Fresh Neck of Pork à la Choucroûte

Échine de porc fraîche à la choucroûte (fresh neck of pork with braised sauerkraut) teaches the discipline of shared fat. The pork seasons the cabbage as it roasts, and the cabbage receives that richness without becoming greasy. The one true thing to know before touching a pan is this: neck must finish completely and gently, because its connective tissue needs time. Underdone pork neck sits heavily; properly cooked neck is moist, giving, and generous.

The original assumed a warm stove compartment, a vast braising pan of Sauerkraut (Choucroûte) (No. 2097), and consommé from a stockpot never off the fire, not a saucier's finishing pan or a salamander. For four, the honest equivalents are a tied 1.4-kilogram joint, a covered home casserole of the referenced preparation entering its final hour, and a low domestic oven watched with a thermometer. The ten-pound cabbage batch and warm holding compartment are brigade scaffolding, so they shrink and become one controlled oven. The repeated basting with neck fat and thorough cooking are the dish, and they stay. One cook, one stove, one evening.

The finished joint should wear a deep bronze fat cap, with moist slices surrounded by pale, glossy choucroûte. If the cabbage becomes oily during basting, drain it and restore only a spoonful of its own liquor. Ça se rattrape. The step that matters most is the gentle final hour: measure the centre of the pork, not your patience, and carry it to 78 to 80°C before resting.