Eleven years ago in Rome I noticed a decorative wooden cart alongside the road feeding into the great expanse that surrounds the Colosseum. There was a man attending it and he was selling a delicious-looking sandwich of roast pork slices spilling out of a ciabatta roll. The sign said “Porchetta” and I have been obsessed with this roulade of pork loin and belly ever since. Getting a porchetta from that cart remains one of three items of unfinished business I have in Rome.
A porchetta is a bit of work, and they are not seen much here, except perhaps in places like New York or San Francisco. It involves a pork loin that is layered with a mixture of herbs like rosemary, oregano, parsley and fennel pollen, as well as garlic, salt and pepper. The pork loin is placed on top of a pork belly and then the entirety is rolled and trussed with string as it roasts in the oven. The fat from the belly crisps up and imparts juices to the drier pork loin, and voila! A masterpiece. Thin slices are placed on ciabatta as an impossibly delicious street sandwich.
We don’t know how to do this right. I have had one of these as an entree at John Besh’s La Provence, and The Commissary had it once as a special that I came too late to have. So I was thrilled to learn that Cochon Butcher had one on the regular menu. As a Donald Link fan (for most of his places, anyway,) I figured this would be the best opportunity to have it. And since I was going to Butcher, there was plenty else on the menu I wanted to experience. It was easy to get carried away there. And I did, of course.
There was a hot dog on the menu and this is Donald Link, so it had to be great. I got one of those. And there was a burger, so of course I had to try that. There was a fried shrimp app too, so that went on the order too. And hogshead cheese and country terrine. The housecut potato chips are a given with any trip to Butcher, and those were part of this too.
The fried shrimp demanded my attention because they were hot. A chili aioli came with that. These were cornmeal battered, hot, and crispy. Perfect. The chili aioli was also terrific, but it was very spicy and eclipsed the shrimp taste. But I guess basic tartar sauce and remoulade does that as well. This made quite a statement.
I can’t decide if I prefer tail-on shrimp that are fried or popcorn shrimp. The latter are certainly easier to eat but the former gives you something to manage. I still feel like eating all the shrimp, the last bit of the tail, but it is fraught with danger. And it is annoying to peel.
The burger was also very good. It was not a smashburger but was a regular beefy thing, with cheese and fresh dressings and a lot of mustard. I wanted to keep eating this, mainly because it was such a classic burger, and I really like mustard on a burger. It was a good grind, shredded lettuce, and done to perfect medium as I asked. And just a basic seeded bun. I love when this happens.
The Butcher hot dog is everything you would expect. The dog itself is excellent: a skin so crisp it is noisy to bite, the perfect grind, and a smoky flavor. There is a lovely melted fat shine to the thing. I also love the inside-out bun which has a crust on it like an inverted slice of white bread. Weird but cool. The chili was unusual, (this is a hip place after all,) with its black-eyed peas legume component. Not a fan of this legume but the flavor was mitigated by all the “else: that was on it, which included the strong-statement sauerkraut. I am part German, though it is not necessary to be of German ancestry to love this pickled cabbage. We all loved it in the 20th century, before pickled veggies were cool.
And finally, the thing I went for…the porchetta. I expected so much from this sandwich that disappointment was inevitable. The real deal comes on ciabatta and it may have a bit of condiment, but nothing else is necessary. This was on a busy focaccia bread with a really spicy condiment and rapini as a dressing with chili oil favoring. The flavors of the star ingredient were simply lost in all this. Too bad. The pork when I pulled it out of this mess was tender, sliced thick and would have been a great sandwich, minus all the “extras.” I will continue my search, until it leads me back to Rome where hopefully the same man with the same cart will be waiting for my first discovery of a real porchetta.
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I left the country terrine and the hogshead cheese in a bag on the counter overnight, so the room-temp hogshead cheese was a melted and unappealing pile of ingredients. I put it in the refrigerator and had it the next day. I would say it was just fine but nowhere in the same league as Terranova’s or Trey’s Boudin on the north shore. To my taste, Trey has shifted the hogshead cheese paradigm in the same way that Gerard Maras (and more visibly Emeril,) did for BBQ shrimp, with that Worcestershire sauce base.
I wasn’t sure when I ordered the country terrine if it was a spreadable pate or a real terrine that was a loaf shape. It came as a nice chunk wrapped in bacon fat. It was appropriately smooth and chunky in parts, but not big chunks. It had a nice flavor and texture but I would not call it a favorite. Still, there are few pates I’ve met that I don’t love.
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And it took me no time to devour the housecut chips from Butcher. I will return just for these when I have a craving for them. But that would be a shame, because there are so many other great things on this menu.
