Gourounopoulo Roumeliotiko (Γουρουνόπουλο Ρουμελιώτικο)

Gourounopoulo Roumeliotiko is Central Greece's celebration pork: a young pig when there is a crowd, or a skin-on shoulder for the home oven, roasted over potatoes that drink the fat. The region is the dish's surname. In Roumeli, this is the meat you smell near a feast day, at a name-day table, or at a village panigyri when the cook has planned properly.

The whole dish depends on the skin. Salt it the night before and leave it uncovered in the refrigerator, so the surface dries and tightens. Then it can blister into crisp crackling. If you cover it, baste it, or start with damp rind, it steams under its own fat and stays tough. Good olive oil, and patience, but first a dry skin.

The potatoes are not a side thought. They sit under the pork with wine, lemon, oregano, and bay, catching the rendered fat until their edges brown and their centers turn soft. I don't invent this. I find it, I test it, I write it down. This version keeps the feast within reach of a normal kitchen, without pretending a shoulder is a whole village pig.