This was served as part of the second course at the Ymir 2025 feast.
What, Where, When
- A rolled, stuffed pork shoulder with onion, garlic, parsley, and fish sauce.
- Inspired by Bishop Liudprand of Cremona’s account of a kid dish he received from the Byzantine emperor in the mid-10th century.
Discussion
This dish is built on a single passage: Liudprand of Cremona’s description, in his account of his diplomatic embassy to Constantinople, of a gift dish sent to his lodgings by the Byzantine emperor — a fat kid “proudly stuffed with garlic, onion, leeks, swimming in fish sauce.” Andrew Dalby reads the passage in the broader context of Byzantine dietary theory: Liudprand complained repeatedly that the dishes served to him were overloaded with garlic, but the court physicians who assembled his meals were probably working from a dietician’s assessment of his “hot constitution” and a conviction that garlic was specifically indicated for that condition. The dish, in other words, was likely a deliberate therapeutic prescription dressed up as imperial hospitality — a characteristically Byzantine fusion of medicine, politics, and cuisine. (Not to mention a bit of snark on an apparently ill-tempered diplomat…)
What I am doing here is narrower than reconstructing Liudprand’s dish. The source tells us that Byzantine cooks were stuffing roasted meats with alliums and finishing them with fish sauce; it does not give us a recipe. I have not tried to make kid (expensive, harder to source, not popular amongst modern diners); instead using pork shoulder, which is complemented by the stuffing. I have also been less heavy-handed with both the garlic and the fish sauce than Liudprand describes — the stuffing is generous but not “swimming.” The dish is better understood as “Byzantine-inspired allium-stuffed roast meat” than as “Liudprand’s kid, but pork.”
One contradictory note: Anthimus, a 6th-century Byzantine physician whose dietary treatise survives and whose recommendations appear elsewhere in this feast, advises against pairing fish sauce with pork. I have done it anyway. The combination is delicious, one physician’s objection does not settle the question of whether the pairing happened in practice (if anything, it solidifies it, as why would a doctor bother to recommend against doing something that was never done?) but the reader should know that a period source disagrees with my choice.
Sources
Liudprand of Cremona, Antapodosis (via Dalby, p. 121)
The sacred emperor lessened my woes with a big gift… one of his most delicate dishes, a fat kid of which he had himself partaken — proudly stuffed with garlic, onion, leeks, swimming in fish sauce.
Byzantine-Inspired Stuffed Pork
A rolled pork shoulder stuffed with raw onion, leek, garlic, parsley, sage, and a restrained splash of fish sauce. Inspired by Liudprand of Cremona’s 10th-century account of a Byzantine imperial kid dish, with the quantities dialed back from ‘swimming in fish sauce’ to ‘lightly seasoned.’
Ingredients
- Pork:
1 boneless pork shoulder (about 4-5 lb / 2 kg), butterflied for stuffing
Salt and pepper, for seasoning the meat
Butcher’s twine
- Stuffing:
2 medium onions (about 1 lb / 450g), finely chopped
1 large leek, quartered lengthwise, rinsed well, and finely sliced (white and light green parts)
1 head garlic (about 10-12 cloves), finely chopped
1 packed cup (about 1 oz / 30g) flat-leaf parsley, chopped
1-2 tbsp fresh sage leaves, chopped
Fish sauce, to taste (start with 1-2 tbsp; adjust by brand — some are much saltier than others)
Black pepper, to taste
Directions
- Butterfly the pork shoulder (or ask your butcher to do it) so it lies flat as a rough rectangle, about 1-1.5 inches thick. Season both sides with salt and pepper. If possible, do this the day before and let the salted meat rest, uncovered, in the refrigerator overnight — this seasons the interior and helps dry the surface for better browning.
- Make the stuffing: combine the onions, leek, garlic, parsley, and sage in a bowl. Add 1-2 tablespoons of fish sauce and season with black pepper. Stir to combine. Taste and adjust the fish sauce carefully — different brands vary significantly in salt content and intensity. You want the mixture to taste savory and a little briny, not outright fishy. The alliums stay raw; they will cook down in place during the long roast and keep more of their juice and character than if pre-cooked.
- Lay the butterflied pork out flat, cut side up. Spread the stuffing evenly over the surface, leaving a small border along one long edge. Starting from the opposite long edge, roll the pork up tightly around the stuffing. Tie at 1½-inch intervals with butcher’s twine to hold the roll closed.
- Preheat the oven to 450°F. Place the rolled pork on a rack in a roasting pan, seam side down. Roast at 450°F for 30 minutes to develop a deep exterior color.
- Lower the oven temperature to 275°F and continue roasting until the internal temperature reaches 195°F at the thickest part — approximately 3-4 hours, depending on the shape of the roll. (Pork shoulder needs to reach this higher temperature for the collagen to break down and the meat to be tender; a lower temperature will leave it tough.)
- Rest the roast for at least 20-30 minutes before slicing. Remove the twine, slice crosswise into rounds about ½ inch thick, and arrange on a platter. No additional sauce is needed — the stuffing’s alliums and the meat’s rendered juices make the dish self-saucing.
