divine angst

It’s been a while since I’ve blogged about what I’m cooking. So here’s one for all you weekend chefs. This recipe is really good but it does take some time, so it’s probably not great for during the week.

Vinegar-basted pork roast

Start with a center-cut pork loin roast, anywhere from 1-1/2 to 4 lbs. (This cut will usually be rolled and tied already at the store. If you can’t find one in the packaged meat section, ask at the meat counter or go to a butcher shop. They can cut it to weight and roll and tie it for you then.)

Brine the roast. If you haven’t brined before, START. Pork and chicken both benefit from this easy technique. Here in the Good Old U. S. Of A., white meat has been bred so lean that it dries out WAY too easily. Brining is a way to counteract that. A brine is basically a salt-water solution that pulls moisture into your meat by means of old-fashioned osmosis. For thicker cuts of meat, like the pork roast, I usually use the following proportions:

1 quart tap water
3 tablespoons plus a healthy pinch of kosher salt
3 tablespoons brown sugar (you could use all white sugar or mix and match both sugars as you want)
A small handful of whole black peppercorns
A healthy dose of whatever herb you like (thyme, oregano, and sage are all great; rosemary works also, but only use it whole. Chopped rosemary in this recipe won’t get tender enough and will get caught in your teeth.)
A drib of white wine vinegar (maybe a tablespoon, at most)

Mix the brine well, making sure the salt and sugar are both dissolved. Completely submerge the roast in the brine, cover, and refrigerate for at least three hours. (Use a large tupperware container or a big zip-top bag.) With these proportions, you can brine for up to ten hours. If you want to brine longer—say, overnight—reduce the salt and sugar by a third.

When you’re ready to start cooking, preheat the oven to 350. Pull the roast out of the brine and pat dry with paper towels. Discard the brine, by the way. Place the roast in a roasting pan with any aromatics you wish—I generally use some chopped onion, carrot, celery, and peeled garlic. I also like to toss in a few bay leaves.

This next step is the one that makes this roast So Good. Mix 1/4 to 1/2 cup white wine vinegar with your herb of choice (thyme, sage, and oregano are all ones I can recommend). Pour this mix over the top of the roast. Slide it into the oven and cook for 25 minutes per pound. (Even better—set a meat thermometer into the thickest part of the roast and watch for it to reach 135 to 145°. A thermometer with a alarm works really well for this.) Baste the roast occasionally with the pan juices.

Cook the roast to about 145° for medium. If you like your pork a little more well-done, that’s fine—because you’ve brined the roast, it won’t dry out even at the higher, FDA-recommended temperatures. I would recommend, though, that if you want to cook your pork all the way to 175°, you’ll want to brine for at least eight hours. Otherwise, you’ll probably end up with a really nice, moist center surrounded by absolutely inedible dry meat.

When the meat reaches the desired temperature, take it out of the oven and loosely cover it with foil. Let it rest for at least ten minutes. When you’re ready, cut off the butcher’s twine and slice. Serve with the roasted veggies from the pan, and pour the pan juices over each serving.

Great side dishes include roasted herbed potatoes, grilled squash, sautéed mushrooms, and risotto.

I had to do some grocerying today, since my parents are still in town and we’re cooking for them tonight. (Also, we were out of bread. We go through bread like it’s water.)

So I had a little free time in the middle of the day, having worked pretty steadily for about four hours this morning. I thought I’d see how difficult it would be get to a different grocery store here in Our New City™—one that’s particularly known for cheap wine. I didn’t plan to do any actual shopping there; I just wanted to see how to get there. I figured if the prices looked good enough while I was there, I could go ahead and shop and cab home.

First, it was definitely a mild pain to get there. Only one train stop, but then a half-mile walk in the sun, followed by a two-and-a-half flight stair climb. Yuck. And it was a small store in the end. No real meat counter, very small produce section—but golly, they had a bunch of wine!

I didn’t end up buying any wine, though, because I wasn’t sure it was worth it. Sure, the prices were good. But is it worth it to get addicted to $3.99 bottles of merlot and cabernet when I have to go through so many hoops to get them? Plus, I don’t even really like merlot and cabernet, and there weren’t many cheap options in the pinot and shiraz realm.

And that’s the other thing that has me wondering about this cheap wine thing this particular store has going on. The cheap wines are all wines I don’t like. California chardonnay, cabernet, merlot. Wines that are more accessible are, I guess, more likely to be cheaper, even if they stink. But there’s no value for ME in those wines.

So I trekked back home, picked up my cart, and went to our regular store. Where I found everything I needed (except cocoa powder, which is weird), including a $10 magnum of a nice French white table wine.