Big pork

The big pork was snapped on arrival from the butcher of Manor Green Road. About two thirds of a shoulder, for a change with the bone in. The allegation was that it had more flavour that way, but it may also have been that he did not want, on this occasion, to be bothered with boning under the eye of the waiting customer. In the event, bone-in made for more interesting appearance, more varied texture, more flavour and rather more bother carving. Backbone lower left, some ribs lower right and some (white) cartilage to do with the wide end of the blade bone upper centre in the snap above.

We shall see what happens on the next occasion.

The butcher did tell me what it was in kilos, but for cooking times I still work in pounds and ounces. Too heavy for the kitchen scales, so I improvised a beam balance, the last one appearing to have been recycled. Weighed with a 4lb weight (right) we had the ratio of 35cm to 69cm, so I settled for 8lbs on the bone for the purposes of calculating cooking time.

Radiation on the low temperature method - suitable for fatty pork to my mind - was 33 minutes to the pound - which makes near enough 4 hours 30 minutes at Mark 3, aka 163°C. Plus resting time. Previous porks, weighing in at something over 4lbs 8oz, were given 3 hours on the same calculation.

Radiation doesn't say for pork, but says that bone in takes less time for beef. While the Internet, despite the huge amount of stuff on meat cookery, fails to come up with clear direction, but suggests that bone in takes more time. I stuck with the time I had got, so into the oven at 07:30, aiming for forks down at 12:30.

Salted and ready to go. I think the bone visible lower left is the socket end of the blade bone.

Started some vegetable stock at this time. A few onions, carrots, some celery, probably a few left overs.

The vegetables procured in the course of the expedition noticed at reference 1 under preparation. What looks like a large amount of beans turns out rather more modest when podded. I opted for two-tone cooking, giving the large ones five minutes or so and dropping the small ones in after about three minutes. Just about right as it turned out.

I might say in passing that while both Merriam-Webster and OED recognise the nominal use of pod for peas and beans, the former does not recognise the verbal use. For that one has to resort to the latter. The couple of column inches of the Merriam-Webster entry being snapped above.

While this is part of the much larger OED entry. With podding a pea (or bean) being the third of the first verbal group of meanings. I had forgotten about the use of 'hull' in this connection.

And a variation on two-tone cooking for the spring greens. Take off the outer leaves. Trim off the base of the stalk. Cut the stalk out of the leaf. Cut the leaf in to pieces maybe an inch by half an inch. Cut the stalks (aka ribs) cross-wise into pieces a quarter of an inch or so long. Prepare the inner core as shown. Then with the various sizes, the whole can be cooked as a whole with satisfactory results.

Cracked out some wine, from Majestic at Epsom, but from the same stable as the wine in a public house, noticed at reference 2. Very satisfactory. And convenient: quicker than mail order and quicker than fighting my way through big Sainsbury's. Water behind for those that took it.

Basted the meat at 11:30. Skewered it at 12:00 and it did not run at all. Less than half a cup of fat - not much considering the blanket of same snapped above. Oven off at 12:10, leaving the plated meat in it.

Roux'd up some flour. Washed the roasting tin out with the vegetable stock, stirring the result into the roux. A spot of gravy dipping - apart from brown bread rather than white, just like the olden days when gravy dipping was a regular and important part of the Sunday roast.

No extra, salt, seasoning or colouring needed.

On the table. Outer parts quite crumbly, rather in the way of a hog roast, perhaps because of the awkward carving while the inner parts sliced more neatly. But all very good, with cooking time judged about right.

Vegetables, supplemented by rice, a great success. Beans being a particular treat, not one we get too that often these days, no longer growing them down the road. From where I associated to the wonderful smell of bean you get about a good stand of the plants, about the time that the Derby is run.

Dessert put together by BH. Not short of calories, but packaged up in a way that offset all the pork very well. But it remains a mystery how cream and cake can pack in so many calories while tasting as light as they often do. At least when they are made at home; one is much more aware of all the sugar (or whatever) in cakes from cafés.

In place of siesta we did beams, tyre and water in the garden.

The pork lasted until towards the end of the week following, with the scraps going to the council rather than to the crows. Current thinking being that, even though the crows are pretty thorough, the smells left behind attract the foxes which are not wanted, Carew of reference 4 notwithstanding.

Curiously, the blade bone remained bound to the meat; it didn't just slip out in the way that I was expecting, requiring a spot of work with the knife.

The situation on the Tuesday.

Mash on this occasion, in honour of the higher grade gravy. Greens still doing quite well, despite the heat.

Getting a bit ragged by the end of that meal, but still good for one more, including a chew on the bones. By which time the merits of having the bone were coming through loud and clear.

PS 1: there was some bugle work in the course of the morning. On the next occasion, I shall commission one of the young ladies to blow the call to lunch on it. Did not cross my mind on this occasion.

PS 2: Carew was returned yesterday. The library could manage her book about her father, but not the autobiographical stories - Quick-Sand Tales - which followed. Maybe another time. Furthermore, annoyingly, there were four or five trolleys in town, but being with bicycle and having bread on the go (Batch No.691), not very convenient to take them in. Not that many of them to be found in town these days.

PS 3: my proofreading of this post is a bit like my clearing up of bits of twig and leaf from our oak tree from our back lawn. Every I go past, I seen to find another bit which I missed last time round. From where I associate to my time at the Treasury, where we had a chap - a librarian by trade - who was wheeled in to do the final read of important documents before they went to press or whatever. He could really get his head down and focus for the hour (or several hours) that it took. Yet another skill that I did not manage to pick up in passing!

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/07/greens.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/06/better-pub-beef.html.

Reference 3: https://www.riasbaixaswines.com.

Reference 4: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/07/cuddling.html.