Porchetta Pork Roast

Recipe directs placing on a rimmed baking sheet. But video shows a deep roasting pan. Which one gets the best results?

I made this for my wife's birthday and it was perfect for a large gathering with no work on the day of the feast, the marinade being prepared the day before. I had to buy a lot of fennel to get enough fennel fronds, so the vegetable accompaniment was David Tanis's Fennel al Forno, also prepared ahead early in the day. The fennel gratin went into the hot oven when the roast came out and baked while it was resting, so a perfect meal came to the table with no distraction after the guests arrived!

Made this with a skin-on/bone-in pork shoulder last night for a dinner party. It is easy, juicy, and it smelled divine while cooking. I read the reviews by others and lowered the temp to 250 after the initial 450. Low and slow is good for this cut of meat. 180 seems like a high internal temp for the meat but it's apparently a magic number for fat/connective tissue to work their magic. Guests raved.

With all due respect, it's not meant to be even remotely healthy. It's porchetta, and if you've ever had any in Italy, you'll understand that the charm of this preparation is the crunchy fat. Google it and you'll see the whole pigs roasted for market day, with folks standing next to the deli trucks eating juicy sandwiches on nice bread, grease oozing down their chins ...

If only skinless is available, should I cover the roast in bacon slices to get the crackling effect?

I just made this yesterday and it was wonderful. But, the skin didn't crisp up. Any suggestions as to what went wrong? Other than the skin not crisping, the recipe was easy to follow and the taste was out of this world.

Do you leave the herb-and-spices paste on the roast while cooking?

A loin roast will be dry and overcooked if prepared this way. Shoulder has much more fat and collagen than the loin, and takes to long, slow roasting. It becomes fall-apart tender at an internal temperature of 195 or so. Loin needs higher oven heat, less time, and is done at a lower internal temperature (140 or so).

Made only a 3 lb pork butt roast, but used the same amount of marinade as in the recipe. Marinating overnight produces rich, deep flavor. Might reduce salt a bit. Put in more fennel fronds than stated. Butcher let me choose exact piece I wanted. Got 1" of skin on it. The skin is essential. I used new razor blade to score it. Worked beautifully. For smaller roast, start at 450 for 35 mins, then reduce to 250 for 3 hours. Got raves and begging to take home leftovers. Absolutely fantastic!!!

WONDERFUL! Used a heritage picnic shoulder instead of a butt, it was all that was available, still so flavorful and moist throughout. Sliced, made a nice presentation. For those wanting a sauce, I ended up with 3.5 cups drippings, about 1/3 of that was fat. Once fat removed, it seems to me the meaty herby broth(? if that's the right term) will make a fine gravy, perhaps with mushrooms, shallots, splash of sherry or red wine, a tad rosemary, and fresh parsley sprinkled on at the end.

I've made this twice now, using boned roasts, and it was an unqualified hit on both occasions. Watch out, though, as boned roasts, at least, cook even more quickly than the author says. My most recent roast, a 6 lb. boneless, would have cooked in less than 3 hours total had I not reduced the oven temp to 250 deg. F. about 30 minutes after reducing the heat to 350 deg. F.

This was hands down one of the best roast pork shoulder recipes I have ever made. Super super simple (literally besides putting the pork in the oven and checking on it there's like 10 minutes of active prep work) and totally delicious. I had a 9 lb bone-in shoulder and as others have noted, it finished on the early side of the provided cooking time. I would definitely start checking every 30 minutes 2 hours after you turn the temp down to 325. A meat thermometer is CRUCIAL for this.

The reason the skin was tough and chewy was because you didn't follow the directions. You need the oven to be hot enough throughout the cook to render the fat and crisp the skin.

Delish, followed the Cooks Illustrated method of cooking and slow roasted at 300 for 7 hours during the last blizzard. House smelled amazing. Made Cuban sandwiches with leftovers.

I made this wonderful frond and seed and spice mixture and used it on two pork tenderloins totaling 2.75 pounds. Marinated them in the fridge for 7 hours, roasted them at 475 degrees for 22 minutes, turning them halfway through, then rested for 10 minutes. They were wonderful, tender, juicy and infused with wonderful flavors. It's now my go-to recipe for these mundane cuts.