Kain,
here's my first porchetta on my CGA while camping last weekend. I bought the meat at Costco and did not realize until I opened it that the pork belly had the skin removed. That was a bummer because that meant no cracklin chicharrones!
I cut the pork belly in half and filleted it and one of the pork tenderloins. I hit them with kosher salt and coarse black pepper and rolled them up with fresh chopped rosemary, sage, thyme, garlic, and lemon zest. Because I was lacking the skin, I rubbed the tied up pork bomb with a bit more salt, pepper, and some garlic powder, onion powder, and smoked paprika for more flavor.
I set up the CGA with a snake stacked two high. I kept the charcoal separated with 3 mini foil trays. The top lip of the trays was too wide and interfered with the charcoal so I cut the top 1" or so off of each one and filled them with water to keep a low and steady temperature. I tossed some apple wood chips in there, dropped the diffuser in, plugged in the pork, stuck a thermometer probe through the top vent at the opposite end of the fire, and let her roll.
I put it on at 4:08 PM and I pulled it off 8 hours later at 12:10 AM when the pork's internal temp hit 147* (thank goodness all of the camping coolers were filled with ice and beer!). The CGA held a steady 200* temperature for almost the entire cook. It was at 175* for the first two hours with one of the bottom vents cracked open on the wind side, but moved up to 200* when I cracked open the bottom vent on the same side. One top vent was wide open because of the thermometer probe and I kept the other one completely closed.
The porchetta was delicious and enjoyed immensely by all of the nocturnal campers in our group, but I know it would've been so much better if it had the super crispy skin. Also, the next time I try this, I will open the vents more to increase the temperature up to 250-300* or so.
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Topic: Porchetta on the CGA (Read 570 times)
