
How To Cook Porchetta On The Traeger Timberline 850 Wood Pellet Grill
Try this tasty Italian classic instead of the usual roast pork joint
How to cook porchetta on the Traeger Timberline 850 wood pellet grill
A stuffed, rolled, boneless pork loin is a classic Italian dish and makes a really delicious alternative to the traditional Christmas pork joint. Cooking it on the Timberline with its 2 temperature probes means that you can cook it to absolute perfection, giving you a fantastic moist piece of meat with super crispy crackling. We have included pork mince into the stuffing for extra meatiness but you can also put the meaty eye from the loin onto the stuffing to improve the fat to meat ratio.
Ingredients:
- 1.5kg boneless pork belly
- 1tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- sea salt
Stuffing:
- 1 medium onion; finely chopped
- ½ fennel bulb; finely chopped
- ½ teasp coriander seeds; crushed
- 2 cloves garlic; crushed
- 250g minced pork
- 1 orange; zest
- 3 sage leaves; finely chopped
- 1tbsp rosemary leaves; finely chopped
- 1 egg
- sea salt
- ground black pepper
Equipment:
- cotton string
First of all make the stuffing by gently sweating down the onion and fennel and adding all the other ingredients once they have cooled. Combine well and spread over the inside of the pork. Make sure the stuffing comes right to the edge of the meat otherwise whoever gets the end slices will lose out on the tasty mixture.
Pre-heat the Traeger to around 200C.
Roll up the pork and stuffing so that it looks like a meaty Swiss roll and tie tightly with either cotton or butcher’s string. Rub the olive oil, or rapeseed oil, into the skin and sprinkle with sea salt. Score the skin to allow the fat to render more freely. Place the meat in the centre of the grill and insert the probe into the centre of the joint and set the app to 74C. Once your meat is within 5C of the desired temperature the grill will send an alert to your smartphone, so no need to keep going outside to check the temperature. Close the lid and go indoors to enjoy the Christmas festivities and wait for your phone to tell you when the meat is cooked.
Take the meat off when it reaches a temperature of 74 – 75C and let it rest for at least 30 minutes covered in a couple of sheets of tinfoil and a blanket of tea-towels to keep it warm. The meat fibres contract during cooking and letting it rest will allow the fibres to relax making the meat tenderer.
How to: How To Cook Porchetta On The Traeger Timberline 850 Wood Pellet Grill
This guide explains how to cook the iconic stuffed porchetta on your barbecue
How to make the stuffing
Gently sweat down the onions and fennel then add all the other ingredients.
How to stuff the pork
Spread the mixture over the pork making sure it also covers the ends of the meat then roll into a sausage roll shape and secure with string. Score the skin and rub with olive or rapeseed oil and sprinkle with sea salt.
Cooking the porchetta
You need a barbecue with a lid pre-heated to 200C. If you have a Traeger with probes or a Weber with an iGrill insert the probes and cook until it reaches 75C.
How to serve
Once the meat has cooked to the correct temperature remove from the grill and place on a wooden board. Cover with tinfoil and a blanket of tea-towels then leave to rest for at least 20 - 30 minutes. Cut into slices and serve with baby potatoes and an assortment of vegetables roasted on the BBQ at the same time as the meat.