Peculiar Pork Roast
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the oven
Build a wood fire in a clay oven and let it burn out.
Rake off the coals and stuff the pig with sliced bananas.
Lay additional sliced bananas around the outside of the pig.
Wrap the pig in palm leaves and bind them with hempen cords.
Roast and serve
Place the wrapped pig in the oven and cover it with a large clay cap.
Heap bright coals over the cap, leaving flues for steam to escape.
Watch the cooking process, prodding with a stick to check the aroma.
Once done, remove the cover and lay the roasted pig on a clean mat.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Bananas
- Sliced bananas add moisture and natural sweetness, and their aroma flavours the meat as it cooks.
- Palm leaves
- Wrapping in palm leaves holds in steam and moisture while the pig cooks in the oven.
The step that matters
Heaping coals over the cap and leaving flues open. Steam must escape through the flues while heat stays even; too much venting dries the meat, and sealing it fully can trap steam and cook unevenly. Checking doneness by aroma and prodding helps judge the cook.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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