Intimidating looking but still tasty enough!
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Today I’m talking porchetta! The Vicentina Italian Porchetta from Costco. Last year my husband and I visited Italy and one of the most common “to-go” lunches you’d see everyone eating is porchetta sandwiches! We had porchetta from a small bakery/deli in a town called Old Frascati (if you ever go to Italy it’s the cutest little town) and it was AMAZING! So I was curious if this Costco Vicentina Italian Porchetta tasted as good.
Cost
The porchetta is 1.5 kg large and I paid I paid $16.99 Canadian on sale. Regular price is $19.99 Canadian. I snagged it on sale for but I still see that as a little on the pricey side! You’re getting a TON of pork though! Easily enough to serve four to six adults and still have leftovers.
Convenience
Initially when I bought this I thought ohhh yes this will be a quick, easy, week night meal. Oh no, this takes two hours or longer to cook in the oven at 400 degrees farenheit! It’s convenient to actually cook but if you’re wanting dinner quick after you get home from your Costco trip this isn’t the best option. The best before date is also about a month from the date we purchased the porchetta. My husband wanted to tell readers that he found removing the strings a bit difficult as well.
Nutrition
This is high in fat, calories, sodium and protein! 100 grams (which isn’t that much at all) is 230 calories, 17 grams of fat, one gram of carbohydrates, 17 grams of protein and 380 mg of sodium. The ingredients list is surprisingly pretty straight forward without many chemical sounding ingredients/preservatives. I posted a photo above of what a 138 gram serving looks like.
Taste
So I have to be honest, the porchetta doesn’t look very appealing prior to cooking it, it looks pretty fatty and also comes with a large amount of a jelly like substance in the bag. The jelly is what turns into the juices it’s sitting in if you look at the photo above of the cooked porchetta. Porchetta is a savory, fatty, pork roast that reminds me a lot of pork belly. The hard crust on the outside really isn’t edible and then under that crust is a large layer of fat. However when you get to the inside you get pretty tender, flavorful, extremely moist pork. You can slice it and serve it as roast or you can do what we did and pull it apart like pulled pork. Except it tastes distinctly different than pulled pork (in a good way). I was a little disappointed I didn’t have extra fancy ingredients on hand like arugula, a dijon mustard or some balsamic caramelized onions. I bet the Costco Something Special Red Chili Pepper Spread would be perfect for a porchetta sandwich! The pork is pretty salty so you don’t need to add any extra salt or seasoning to the pork itself.
This was fun to try but I probably wouldn’t repurchase it again. It’s a lot of pork for two people! It did remind me of the porchetta we had in Italy but wasn’t quite as good.
Cost: 6.5/10
Convenience: 6/10
Nutrition: 3/10
Taste: 7/10
if you think this is porchetta you don t know what is a porchetta. just because says porchetta doesn t mean it
I would like to give this a try but haven’t noticed it in store. Which section did you find it in?
It’s in the refrigerated section by the cheese/ribs etc.
I bought the porchetta also when it was on sale. It was ok but could be better. It has very little. fat but the meat was still juicy.
I have tried porchetta from Meat and Bread and I have also done this at home and on both times, the porchetta was excellent.
The hard crust that was mentioned is what is supposed to be the crackling. It is hard but breaks easily once you crack it with a knife. You can tell that the porchetta is completely done if you tap on the skin and you can hear a cracking sound. To get to that point requires long cooking.
The crackling I think is the beat part. Like the icing on a cake. In fact, I felt a bit cheated because the skin covered only half of the porchetta surface. The skin will be hard and chewy if you don’t cook it long enough. You might have not cooked it long enough. One trick, is to raise up the heat towards the end of cooking.
I would buy this again if I have another couple because it is too much just for two.