butterflying a pork shoulder

Sometimes when you can’t find what you want you have to make it yourself.

I set out to make the porchetta recipe from the Food 52 Cookbook, but when I read butterflied pork loin I was almost scared enough to find something else to cook. The recipe suggested that I get the pork butterflied at my butcher. Other recipes online suggested the same thing. I, however, don’t have a butcher. I am told there is one in town, but it isn’t convenient and as much as I love food I like convenience more. I tried searching for a video to learn how to butterfly my own, but my search skills leave a lot to be desired and I came up empty handed. So when I couldn’t find a video to show me how to cut my meat I made my own.

If you click on it to watch, and there is no sound, I assure you it isn’t broken. I was too shy to talk while I was cutting the meat. I jumped in and figured it out and the finished piece of meat looked like the finished piece of meat in the cookbook, but I didn’t know what I was doing and putting it into words was too tough.

I had this vision of angry comments telling me I did it wrong, since there are probably a dozen butchers that read this blog. What’s that there aren’t any butchers reading this? Whew, dodged the angry comments bullet again.

While the video doesn’t have instructions it does have a visual on how to achieve a flat piece of meat. What you want to do is cut your piece at the thickness you want just like you were going to slice off a chunk. Stop a little short of cutting all the way through the meat and lay it as flat as possible. Then continue with the same process until you have a flat piece of meat that is the same thickness all the way across.

Hindsight, my search skills are really poor, I typed the wrong description in google, there are videos out there with words if my Ikea style, no word video, isn’t up your alley.

Here is how I got to this scary recipe in the first place. My sweet husband left the cookbook open to the recipe on the kitchen island for me. Nothing like the power of suggestion. I admit I kind of felt like I should cook it to repay the nice thing he had done for me. Ladies, if your husband rarely cleans for you don’t read this next part as it might not be healthy for your marriage.

Two or three times a year I work overnight shifts and get home at 4am. They are my least favorite shifts. They rank right up there with my least favorite thing to do at home, clean. I hate it. I have tried all kinds of mind tricks to teach myself it isn’t that big of a deal, but none of them work for long. I came home from my lastest inventory a month ago and when I got to the door in the garage that goes into the house I noticed I had a note. It was a sweet note and put a smile on my face. I opened the door and stepped into the kitchen. I had to stop for a second and figure out what was different. The chairs were flipped up on the table, it obviously smelled clean and the island which is a landing zone for all our stuff was cleared of everything but my cookbook holder. I was blown away that I had just walked into a spotless kitchen. When I saw the cookbook open to the recipe I vowed to make it for him as a thank you.

It took me a couple weeks to get around to making it but it was so delicious and so much easier than I originally thought. This recipe does require the meat to sit in the fridge overnight so plan ahead.

After you get the meat butterflied simple mix the spices together in the olive oil to create a paste.

After you have the paste rub it over the meat and then put it in a bag and store in the fridge overnight. Doesn’t hurt to stop by and squish it (that is a professional term) around to get the spices mixed in even more.

Cover it with pancetta and then place it on a roasting rack in a roasting pan. Cook for 1.5-2.5 hours.