Pork Roast

Photos

Jan 9 Pork Roast

Prepared Dec 13

This roast was practically drama in a pot. I decided, somewhat last minute, to cook up a pork roast for a gathering with friends. I stopped by a grocery store on the way home even though it wasn't my usual one, and hoped they'd have a decent pork roast. They had only one cut of rather small roast out. I wasn't entirely sure what cut it was (it was helpfully labeled "pork roast"). I had been hoping for some nice shoulder or something. I asked the butcher if they had any more, and he said they did in back. He brought out a very large roast. It seemed to have some good marbling in the meat, so when he asked how much I wanted, I said I'd just take the whole thing. It turned out to be about 5 pounds. I walked away with the oversized piece of meat cradled in my arms like a baby. I figured I'd be able to do something with it.

If you're going to cook a long five pound pork roast and a bevy of accompanying vegetables, it's helpful if you have a 13 quart dutch oven handy. Luckily, I just happen to have one. Already running behind, I sat it on the stove to heat up, adding a little canola oil to lightly coat the bottom. I gave the roast a generous dose of salt and pepper, then tossed it in the hot pan and browned it on all sides. I then added the onion. Once the onion started to pick up some color, I added the garlic, stirring and letting it cook just a couple minutes longer. I then added some white wine to deglaze, maybe around a half a cup. I added water to partially cover the roast, and added the spices. I brought it to a simmer, covered it, reduced the heat as low as it would go, and walked away and forgot about it for a while.

About an hour and a half later, I came back. I peeled the carrots and celery root. I cored the apples but left the skins on. I chopped up all the veggies into large chunks and tossed them in the pot with the meat. It was beginning to smell good.

Shortly thereafter I came back to check on the roast. Suddenly it hit me. This was not a pork shoulder. I actually knew exactly what this was, and if I'd been paying attention at all, I would have realized. This was a giant top loin. See, I like to cook a shoulder because they're hard to mess up. I usually put it on a slow simmer for several hours and it turns into wonderfully tender meat that falls apart as soon as your fork so much as looks at it. The more you neglect it, the better it gets. Cooking a top loin that long, on the other hand, gives you a delightful-looking roast with the texture of sawdust, only tougher and drier. Mild panic set in. Had I already overcooked it? It's enough of a shame to ruin a roast, but to do it in such large quantities just seems like a crime. A quick check told me the roast was probably done, so out it came. I let it rest on the cutting board for a minute while the vegetables continued to simmer and I pondered what to do next.

I was going to have to cut this roast in two pieces in order to transport it over to my friend's anyway, so I decided best to slice into it and see exactly where things stood.  I sliced it right it half. It was definitely cooked through. I sliced off a sliver and, to my delight, found it was just about perfectly done. I'd saved it in the nick of time, so I wrapped it all up to keep warm and turned my attention back to the vegetables. Once they were tender, I pulled them out into a separate dish, and strained the broth. I put the broth back in the empty pot and turned the heat up just to get a good simmer going.  I mixed the cornstarch with enough cold water to make a pourable slurry. I poured the slurry into the broth little by little and stirring constantly until the broth was just about thick enough for a thin gravy. I let it simmer a few minutes longer until it had reached a nice consistency, salted to taste, and poured it off into a separate container.

I had packaged everything up, headed out the door, and was walking along the street looking for a cab when suddenly one of the bags I was carrying ripped open. The dish inside fell to the sidewalk and shattered. Vegetables lay scattered about the sidewalk. I froze in horror. It took a moment for the reality of the situation to hit me. About then a homeless looking sort wandered by. Then again, maybe he was a hipster. Sometimes it's hard to tell.

"That's too bad. If it isn't one thing it's another," he offered, and continued on.

Too true. For a moment I wasn't entirely sure what to do next. As the reality of it all slowly sunk in, I realized there wasn't much to do but continue on. Fortunately, it was only the vegetables that were lost. I guess we'd just have to have a roast without vegetables. I scooped up the shattered bits of dish and the ripped bag and dropped them in the nearest trash bin. I figured the pigeons would take care of the scattered vegetables. It was probably better for them than the discarded bits of junk food I imagine they normally get. And so, I hailed a cab and headed for my friend's place with the remains of my meal.

The roast I brought to my friend's was hardly what I had envisioned when I set out. It was not the cut of meat I'd meat I'd wanted, and the accompanying vegetables were lying on the sidewalk some ways back. In spite of all the drama, the roast wound up being a great success. One friend told me should could drink an entire glass of the gravy, and by the end of the evening I couldn't find more than a single half-eaten slice of meat left.