8 hours ago
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According to the Sustainable Food Trust, “the milk from 40,000 cows (300,000 tonnes) is tipped down the kitchen sink each year – a real slap in the face for the farmer”. Even though some supermarkets have now swapped use-by for best-before dates on their milk, those dates can still be confusing, so always do the sniff test before binning it: even if it’s a little sour, you can still cook with it.
Maiale al latte (milk-braised pork)
The Food Standards Agency advises that food with a best-before date can usually be tested using sensory cues such as the sniff test. And what better way to use up spent or sour milk than maiale al latte, or milk-braised pork, for which pork is slowly braised in milk and flavoured with a few aromatics until tender. The milk splits and forms large curds that thicken and caramelise the sauce, so creating a creamy rich dressing for the meat. It’s Italian simplicity at its best and proof that food doesn’t need to look good to taste good.
Serve this tender, caramel-scented pork with soft polenta or buttery mashed potatoes and winter greens. The milk-braised sauce is sweet, nutty and very rich. You could also consider topping the pork with my parsley stalk gremolata, a magical seasoning that is somehow far more than the sum of its parts: finely chopped parsley, raw garlic and lemon zest.
Serves 4
600g boned pork shoulder
Sea salt and black pepper
1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 tbsp butter
1 small bulb garlic, cut in half crossways
1 large sprig fresh sage
Zest from half an unwaxed lemon, peeled in wide strips
About 350ml whole milk
Season the pork shoulder with sea salt an hour before cooking, and ideally the day before, if possible. Put a heavy-based casserole that’s just large enough to hold the pork joint on a medium heat, add the olive oil and butter, and heat until the butter begins to bubble. Lay in the pork joint and cook, turning often, until it’s deeply coloured on all sides.
Add the halved garlic bulb, sage, a twist of black pepper and the lemon zest (if your lemon isn’t unwaxed/organic, just add the juice), then pour in the milk and bring to a gentle boil. Turn down the heat to low, cover the pot and leave the pork to simmer slowly for an hour and a half, until the meat is tender and the milk has split into thick curds; turn the meat every 30 minutes, but resist the urge to stir, so the milk curds have a chance to form and caramelise.
Lift out the pork, pull it apart into large chunks, then return these to the hot pan and leave the sauce to reduce until it is savoury and delicious. Serve with some of the nutty caramelised milk sauce spooned over the top.
