As I promised earlier in the week when I posted a recipe for Roast Rack of Pork with Caramelized Maple Onions, I’ve got some tips for how to cook this stunning cut of pork. But first…we have a winner for the $25 gift card to Costco:
Congrats @MsCarolsueA!!
Earlier in the week I headed to Costco and picked up a gorgeous rack of pork and tucked it away in my fridge. My plan was to keep it until my cousin Britt & her family visit for a night next weekend. It’s an easy, elegant dinner that’s perfect for a night when you want to serve something special but don’t want to spend any time in the kitchen. All was going as planned…until we got a snowstorm. In October. In Virginia.
It’s not even Halloween yet.
And because it’s snowing and I’ve been inside all day, perusing Pinterest, testing recipes for the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute, baking pumpkin bread and not really doing much else…I decided it’s the perfect day for roasting something. Especially that pork roast that just needs to be eaten. Today.
There are a few things you should always, always, always do with this particular cut of meat.
- Sear it (brown in a very hot pan; be sure to pat it dry first) before it goes into the oven. Browning adds flavor, not to mention all the delicious bits of goodness left in the pan after your done that you can use to turn into a sauce with very little effort.
- Cook it low and slow. An oven temperature of about 250F is about right.
- Use a meat thermometer. I repeat, use a meat thermometer. Every time you pierce the meat trying to see if it’s pink you’re draining it of natural juices that keep it tender. Not to mention that it’s okay for your pork to be a bit pink. In fact, check this out:
Just another reason why a meat thermometer is a great idea. I use the kind that you place in the meat and leave it in while it roasts; it beeps at me when it’s reached the right temp. Alan bought it for me last year and I love it! Some girls want diamonds, others want…stuff to help ‘em cook their meat. I’m a meat girl.
Now, about that pan sauce…for those of you who’ve taken my cooking classes you know this drill already. It’s my favorite class to teach because I love witnessing the excitement when someone realizes how fast and easy it is to sear a protein in a pan, replace it with a few ingredients and you’ve made a crazy good sauce in just a few minutes. It’s the best tool you need for combatting those “all I want is someone to wait on me hand and foot after a long day of work but instead I have to not only figure out what to make but then actually make it and do the dishes and still put my kids to bed and I’d really just like a hot bath and a glass of wine” nights. Ahem…not that I’ve been there or anything.
But here we’re searing a big ol’ rack of pork then finishing it in the oven. And while its finishing, I typically just deglaze my pan with some chicken stock (always low-sodium when making a reduction or it will be too salty) and apple cider (about a cup of each), reduce it all down until it’s a syrupy consistency and finish it with a pat of cold butter. It takes awhile to reduce and don’t be afraid of the heat. It needs to bubble, friends. And there might not be much left in the pan – maybe only a quarter to half a cup! But because you’ve reduced it, the flavors are concentrated, the sauce is sticky and will cling to your meat. So you really only need a few teaspoons per chop. And again, great choice for a dinner party yet easy enough for weeknights. My kind of recipe.
I decided to go in search of some other easy pan sauces to make with this. They don’t all call for a rack of pork but you can use the ingredients for the sauces interchangably:
For the rack of pork, you’ll first sear it in the pan as we talked about. The put it into the oven and roast with a meat thermometer until it reaches 145. Let it rest while you make a pan sauce (any of the above will work). Serve with creamy polenta, cheesy grits or mashed potatoes, veggies and a nice crusty bread. You’re on your own for dessert!
The next day update: This pork was the best we’ve ever had. It was so tender it didn’t seem like it was pork. My suggestions to achieve the same result is to make sure to buy from someone reputable (Costco always has tender meat) and follow the steps above.
I was not sure I was going to get this right, but I could not resist giving it a go. My parents came over to see us a couple of days ago and so I thought it would be nice to spend some time in the kitchen with my mum cooking something new. Thanks so much for the recipe and all the tips – it was without a doubt the best pork we have ever eaten – we served it with vegetables and mash, and everybody just looooved it :-)
That's the best thing I've heard in a long time!! Thanks for the comment, Dolors. Gave me a big smile!!
I'm also a meat girl. So, any holiday dinner or any dinner party would be completely dull for me without a pork roast. and let's not forget the potatoes…
This is a great and likely under-appreciated meal design that you have created. The first thing that came into mind after looking at the photograph was that this looks prehistoric. It looks like a beast you have to tame in the kitchen. Maybe that is a dramatization, but adding some drama to our food creation process never hurts (unless you start whining and screaming like a little kid, but for the sake of this comment lets ignore something like that!). Food, like good art, needs some drama. With all the flavors and aesthetic concepts, food is no longer just something you eat. Strange that humanity has come to the point where food creation can be an art style, but undoubtedly a very cool thing. Oh, and turning on my primal instincts, this recipe is really attractive to me just because it makes me hungry.