Baked Pork Collar (Neck) With Potatoes

Pork Collar is a VERY underrated cut of meat, not many people even know something like this exists. It's from the neck part of the pig and it's a bit higher in fat content. Maybe that's the reason for the low popularity which is ironic in a way because we all know that fat is actually the carrier of flavor, right?

So let's put the prejudice away, and let me show you how to bake a large piece of pork collar in the oven on a base of onions, along with some potatoes that will serve as the side.

Would you prefer to watch a video of the process instead of reading the instructions? Here is a video from my cooking youtube channel. List of ingredients and step by step instructions follow below.

We don't need anything special or out of the ordinary.

1.5-2kg (3-4lbs) piece of pork neck (collar)

5-6 onions

4-5 carrots

10 slices of bacon

1.5kg (3lbs) small potatoes

3-4 tbsp olive oil

1 cup dark beer

2 tsp red paprika

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp whole grain mustard

3 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp dijon mustard

1 tsp pepper

Italian seasoning

This is a large piece of meat I'm working with and we need to do a little trick to season it properly from the inside. let's cut about 10 slices into the meat. Make sure you don't cut all the way through, the bottom has to stay intact.

Let's make the marinade first. simply mix 3-4 tbsp olive oil, 2 tsp red paprika, 1 tsp salt, 1 tbsp whole grain mustard, 3 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tbsp dijon mustard and 1 tsp pepper in a small bowl or cup. Then place the pork collar into a deep baking dish, pour the marinade over it and use your hands to properly coat the meat with the marinade.

Remove the seasoned meat from the dish for a bit. Roughly chop/cut 5-6 smaller onions and add them to the baking dish. Spread them out evenly, to form a nice layer.

Place the meat back into the baking dish and insert a slice of smoked bacon into every cut that you have made previously. To make this dish more fragrant, season it with Italian seasonings. Secure the ends with a couple of toothpicks, so the meat doesn't "open" too much while baking.

Cover the baking dish with aluminum foil and bake in the oven at 200-220C or 400-425F for about 90 minutes.

90 minutes later, the meat should be quite soft. Make a fork test, it should slide in easily. If it's not the case, give it 20 more minutes.

Now cut a few carrots into bigger chunks and drop them into the baking dish, nicely around the meat. Next come the potatoes, place them over the carrots all over the meat again. Make sure to fill all the empty space. Season the potatoes with some olive oil, salt and pepper.

Put the baking dish back into the oven, this time without the foil cover. Give it 45 or so more minutes so the potatoes bake fully too.

Once the meat is tender and potatoes catch some nice golden brown color, we are done and it's time to serve.

Slice the meat now, go through the cuts we have made at the beginning. I like to use everything from the dish, including the onions and carrots, plus the potatoes of course. There is a lot of juices and drippings in the baking dish, make sure to use them! Pour a few tablespoons of this liquid goodness over the meat and potatoes.

For some more tips on how to tweak this recipe, check my blog post about it: Baked Pork Neck (Collar)

Want to try some more pork recipes? Try my Pork schnitzel, Pork tenderloin steaks or Pork skewers.

Did you like this recipe? Please let me know in the comments.

Thanks for reading/watching,

Matej.