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Lacón con Grelos

Name: Lacón con Grelos
Prep time: 3 h 15 min
Total time: 51 h 15 min
Cuisine: Spanish · Galicia
Ingredients: cured pork shoulder — 1500 g; turnip greens — 1000 g; potatoes — 800 g; chorizo — 400 g; unto — 200 g; water — 4000 g; salt — 10 g; spanish smoked paprika — 3 g; extra virgin olive oil — 55 g

Lacón con Grelos reads richness 4.1, umami 3.8 and salinity 3.6 on Palate's 0–10 flavor X-ray — a Spanish · Galicia main, about 51 hr 15 min. Measured from the recipe itself: ingredients and technique.

The flavor X-ray — six axes, 0–10

Umami & Savory — 4.3 / 10
Sweet & Fruity — 1.5 / 10
Sour & Bright — 0.7 / 10
Bitter & Earthy — 3.8 / 10
Rich & Fat — 4.3 / 10
Aromatic & Spice — 2.9 / 10

The measured notes (of 18)

Richness 4.1 · Umami 3.8 · Salinity 3.6 · Smoke 3.2 · Heat 2.6 · Herbaceous 2.2 · Funk & Ferment 2.0 · Earthy 2.0 · Bitterness 1.7 · Warm Spice 1.7 · Sweetness 1.4 · Sourness 0.6 · Nutty 0.6 · Fruity 0.5

What's in it (9)

cured pork shoulder — 1500 g
turnip greens — 1000 g
potatoes — 800 g
chorizo — 400 g
unto — 200 g
water — 4000 g
salt — 10 g
spanish smoked paprika — 3 g
extra virgin olive oil — 55 g

Time & effort: about 51 hr 15 min (3 hr 15 min active) · effort: involved

Nutrition (per 100 g, engine-estimated): 24.8 kcal, 1.1 g protein, 1.3 g fat, 2.4 g carbs

Dietary: Contains meat — engine-derived; double-check anything allergy-critical.

How it's cooked (7 steps)

This is Galicia's carnival dish, eaten at Entroido, and it is three ingredients that all taste of one another by the end. Grelos are the flowering tops of the turnip, cut before the plant runs to seed — bitter, mustardy and nothing like a turnip root. Broccoli rabe is the closest thing outside Galicia and is an honest substitute; kale is not.
Unto is the piece most people leave out and should not. It is pork fat cured and hung until it goes yellow and faintly rancid in the way a good cheese is faintly rancid, and it gives the broth a smoky depth nothing else supplies. Galician and Portuguese delicatessens sell it. Without it the pot tastes merely of boiled ham.
Soak the lacón in cold water for 48 hours in the refrigerator, changing the water four times. It is heavily salted and this is not negotiable.
Put the drained lacón and the unto in a large pot with the water, bring slowly to a simmer and cook, uncovered and never boiling hard, for 2 hours. Skim once or twice at the start.
Prick the chorizos and add them for the last 30 minutes so they give their pimentón-red fat to the broth without bursting.
Blanch the grelos in a separate pot of boiling water for 5 minutes and drain — this takes off the harshest edge. Then finish them in the meat broth for 20 minutes, until they are properly soft. Galicians do not serve them al dente; the point is that they are tender enough to eat with a spoon.
Cook the potatoes in the same broth for 20 minutes until a knife slides through. Taste the broth and add the salt only now, at the end. Drain everything and pile it on a warm platter, the lacón carved thickly, and pour over the olive oil warmed with the pimentón. Serve the broth separately in cups.

Dishes with a similar flavor shape

Erwtensoep (Snert) — Dutch
Tex-Mex Migas — Tex-Mex
Frijoles Charros Norteños — Mexican · Norteño
Feijoada Fritters With Collard Greens — Brazilian
Stamppot Boerenkool met Rookworst (Kale Mash with Smoked Sausage) — Dutch

Keep reading: what richness, umami, salinity mean in the flavor lexicon · the world's cuisines, by flavor.

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Every number above is Palate's engine-measured estimate, computed from this recipe's ingredients and techniques — not human-tasted ratings or reviews.