Succulent Pork Roast

Seems like pork is "the meat" trend right now. It's always taken a back seat to beef and chicken. Now it seems with all the heritage breeds coming back into fashion pork is seen on a lot of menus of late.

That is a very good thing. I love pork, especially the cuts like the pork shoulder (Boston butt) that need to be cooked low and slow. For this roast I brined the meat over night in a mixture of Kosher salt, garlic powder, black pepper, thyme, and rosemary. No particular measurements just put water in a container large enough to submerge the roast, even a large zip lock bag works well. Put in the rest of the ingredients and combine. Taste..the water should be quite salty. If it tastes good your good to go, if it doesn't taste good adjust the seasonings until it is to your liking. Put the roast in the brine and refrigerate over night turning once.

This roast takes about 8 hours to roast in a 300 degree oven. In a roasting pan put a layer of quartered onion, chunks of carrots, celery and just because I had an apple laying around I quartered that and threw it in. Remove the roast from the brine and dry. Sliver a large clove of garlic and pierce the meat in random places and stick the slivers of garlic in. I used Tyler Florence's Brown Sugar Pork Rub. I got a sample bag of it at the Food Buzz Festival last month and so I thought I'd give it a try. If you don't have a premade rub just mix together: brown sugar, salt, pepper, garlic powder and paprika. Again just mix and taste. Rub the meat all over with the rub and place the roast on top of the vegetables in the roasting pan. Put the roast into a preheated oven and forget about it. If you choose you can baste the meat with the drippings a couple of times during roasting. After the 8 hours the roast should be falling apart tender. Let the roast sit and rest while you strain the pan juices. Sometimes instead of straining I dump everything into the sauce pan and use an immersion blender to make a smooth sauce..a good way to get kids to have vegetables. Reduce the pan drippings by half. Either shred or slice the pork and serve with the gravy.

I just heard of this brine from a friend and I am going to try it next time. About 1/4 to 1/2 C Jack Daniels or brandy, brown sugar, garlic powder, salt, pepper and water to cover the roast. Brine over night in the fridge.

This is an easy easy no fuss delicious roast.