Food

high level scoring there 👍

3kg boned and filled - belly rather than middle

Slightly caught as I was wrapping presents and didn’t hear the alarm 🙈 but the crackling is 🔥 🔥

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strong. timings?

My porchetta looks terrible.

#porchettawatch

Should’ve soaked it for 7 hours

Three hours I think - but I had a probe in it which beeped when internals reached temp, so not 100%.

Once the fucker is sliced up literally nobody will care how it looks - bet it tastes peng

bet it tastes peng

Wut? Isn't that Londonese for cheap fried chicken?

So settle in if you'd like a little Christmas disaster lol.

I tried a new butcher in Leyton for my pork belly as I was picking up my sister in law from there. The butcher seemed confident but asked some odd questions, although he assured me that he knew what he was doing. He told me had already sold 2 pork bellies that day for porchettas. He strongly advised me to leave the loin attached so I went went with his recommendation. I thought 1.5kg would be sensible since it was a side piece but I ended up with 2.5kg, which seemed like a red flag.

I prepared it yesterday in the end at a different sister in law's house, I left the capers and anchovies at home by mistake so I blended garlic, lemon zest, lemon juice, rosemary, and lemon thyme. I scored the skin first, salted heavily, then flipped it over and scored the flesh, salt and peppered, then added the herb marinade. So far so good, but here's where it all started going wrong. The loin was still attached so I assumed you rolled it"width ways" so I ended up with some bastard fat porchetta with no length at all. There wasn't enough twine so I tied it the best I could and put it on a dish to rest overnight, thoroughly unhappy with my first attempt at a porchetta.

I drank a whiskey and watched some videos and decided I'd definitely done it wrong. So I unrolled it, and stared at this Christmas challenge. I decided to cut off the loin and cut that into strips, not sure where that idea came from, possibly drunk bright in law, but thought, hey that sounds good, and then I rolled the shebang lengthways with the strips of loin in the middle. The problem with this was the skin/fat was narrower than the flesh so it didn't look like a typical porchetta, and it didn't help that there really wasn't enough twine so I could only do a tie every couple of inches.

Despondent I posted here then left it over night. Now here's where I'm at after 3 hours at 140 (goose is in that temp), it's internal temperature is 78 degrees (slightly over?), Waiting for the goose to finish so I can do the crackling.

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Taste it first before you beat yourself up too much. With that much fat it can be a more forgiving cut of meat.

I massively undercooked a turkey at my BIL a few years ago. It was ready 90 minutes after all the veg. It happens.

Eat. Laugh. DGAF.

Merry! Merry!

It didn't stay in slices but it tasted amazing

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it tasted amazing

All that matters!

^^ looks delicious. I pot roasted a brace of pheasants.

nap time

Sounds like you bought the pork middle, which runs the whole width of the animal (Spine to belly) so you get the loin and the belly. Thats the traditional cut but the issue will be that it obviously weighs a lot more than just a belly. You should've text me I could've helped! But the main thing is that it tastes good!

as long as it tasted delicious 👍

#Lambwatch went with classic as Missus Rich G wanted traditional flavours rosemary garlic slow roasted 4.5 hrs could have taken it out a bit earlier but still tasted great.
roast pots red cabbage slaw greens and gravy
well happy.

So a fairly tenacious tete a tete with Mrs Pasty meant traditional was the only way but my God it was good; simple and delicious

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me and you in same boat for lamb flavours gonna do a curry with left overs 😁

looks great happy Xmas 🍾🍻

Spent an eternity in the kitchen today but was more than worth it.

ocado delivered cherry vine tomatoes rather than normal ones so they got obliterated but otherwise managed to keep the timings on everything else nice and tight and it all made it to the plate nice and warm.

the beef shin was fucking amazing. good thing as well as we have at least 8 more portions left. reckon i will polish a fair chunk of it off before bed though.

first time using a potato ricer for mash which was a fucking revelation as well.

solid 8.5/10 effort

I'll be hankering for a lamb, onion and mint sauce baguette come half hour after the kids are asleep tonight (currently enjoying a half hour soak with my man products whilst the babies nap)! I was delighted at how tender and juicy the leg was being cooked through (certainly not well done but only a feint pinkness towards the centre)

@hatbeard nice to see another Yorkshire pud we had some too but forgot them on 1st serving so heated them up while we ate and had them to mop up the gravy and second serving of a few bits

brilliant, my day comming to an end nicely fuzzy from wine food. ive bern picking at the left overs constantly all night
👍👍👍😁

Needed gravy.

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I ate some food.
Pre made gravy, pastry, Christmas pud.

Didn't fall out with anyone. Didn't shout.
Still having a good time.
And the strictly big number is a banger.