Buzhenina (oven-baked ham)

Cold Dishes | Russian

Buzhenina is a meat dish of Russian cuisine: pork shoulder baked as one piece. The Austrian and German cuisines have their analogue of this dish (Schweinsbraten). Buzhenina in Russia was traditionally made from bear meat, however, with the development of pig farming, the bear buzhenina was almost out of use. You can rarely find buzhenina from turkey or lamb. Buzhenina is a festive dish in Russia; for example, it is served after the end of the Lent.

Ingredients

Entire pork shoulder - 2–3 kg
garlic - 5–7 cloves
coriander seeds - 2 tsp.
olive oil - 2–3 tbsp.
salt – to taste
fresh-ground black pepper – to taste

Preparation method (receipt)

Peel garlic and cut into thin slices. Cut off excess fat and film from the ham. Make a puncture on the meat with a long knife and, without taking it out, turn it to form a small hole. Put garlic in the hole. Stuff all the meat in such a manner. Mix salt and black pepper and spread on the meat. Grease with olive oil. Mortar coriander seeds and roll the ham in it. Tie on the meat with a string so that it has the same thickness. Leave to marinate from 3 hours to 2 days. Preheat the oven to 220 °C. Put the ham in a pan and place in the oven. Bake for 15 minutes, then lower the temperature to 160 °C and continue baking until done. The readiness time is calculated with the following formula: 20 minutes for every 500 g of raw meat and another 30 minutes for the whole piece. That is, 2 kg of ham will take 2 hours. It is important to cover the meat with the resulting juice from time to time. Cover the cooked buzhenina with foil and leave until fully cooled. For the meat to be cut well, you can put it under pressure. To do this, put a cutting board on the piece of meat, place a load atop and leave it for 8 hours.

entire pork shoulder garlic coriander olive oil