Not all my recipes work out perfectly...

[tuftears]

This week's experiment was 'Orange Roast Pork'. The recipe sounded simple enough... Where did I go wrong?

In the supermarket, that's where! 'There's only one kind of roast pork, right?' I thought, naively. Nope. There was pork loin (the kind I'm used to), pork shoulder arm, pork shoulder "picnic", and a few more cuts besides. So I tried the pork shoulder arm one out, but already I was a bit wary - there was a bone in it, and I'm not used to roasts with bones in.

First big surprise: "hey, this isn't a paper towel they put in to cushion the roast, it's skin!"

Yep, pork shoulder roasts have skin. That wasn't really so much of a problme, but I opted to brown the roast before I put it into the crockpot in order to make the skin a bit crackly. (note to self for future: I didn't crisp the skin enough)

So I saute'd the onions, dumped that into the crock pot, put the roast in (which I had marinaded overnight) and poured the marinade on top, then tossed in some carrots I had diced up and left it to cook for six hours. Instead of the plain orange concentrate, sugar, salt and pepper additive, I used ground ginger, crushed garlic, soy sauce, honey, and crushed red peppers to make a spicier marinade. Seemed promising enough.

Six hours, I think, is where I erred. It became juicy and tender, all right -- too tender. It was practically falling apart!

Still reasonably tasty but it's more suited to shredded pork sandwiches than as a roast that's substantial enough to cut into slices. I'll try this recipe again in the future, but with a pork loin instead. If it works out, that should be properly tender, but firm enough to cut.

Comments

[merrycalliope.livejournal.com]

Mm...that still sounds good though! Served on a crusty bread like the kind you can usually pick up at the grocery store and bake yourself. :9

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

Could be! I don't have much experience with shredded pork sandwiches. What do you usually put on one besides the pork?

[merrycalliope.livejournal.com]

For a pulled pork sammich usually it's just the pork, in whatever sauce it's been prepared in, on a roll. Preferably a nice crusty roll or some bread dense enough to withstand the moisture of the sauce. If the sauce is mild enough you could add veggies, I suppose. I've only had BBQ style pulled pork which overpowers anything else added.

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

Hmm. The roast recipe resulted in a thin soup as far as 'sauce' goes, so you'd have to turn that into a gravy! And for veggies, you'd have to get a salad or side dish.

I tend to prefer, for home cooking, 'one dish' meals, or at most, two with the second being simple. };)