Introduction:
A popular dish at the Taming of the Shrew event,
I was inspired by mention of “veal roulade served in it’s own sauce” (in Scappi’s April 8th dinner menu) to find a similar dish, knowing that my chances of getting veal in budget AND getting the populace to eat it, were minimal. This second course dish was a combination of several recipes and comments.
The first relevant items I found were these mentions that pork and veal could be cooked interchangeably using the same recipes – this was reassuring in that I thought it was also an indication that the two might be served somewhat interchangeably.
Book II, recipe 91 (abridged)
…to cook all sorts of wild boar flesh… of lean meat from the leg you can make all of the preparations that are made from the leg of veal in recipe 42.
Book II, recipe 100
various ways to make a delicate tenderloin of a domestic pig… “nevertheless, both of them can be used for all those dishes that are made with the veal loin described in recipe 42
Next, I started looking for similar pork dishes that might be considered a “roulade” – I am assuming that this is an accurate translation of the Italian word used, polpettoni, although in modern Italian cooking it seems to describe a dish more strongly resembling a meatloaf.
What I found was a dish that struck me as a precursor to the modern dish known as “porchetta”.
Book II, recipe 98 (abridged)
…various ways to cook the breast of a domestic pig… a sow’s belly is put into a press for six hours with pepper, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, ground fennel seed and salt, then wrapped around in a sugared caul and mounted on a spit. Cook it slowly. It is optional whether you cut it up into pieces. If you want to parboil it first, before putting it in the press, that can be done.
Discussion
- The fennel is the most crucial part of this dish, in terms of flavor. I also used garlic in place of the cinnamon and cloves called for, which is definitely a fairly large step from what would have been recognized by Scappi – there are very few dishes in the Opera that call for garlic in significant quantities. However, given the cinnamon in both the pasta and chicken dishes, I didn’t want to repeat the flavor again. My diners, after all, are not accustomed to cinnamon in every dish, unlike those who Scappi cooked for.
- The sauce specified was not prepared; the meat didn’t release enough drippings to make it seem worth doing. On the plus side, the meat was very juicy, which I was quite thankful for as I had to substitute a combination of tenderloin and belly for the all-belly roast I originally intended, due to availability (available belly was higher in fat and lower in meat than I had planned for). I butterflied the tenderloins and cooked them under the belly as if the belly had had the layer of lean meat I was expecting.
Roulade of Pork
4
servingsIngredients
1.5 lbs pork belly and/or a combination of belly and tenderloin
1 tsp whole peppercorns
1.5 tsp fennel seed
Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
2-3 cloves garlic per lb of meat
Directions
- Score pork belly skin in a 1” crosshatch pattern. Butterfly tenderloin, if using.
- Toast peppercorns and fennel, crush in mortar. Add garlic and crush, add nutmeg.
- Rub both sides of belly with oil and salt, rub flesh (not skin) side with spice mix, place skin side up in baking pan. (If using tenderloin, rub oil and salt on the butterflied side of the tenderloin as well as the flesh side of the belly. Place oiled side down in the roasting pan, then stack the spiced side of the belly on top so that the skin of the belly is the top of the stack.)
- Roast meat at 300°F for 2 hours (until tender). Internal temperature should be north of 185 to ensure all the collagen and fatty tissues in the meat have dissolved into juicy tastiness.
- Move meat to another pan, reserving drippings. Press with heavy weight in pan in fridge until near feast.
- Cut pork into serving pieces, place in clean pan. Roast at 475°F until skin is crispy.
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