The Splendid Table's How to Eat Weekends: New Recipes, Stories, and Opinions from Public Radio's Award-Winning Food Show Hardcover – September 20, 2011

Seasoning
6- to 7-pound boneless pork shoulder or Boston butt, well marbled
1 generous teaspoon whole cloves, or 1 level teaspoon ground
1 generous teaspoon whole allspice, or 1 level teaspoon ground
1 generous teaspoon coriander seed, or 1 level teaspoon ground
1 generous teaspoon black peppercorns, or 1 level teaspoon ground black pepper
2½-inch cinnamon stick, broken, or 2 teaspoons ground
1 tablespoon kosher salt
6 large garlic cloves, thinly sliced
¹⁄³ cup good-tasting extra-virgin olive oil
1¹⁄³ cups orange juice
1½ cups dry red wine

Roasting and Finishing
2 tightly packed tablespoons fresh rosemary leaves
½ medium onion, chopped
½ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 thin-skinned orange, such as Valencia, Temple, or Hamlin, unpeeled, sliced into thin rounds

1. Marinate the meat: Three days before cooking, make deep wide cuts into the meat. Then grind the whole cloves, allspice, coriander, peppercorns, and cinnamon stick in a coffee grinder or mortar and pestle, or blend the ground spices. In a medium bowl, mix the spices with the salt, garlic, oil, ²⁄³ cup of the orange juice, and ½ cup of the wine. Stuff the mixture into the slits and the meat’s crevices and rub into the pork on all sides. Tuck the roast into a shallow dish, cover, and refrigerate for 3 days, turning three or four times.

2. Roast the meat: Take the meat out of the refrigerator and preheat the oven to 400ºF. Purée the rosemary, onion, salt, and oil, and stuff the mixture into the roast’s crevices.

3. Roll up the roast into a loose cylinder. Put it in a large shallow pan, fat side up (we like a half-sheet pan), scrape any remaining marinade over it, and scatter the orange slices around the pan. Roast for 30 minutes, then pour in the remaining 1 cup wine.

4. Turn the heat down to 325ºF., pour in the remaining ²⁄³ cup orange juice, and roast for another 90 minutes, basting the pan juices and the orange slices over the meat several times. If the pan juices threaten to burn, blend in a little water. You want them to end up being syrupy, but not burned.

5. Test the internal temperature of the meat with an instant-read thermometer. Once it reaches 145ºF. to 150ºF., reduce the heat to 200ºF. for another 30 minutes, or until the meat’s internal temperature is 155ºF. Remove the pork from the oven and let it rest in a warm place for 10 to 15 minutes before slicing.

6. The pan juices should be syrupy. If needed, set the pan over two burners, skim off a little excess fat, and cook down the juices, stirring with a wooden spatula.

7. To serve, thinly slice the pork across the grain, moistening the slices with the pan sauce and bits of roasted orange. Don’t be put off if the meat is a pinkish beige; it is safe and so succulent. Serve the pork hot.

Cook to Cook: Why recipes still call for pork loin as a celebration roast we can’t imagine. Over-priced and underperforming, the typical commercial loin comes off dry and tasteless. Much cheaper shoulder cuts, like the pork in this recipe, have the essential marbling for succulent eating, and no roast is as easy on a cook. Short of blasting (and toughening) them in too hot an oven (keep the temperature at 350°F. or lower), you can’t ruin a shoulder roast.

Start the roast 3 days ahead with the seasonings.

Wine: Try a Chenin Blanc from South Africa with this dish. They tend to be more reliably dry than those from the Loire and have a bit more fruit, yet are not overtly sweet.

Work Night Encore
Pan-Browned Pork with Mom’s Apple Sauerkraut: Slice the leftover pork roast into sticks about 3 inches long by 1 inch thick. Coat a big skillet with a thin film of olive oil, get it hot, and quickly brown the pork. Take the meat out of the pan and set aside.

Wipe out the pan, coat it with a thin film of olive oil, and heat it over medium-high heat. Brown a chopped large onion and a sprig of rosemary in it along with a cut-up large apple. Blend in 2 minced garlic cloves, several cups rinsed and drained sauerkraut, and a generous splash of white wine. Stir up the brown glaze in the pan as you cook down the wine. Blend in any pan juices left from the pork and the pork pieces. Have the dish hot and serve it with boiled potatoes or toasted, chewy dark bread.

LYNNE ROSSETTO KASPER, host and cocreator of The Splendid Table radio program, has explored food for more than forty years as a teacher, researcher, writer, and lecturer. Author of The Splendid Table, winner of both the James Bead and Julia Child/IACP Cookbook of the Year awards, she also wrote The Italian Country Table and coauthored The Splendid Table's How to Eat Supper with Sally Swift. Lynne is a member of Who's Who of Food and Beverage in America and a longtime advocate of organic and sustainable foods. She and Sally have worked together for nearly twenty years and still get a kick out of each other.

SALLY SWIFT is the managing producer and cocreator of The Splendid Table radio program and coauthor of The Splendid Table's How to Eat Supper. She is an avid gardener, bicyclist, and public radio aficionado. After nearly two decades of working with Lynne, her only complaint is that they rarely have time for a real lunch.

THE SPLENDID TABLE is produced by American Public Media and is heard nationwide on more than 300 public radio stations. The program has received multiple broadcast awards over the years, including two James Beard Awards for Best National Radio Show on Food, the Gracie Allen Award for Best Syndicated Talk Show, and four Clarion Awards from the Association for Women in Communication for Best National Radio Talk Show. For more information, visit SplendidTable.org.