Festal pork

For festive fare proper, we toyed with the idea of shepherd's pie, possibly made with Halal mutton sourced from Balham, but in the end settled for the reliable rolled shoulder of pork to be had from the butcher in Manor Green Road.

Ever obliging, he got an extra shoulder in for me at rather short notice. The only snag being that when I asked for around 2kg, he was a bit quick about cutting it in half, and that was exactly what I got, rather than the 2.5-3.0kg which one expects. To be precise, 4lbs 4.5oz or 4¼ pounds for the purpose of computation.

The computation being, 33 minutes to the pound plus 20 minutes equals 160 minutes, say 180 minutes at 160°C, allowing for a bit of door opening. Into the oven at 09:40.

After consultation with BH, allowed 50 Brussels sprouts, that is to say ten per adult and none for the children, known to be a bit tricky about certain - but by no means all - green vegetables.

2lbs 11oz of potatoes, weighed before peeling.

Parsnips and carrots oiled and into the oven, underneath the pork at 11:30.

Cocktail sausages - hand down-sized by BH from chipolata sausages - and a white pudding oiled and into the oven, next to the roots at 11:45. A white pudding which now comes in straight rather than circle format, this last being a relic, a gesture, to the days when the things were made stuffed into tubes made of unmentionable lights rather than tubes made of plastic. I should say that the pudding is easier to slice in its new format, easier to get the slices deep and crisp and even and they should be at this time of year.

Full gravy performance. Vegetable stock, washing the roasting tin, the whole works. Except that I did not think to keep back any white bread for the gravy dipping ceremony, which had to make do with brown bread of my own making.

Forks down, more or less on time, at  12:30. As it turned out, the pork was cooked to a turn. It, the sausages, the white pudding and the roots all more or less vanished on the first shift. But we could have done with more Brussels sprouts.

Reliable stuff this rolled shoulder. Taken on this occasion, as it happens, with bone rather than being boned and rolled.

More Fleurie visible top right. White pudding to the left of the mash. Gravy yet to be added to the mash.

Followed by BH's own Christmas pudding and two sorts of sauce, white and yellow, as taken in my Cambridge childhood. I think in BH's family that they settled for a spot of burning brandy on top and yellow custard all around. The North American customs and practises of my Canadian mother nowhere to be seen.

A bit later on we managed to visit the mound at the bottom of the garden later.

PS 1: more gravy with left over mash and the stump of the shoulder the following day. Sprouts fresh. And it was finally finished for breakfast on the day after that, in the form of broth, with added pearl barley, and taken with brown bread.

PS 2:  to close, I share an advertisement for DIY but exclusive global warming by going on a cruise to the cold south. Disturb a few penguins! Burn a bit of heavy oil! Make a mark on the world by knocking back a spot of something that warms in somewhere that cools. Possibly served by someone who came from east of Suez and who does not earn enough to worry about global warming.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/01/festive-fare.html.

Reference 2: https://www.masterbutchersepsom.co.uk/contact/.