Smoked Pork with Apple Pancake, Stuffing and Cranberry
the plate, after the smoke
Four things that each belong to a different meal, on one plate, and it works because every one of them is doing a job the others cannot.
The German apple pancake is the surprise. It is eggy and only barely sweet — closer to a Yorkshire pudding than to a dessert — and it sits next to smoked pork the way an apple sauce would, except you can cut it with a fork.
The stuffing is soft and the pancake is custardy and the cranberry is sharp, and the pork is salt and smoke. Nothing on this plate repeats itself.
- Feeds
- 6
- Hands-on
- 1 hour
- Pancake
- 20 minutes, cast iron
- Needs
- Smoked pork
What you need
The apple pancake
- 4 eggs
- 2/3 cup flour
- 2/3 cup whole milk
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3 tbsp butter
- 2 apples, peeled and sliced thin
- 1 tsp cinnamon
The stuffing
- 8 cups day-old bread, torn
- 1 stick butter
- 2 onions and 3 celery stalks, diced fine
- 2 tbsp sage, 1 tbsp thyme
- 2 1/2 cups chicken stock
- 2 eggs, beaten
- Salt and plenty of pepper
The rest
- 2 lb smoked pork, sliced thick
- 12 oz cranberries, 3/4 cup sugar, 1/2 cup water, 1 strip orange peel
How it goes
1 — Blitz the pancake batter and let it rest
Eggs, flour, milk, sugar and salt blended smooth, then left on the counter for thirty minutes. Resting lets the flour hydrate, and a rested batter rises higher.
2 — Stuffing: cook the vegetables properly first
Butter, onion and celery over medium heat for ten minutes until genuinely soft, herbs in at the end. Raw onion in stuffing stays raw and crunches.
3 — Bread, stock, egg, then 45 minutes covered
Torn bread tossed with the vegetables, stock poured over and left five minutes to soak, then the beaten egg folded through. Into a buttered dish, covered, 350°F for 45 minutes, uncovered for 15 more. Soft inside, browned on top.
4 — Cranberries, fifteen minutes, left chunky
Simmered with sugar, water and orange peel until most have burst. Those big dark pieces on the plate are berries that were left alone.
5 — Butter and apples in the skillet first
Cast iron into a 425°F oven to get hot, then butter in, apples and cinnamon in, two minutes on the stove until they start to soften.
6 — Batter over the apples, straight into the oven
Poured over the hot apples and into the oven for 18 to 20 minutes. It climbs up the sides of the pan and goes blistered and golden. Do not open the door before fifteen minutes or it collapses.
pro tip — It sinks within a minute of coming out. That is normal, it is supposed to, and the picture is of one that has already sunk.
7 — Warm the pork gently, slice it thick
Thick slices in a covered pan with a splash of stock for three minutes. Black edges facing up on the plate.
8 — Plate it in four quarters
Pork across the front, stuffing at one side, a wedge of pancake with its apples next to it, cranberry heaped at the back where it will not run into anything.
Four meals on one plate. Nobody left the table early. LFG.