P
Spanish · Galicia
Lacón con grelos: Galician salt pork with turnip greens
The definitive Galician winter dish — cured and salted pork shoulder (lacón) boiled with grelos (turnip greens) and chorizo. Lacón is a specifically Galician cured product: the front shoulder (not the hind leg as with jamón), salted and dried rather than fully cured, and always cooked before eating. The combination of the slightly salty, rich lacón with the bitter, mineral grelos and the smoky paprika of the chorizo is one of the great winter flavour combinations in Iberian cooking. The dish is the traditional Entroido (Galician Carnival) preparation — eaten throughout February and March when the grelos are in season and at peak bitterness.
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I
The Market List
The benchmark for each ingredient, and who stocks it near you. Tap a stockist to go straight to the product.
1.2–1.5 kg
lacón (Galician salted pork shoulder)
soaked in cold water for 24–48 hours, water changed twice
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
300 g
chorizo
whole or in large links
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
600 g
grelos (turnip greens)
trimmed; substitute broccoli rabe outside season
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
600 g
1 tsp
fine salt
to season the grelos; added only at the very end
Your own market
Galician extra-virgin olive oil
poured generously over the finished platter
Your own market
Each tap is counted, so the stockist sees the demand Provenance sends them.
II
The Method
1
Place the desalted lacón in a large pot and cover generously with cold water. Set over a low flame and bring slowly to a bare simmer — this protects the clarity of the broth. Skim any foam that rises. The water should tremble, not boil.
2
After 1 hour of gentle simmering, add the chorizo whole. Continue at the same unhurried simmer. The fat of the chorizo will begin to colour the broth a faint rust-orange.
3
After a further 30 minutes (1.5 hours from the start), add the potatoes. Simmer until they yield to a skewer but hold their shape — approximately 20–25 minutes.
4
This is where the dish lives or dies. In the final 15–20 minutes, add the grelos to the pot. They must be barely cooked: still green, still slightly bitter, retaining all mineral resistance. Pull one leaf from the pot — it should be tender but not collapsed, and its colour must remain a deep, dark green. The moment the green begins to fade to olive, remove the pot from the heat.
5
Taste the broth. Season the grelos with a small pinch of salt only now — they require it even though the lacón has already lent salinity to the pot. Adjust nothing else until this final moment.
6
Lift the lacón from the pot and carve into thick slices. Slice or halve the chorizo. Arrange the pork, chorizo, potatoes and grelos together on a single large platter. Pour a generous measure of Galician olive oil over the whole surface and serve immediately.
III
Quality Hierarchy
01
Reserve — Lacón from a named Galician producer, D.O.P.-recognised, salted and dried in the traditional manner from Galician free-range pork shoulder; grelos from the Galician interior at peak February bitterness; single-estate Galician EVOO.
02
Estate — Good Spanish salted pork shoulder sourced from a specialist curer; fresh grelos from a Spanish or Portuguese greengrocer in season; quality Spanish EVOO.
03
Market — Salt pork shoulder desalted with care; broccoli rabe (cime di rapa) as a closely parallel substitute for grelos outside the season; standard Iberian chorizo.
04
House — Any well-desalted salt pork; young broccoli rabe; a robust smoked chorizo; a neutral olive oil. The long soak and the slow simmer remain the non-negotiable acts of care at every rung.
IV
Sensory Tests
◇Sight. The broth is clear and faintly rust-tinted from the chorizo — turbidity signals the water was too hot at the start.
◇Touch. A skewer enters the potatoes with a single push and withdraws cleanly — they are done.
◇Sight. The grelos remain a deep, saturated green — any shift toward olive or khaki means they have crossed the line.
◇Smell. The platter releases a compound aroma of smoked paprika, mild pork salt and mineral leaf — all three notes distinct and none dominant.
◇Where it lives or dies. The grelos must leave the pot still green and faintly bitter — the instant their colour turns olive, the dish is lost.
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VI
What to Pour
The pairing
Wine
From British Columbia
Wine
Without alcohol
GT's Synergy Organic Kombucha — Gingerade
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
Non-alcoholic
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The whole pairingPillar VII
Origin and lineage are part of membership.
Where the dish comes from and how it came to be — on every recipe.
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