Boiled Salted Pork à l’Anglaise

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •5 to 6-quart heavy pot with lid
• •2-quart saucepan for the split peas
• •1-quart heatproof pudding basin
• •Deep covered saucepan for the bain-marie
• •Small rack or folded kitchen towel
• •Fine-mesh sieve
• •Potato masher or food mill
• •Instant-read thermometer
• •Kitchen scale

Instructions

1. 1

   Begin the pork poach

   Set the tied pork in a snug 5 to 6-quart pot and add enough cold water to cover it by 1 inch. Bring the water slowly toward a simmer over 20 to 25 minutes, skimming away the gray foam as it rises. The name says bouilli, but the technique is a poach: once only a few bubbles break the surface, reduce the heat and hold the liquor between 180 and 190°F (82 and 88°C). Leave the lid ajar and cook for 75 minutes before adding the vegetables.

   Taste a spoonful of the cooking liquor after 30 minutes. If the salt catches harshly at the back of your throat, remove one-third of the liquor and replace it with the same amount of boiling water. Ça se rattrape. Keep the rest, because that cured-pork flavor is meant to season the vegetables.
2. 2

   Make the pea purée

   While the pork begins cooking, put the rinsed split peas and their water in a saucepan. Bring them to a boil, skim once, then lower the heat and simmer uncovered for 45 to 55 minutes, stirring more often as they soften. Add a little water if the peas become exposed before they collapse. Drain them thoroughly, mash until smooth but not airy, and return the purée to low heat for 2 or 3 minutes, stirring until it sits heavily on the spoon. Weigh out exactly 302 g. If it is watery, keep drying it gently; if it is too stiff to stir, work in a spoonful of its cooking water. The pudding’s set depends on this consistency.

3. 3

   Mix the pease pudding

   Beat the 57 g softened butter into the warm split-pea purée until it disappears and leaves a soft sheen. Let the mixture cool until it feels merely warm against a fingertip, then beat in the eggs one at a time. Add the salt, white pepper, and nutmeg. The mixture should fall reluctantly from the spoon rather than pour; hot purée scrambles the eggs, while wet purée makes a pudding that never gains its proper body.

4. 4

   Set the bain-marie

   Butter a 1-quart heatproof pudding basin and spoon in the pea mixture, smoothing the top. Cover it tightly with buttered parchment and foil. Set the basin on a small rack or folded kitchen towel in a deep saucepan, pour hot water halfway up its sides, and cover the saucepan. Hold the bain-marie at the barest simmer for 45 to 55 minutes. Move directly to the vegetables while it cooks. The pudding is ready when its center is set, a thin knife comes out almost clean, and an instant-read thermometer reaches 160°F (71°C). If the center remains soft, cover it again and give it another 10 minutes. Do not turn up the heat.

   If the bain-marie begins boiling hard, lift the saucepan off the heat until the water calms, then return it over a lower flame. A few small holes will not spoil the pudding, but sustained boiling makes it coarse.
5. 5

   Poach the vegetables

   Once the pork has cooked for 75 minutes, add the carrots and turnips to its pot. Keep the liquor at the same bare tremble. After 15 minutes, add the parsnips and leeks, then continue for another 25 to 35 minutes. Lift each vegetable out as soon as a knife enters without resistance and keep it covered with a little poaching liquor. The pork shoulder is ready when a skewer slips easily into its thickest part and the internal temperature is between 175 and 185°F (79 and 85°C). If the vegetables finish first, hold them separately; if the pork still resists, let it continue alone. Tender vegetables and tender meat need not arrive at the same second.

6. 6

   Rest and serve

   Lift the pork from its liquor and rest it loosely covered for 15 minutes. Keep the vegetables moist with a few spoonfuls of the hot liquor. Unmold the pease pudding onto its own warm dish, or serve it directly from the basin if it feels delicate. Slice the pork across the grain, arrange the carrots, turnips, leeks, and parsnips generously around it, and spoon over just enough strained cooking liquor to give everything a sheen. Send the pease pudding separately, exactly as the dish requires. À table!

Chef Tips

• •Ask for uncooked, unsmoked salted pork shoulder. An uncooked gammon joint is the source’s other excellent choice, but it usually becomes tender sooner; begin checking it after 75 minutes and remove it when the center reaches 155 to 160°F (68 to 71°C). Fully cooked ham will dry out during this treatment, while smoked pork changes the plain cured character of the dish.
• •Curing strength varies enormously. If the butcher or package directs you to soak the pork, cover it with cold water for 8 to 12 hours in the refrigerator and change the water once. A mildly cured joint needs no soaking; the taste of the cooking liquor will tell you whether dilution is necessary.
• •Yellow split peas give the pudding its familiar pale ochre color, but the source permits green split peas in the same amount. Use dried split peas, not fresh or frozen garden peas, because their starch is what lets the eggs and butter form a sliceable pudding.
• •Four small parsnips preserve the source’s unusually generous proportion. Add them later than the carrots and turnips, or their sweet flesh will collapse into the cooking liquor.
• •Serve a dry cider or a brisk, lightly oaked white wine. The plate already has salt, sweetness, butter, and soft starch, so the drink should bring freshness rather than more weight.

Advance Preparation

• •If the pork is heavily cured, soak it in cold water in the refrigerator for 8 to 12 hours, changing the water once. Confirm the need with the butcher or package, because a mild joint loses character if soaked unnecessarily.
• •The split-pea purée can be cooked and weighed a day ahead. Chill it covered, then warm it gently before beating in the butter; let it cool again before adding the eggs.
• •The pease pudding can be poached up to 2 days ahead, covered, and refrigerated. Reheat it in a gently simmering bain-marie until hot through.
• •For a fully make-ahead supper, refrigerate the cooked pork in its strained poaching liquor and store the vegetables separately for up to 3 days. Reheat the pork gently in the liquor without boiling, adding the vegetables only for the final few minutes.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 480g)