Spain·Castile and León·Segovia
Cochinillo asado
Segovia-style roast suckling pig
Whole suckling pig roasted in an earthenware dish with lard until the skin is golden and crisp and the meat tender, Segovia style.
- Preparation
- 20 min
- Cooking
- 1 h 45 min
- Total time
- 2 h 5 min
- Difficulty
- Medium
- Servings
- 6
Resting: 0 min
Ingredients
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Preparation
Tips
- Prick the skin when you turn the pig: this stops bubbles forming and leaves it evenly crisp.
- Start with the pig skin side down so the meat cooks gently in the steam and the water in the dish.
- Choose a quality pig: the Segovia PGI product comes from piglets fed only on their mother's milk.
- It is traditionally carved at the table; cutting it with the edge of a plate is a house showpiece, not a necessity.
Variations
- Each roasting house adjusts temperature and timing to its oven and the weight of the pig; the base recipe here follows the Mesón de Cándido style.
Story of the recipe
Cochinillo asado: where it comes from.
Roast suckling pig is one of the most emblematic dishes of Segovia and of Castilian cooking. The recipe here follows the style of Mesón de Cándido, a celebrated Segovia roasting house, to which the custom of carving the pig with the edge of a plate to show how tender the meat is is usually attributed. However, the anthropologist Pedro Javier Cruz documented that it was already done in the 19th century at Casa Botín in Madrid.
In 2024 the European Union registered the Protected Geographical Indication «Cochinillo de Segovia». It covers animals born, raised and slaughtered in the province of Segovia and in La Moraña, in the province of Ávila, fed exclusively on their mother's milk.
Sources
By RecetarioMundo.