4th of July overnight cook

[Stan]

Hey everybody,

-I finally manned up and did an overnight cook. I fired the Primavera yesterday evening at 6:30. Made 4 pizzas at 7:30 (90 second pies too. HOT fire!). Mozzarella and tomato with slices of transparent mortadella added after cooking was definitely the winner.

-At around 11, I baked about 4 pounds of ciabatta rolls.

-Finally, at midnight I put in a porchetta. I boned a 10lb pork shoulder, then stuffed it with crushed garlic, rosemary, sage, thyme, fine salt and pepper, and wild fennel pollen. I tied the roast, put it on a rack over a drip pan, put it in the oven at around 370F, then prayed. The alarm woke me up at 6:30, and I was greeted with insanely crispy skin, spoon-tender pork, and the smell of fennel pollen. We'll serve it warm today on the ciabatta rolls. I'll post pics when I get them. Yay for WFOs!

Stan

[Stan]

Re: 4th of July overnight cook

Finally some pics! Sorry, but no time to shoot the pizzas. They were gone too fast

These are shots of the overnight porchetta, the ciabatta rolls, and a crumb shot of one roll.

Stan

[Chef]

Re: 4th of July overnight cook

Great job!! Now for your next overnight try making a stock or baked beans!

[czaunb2]

Re: 4th of July overnight cook

Looks wonderful!! I still haven't taken the time to make an oven door--these pics are pushing me to try to get started tomorrow.

[Derkp]

Re: 4th of July overnight cook

You are all giving me hope. We fired up the oven for another hot cure for marshmallos and my son decided he wanted to cook a pizza. We committed the cardinal sin of trying out a pre-made non cooked pizza from a local shop. It turned out pretty well. He also wanted to show off his new handmade peel.

The second misdeed was to put my angus cross rib roast in my dutch oven and not to take out the coals. Closed the door a little later and got busy and occupied for the next 12 hrs.....

The potaotes were petrified, onions, carrots, peppers and bacon almost unrecognizable.

I just checked the oven and the internal is still 260 F, we lit the fire thurs afternoon.

I am having a rather steep learing curve in regards to heat and timing.

Thanks for the good information and pictures of delicious food.

Derk

[splatgirl]

Re: 4th of July overnight cook

The potaotes were petrified, onions, carrots, peppers and bacon almost unrecognizable.

Derk

I'm familiar. Petrified pork shoulder. More than once.

[roobqn]

Re: 4th of July overnight cook

So when doing this are you leaving the fire in, allowing the coals to go to ash or are you removing the fire and using retained heat?

[Stan]

Re: 4th of July overnight cook

When I did mine, I cooked pizza in the early evening, let the fire burn to ashes, then baked the bread as it got dark. At around midnight I swept out the coals and put in the porchetta. The temperature was around 350, all retained heat. I came back at 6am and it was done.

Stan

[Derkp]

Re: 4th of July overnight cook

One of my mistakes was leaving the coals in, 4 days or so later it was still 200 + degrees inside.

Learn as I go.

Derk

[Knackers]

Re: 4th of July overnight cook

When I did mine, I cooked pizza in the early evening, let the fire burn to ashes, then baked the bread as it got dark. At around midnight I swept out the coals and put in the porchetta. The temperature was around 350, all retained heat. I came back at 6am and it was done.

Stan

Hi Stan,
I desperatly want to do this, door was on obviously?
I just need to pluck up enough guts & I cant seem to do something different as the roasts, Pizzas & chicken legs are so good that we have been cooking its hard to try something new.

[Stan]

Re: 4th of July overnight cook

Do it man! The door was on the whole time. There's no guts needed. Just let the oven drop to 350ish, put in a tough cut of meat like a pork shoulder or a beef brisket, plug the door, and wait until morning. I've done it at least 6 times now with different cuts, and it comes out great every time.

Porchetta advice: Put the porchetta over a drop pan with some white wine in it. Or, if you're lazy, put it IN a drip pan with some white wine. Use the drippings/wine reduction to juice up the porchetta after you slice it. It's fantastic.

Stan