RACK OF PIG WITH HASSELBACK POTATOES

RACK OF PIG WITH HASSELBACK POTATOES

For about 6 people

This beautiful recipe has quite an extensive preparation, but let's face it, the sight of such a beautifully cooked rack is definitely worth it. For this preparation we use a wet brine, I personally think this is really worth it for these types of larger pieces of meat. This is guaranteed to keep the meat juicy and by adding herbs and spices you can really give a piece of meat a lot more depth in the taste. So, in my opinion, the wet brining is really worth it. This technique can of course be applied to everything, but for me white meat is ideal for this. Poultry such as chicken and turkey can also be perfectly prepared this way.

INGREDIENTS

• Whole pig rack
• Roseval potatoes, 12 to 18 pieces
• Wild Food - Pig Rub
• Onion 2 pieces
• Fresh vadouvan, 1 jar (isfi)
• Thyme, 1 bunch
• Fresh bay leaf, 10 leaves
• Rosemary 20 branches
• Paprika powder
• Garlic, 4 toes
• Pepper
• Salt
• Water
• Orange, 3 pieces
• Olive oil

NECESSETIES

• BBQ with lid and indirect heating option
• Heat shield for kamado use
• Butchers rope
• Large container, where the rack fits
• Smoke wood, pellets or chips, wood of your choice
• Baking tray
• Cutting board
• Knives
• Oven
• Core thermometer

PRE PREPARATION 48 TILL 72 HOURS IN ADVANCE

• Remove the rack from its packaging and trim it to your liking as needed.
• Remove the membranes and tough chamois. Scrape the bones well with a small knife. Of course this is not necessary, but I myself can never resist because it looks so much nicer in the end.
• Poke several holes in the meat with a toothpick. Distribute the pricking evenly and nicely around the meat. This will ensure that the brine herbs penetrate into the meat.
• Weigh the rack and remember the weight.
• Place the prepared rack in the smallest possible container. This is useful because you then need less water and therefore less herbs and spices to flavor the whole.
• Place the rack under cold water. Weigh the water while adding. Now calculate the total weight of this combination, water plus rack.
• Now add 1% salt of this total weight to the water and make sure that this salt dissolves well. If you don't think this is salty enough, you could consider adding up to 1.5% salt.

(example)

• Rack                          - 1500 grams
• Water                         - 3000 grams
• Total weight.               - 4500 gram
• 1% salt.                      -     45 gram 

• Now add the thyme, rosemary, bay leaf and fresh vadouvan to the brine bath.
• Halve the 3 oranges and add these too. It may seem a bit excessive to use so many herbs and spices, but you have to keep in mind that the brine bath really needs some power to be able to penetrate well into the meat.

PRE PREPARATION COOKING DAY

• It is best to select potatoes of almost the same size. Score the potatoes with a knife.
• The goal is to cut thin slices of potato without cutting them apart. So don't cut all the way through to the cutting board, but leave some space so that the potato stays together.
• Preferably use a knife with a thin cutting blade, this has the advantage that you can cut thinner slices more easily.
• Clean and finely chop the garlic cloves. Mix the garlic with the olive oil, salt, pepper and paprika powder to taste. Make sure that it remains a smooth running oil and that it does not become a puree.
• Now divide this herbal oil over the potatoes. It is best if the oil penetrates well between the potato slices.
• Divide the potatoes on a baking tray lined with baking paper and cook the potatoes in a preheated oven at 165 degrees. It takes about 1.5 hours at this temperature until the potatoes are cooked.
• Don't quote me completely on this and check the cooking yourself by pricking a potato with a fork. The preparation time mainly depends on the size of the potatoes and can therefore certainly take longer.
• Let the potatoes cool when they are well cooked.
• Now remove the meat from the brine bath and tie the piece up with butcher's rope.
• Wrap a string around the meat for each rib, pull it tight and secure the string with a simple double knot.
• The advantage of this is that the rack stays in better shape during preparation, of course the binding is not necessarily necessary, but in the end it does look nicer.
• Sprinkle the rack with Wild Pig rub at your own discretion, another pork rub could of course also be used.

PREPARATION

• Preheat the BBQ, place the heat shield and realize a room temperature of approximately 120 degrees.
• Sprinkle smoking wood pellets or chips over the charcoal.
• Try to separate the wood in a way that will get you a steady stream of smoke for about an hour. I myself have chosen hickory wood for the preparation.
• Place the core thermometer in the center of the thickest piece of the meat and set the core temperature to  62 degrees.
• The rack in the photos weighed about 2 kilos and took 1 hour and 45 minutes at 120 degrees to cook.
• Place the baking sheet with potatoes back in and in front of the heated oven.
• Make sure the potatoes are nice and hot when the pork rack is ready.
• Cut the rack and serve all guests a beautiful piece with delicious hasselback potatoes. Enjoy your dinner.