulder) that is often wrapped completely in pork belly and cooked on high heat for a short time to get the crackling crispy, then turned down and slow roasted until tender, juicy and delicious.

There is a delicious place in Toronto called Porchetta & Co with Chef Nick auf der Mauer and this is the closest I could find to his recipe. The only addition he does is to wrap the pork shoulder or butt with prosciutto before wrapping it in the pork belly but that is optional. I have done it both ways and I do think the prosciutto makes it better but it is up to you.

Ingredients

- 1 pork shoulder or butt, cut into the shape of a cylinder about 3 inches diameter and 12 inches long, about 2 pounds
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 8 cloves garlic, chopped
- 2 tablespoons rosemary, chopped
- 2 tablespoons sage, chopped
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 tablespoon cracked black pepper
- 1 pork belly with skin on, large enough to wrap around the shoulder, 12 inches across, 20-24 inches long and about 1 1/2 inches thick
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon fennel seeds
- 1 tablespoon dill seeds
- 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 tablespoon cracked black pepper
- Optional: prosciutto, enough to wrap around the pork shoulder or butt

Directions

Marinate the pork shoulder in the olive oil, garlic, rosemary, sage. lemon, salt and pepper in a zip lock bag in the fridge over night.

Cut diagonal criss-crossing lines across the fat side of the pork belly.

Cure the meat side of the pork belly in the brown sugar, fennel seeds, dill seeds, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper, wrap in plastic and let sit in the fridge overnight.

Pull the pork shoulder and belly out of the fridge an hour before you intend to start roasting.

Optional: Wrap the pork shoulder or butt with enough prosciutto to cover the entire outside.

Wrap the pork belly around the shoulder with the fat side out and tie everything up with butchers twine. Make sure the belly completely covers the entire shoulder or butt, overlapping by an inch or so before tying.

Roast in a 400F preheated oven for 30 minutes then reduce the temperature to 250F and continue roasting until the pork reaches an internal temperature of 140F.

Let the porchetta rest for 30 minutes before carving.

That's the version I mentioned in the OP that comes up on Google.
What I'm talking about is definitely NOT cooked.
Forget the word "porchetta".
I had a cured meat - I'm 90% sure it was a boned out pork shoulder - it appeared and tasted to have been marinated in something acidic, rolled with herbs, and hung long enough to firm it up but not long enough to dry it out significantly. There was way more moisture remaining than there is in bressaola or proscuitto.

Capicola is made using pork shoulder and herbs: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capicola

But in my own search to try to figure this out for you, I did come across these: http://www.urbanspoon.com/rph/67/159092 ... etta-photo and http://instagram.com/p/Ihr70PvpIm/ at the Black Hoof in Toronto.

No recipe there but is it something like that? I'd like to put our brains together, come up with a version of this ourselves. Or you could also try contacting the chefs at these two restaurants and asking them if they would share the process for it. It doesn't hurt to ask, even if they don't want to give you the exact recipe, you can at least find out the steps they take to cure it.

Maybe if you cured the meats longer and used some cures (not sure maybe #1 like pancetta but if drying for a long time I would think #2 might be better) avoided the fresh seasonings like garlic and lemon and replaced with powdered, maybe you could assemble something like my porchetta above but cure and roll it, then dry it in controlled conditions, treat it a bit like pancetta?

Yeah! Those both look quite similar to what I had. They're more solid, and what I had definitely wasn't smoked, but I think you're on to something.

would this be what you are looking for?

Hi Robert,
That's definitely what I AM LOOKIN FOR!
Cheers,
Jan.

That's it!
Recipe?

Check this out for Coppa and Capocollo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtqFWKhslyg

Noman wrote:That's it!
Recipe?

try this one, adapt and change the spices as needed

I sometimes soak my casings in white wine or orange juice -- need to try a few other things

http://curedmeats.blogspot.ca/2010/11/coppa-whole.html

crustyo44 wrote:Hi Robert,
That's definitely what I AM LOOKIN FOR!
Cheers,
Jan.

The latest ones Jan, mild and smooth with a peppery after taste