1. I knew from reading different articles that sirloin pork roasts, because they are so lean, have a tendency to come out of the oven dry. Had I realized this before I bought a sirloin pork roast at Pilgrim's a couple of weeks ago, I might not have purchased it. So, over the last few days, I've been reading about preparing a pork sirloin roast and ways to cook them tender and moist.
I also read about fat caps: the roast I bought had a fairly thick fat cap and, the more I read, the happier I was that this layer of fat lay atop the meat of this roast. The fat cap is not only a source of flavor, it's also a source of juiciness. I helps keep the roast moist.
2. After some reading and searching, I found a recipe that claimed it would help me cook the most tender pork sirloin. It's here. I took a deep breath, uttered a prayer to the gods of cuisine, and opened the packaging of the thawed pork sirloin roast. I began by salting the roast and sticking some peppercorns into the surface. I then made a rub of olive oil, crushed garlic, and fresh rosemary leaves and slathered it over the roast. I put the roast in the Dutch oven, slid it into the 450 degree oven and let it cook uncovered for 30 minutes. I removed it, added some of my homemade chicken stock, turned the oven down to 250 degrees, put the lid on the Dutch oven, and the plan was to let it roast for 150 minutes, 30 minutes for each pound and to take it out every 30 minutes and pour the liquid over the roast.
I had told Christy and Carol that I thought we would eat around six o'clock.
Ha!
The roast needed more than two and a half hours at 250 degrees to reach an internal temperature of 145 degrees. I've decided that the huge bone in the roast slowed down the cooking time, but I'm not sure. Well, at some point around 6 o'clock, I turned up the heat in the oven to 300 degrees and, after a while, the roast was cooked. I let it rest for about ten minutes and then I began to carve slices off of it.
They were moist.
They were tender.
They were not dry.
The meat tasted really good.
I was happy and relieved. Combined with onion soup, mashed cauliflower, some roasted (and too dry) Brussel sprouts, and a cabbage salad, we had an excellent, if tardy, family dinner. The Deke prepared the cauliflower and cabbage salad and did so splendidly.
3. Byrdman and I had some fun in the afternoon swapping text messages about the Washington State Cougar basketball teams of about 1968-71 because one its players, Dennis Hogg, has a son, DJ Hogg, playing for Texas A&M in the NCAA men's basketball tournament. The Aggies crushed North Carolina this afternoon, but I was more invigorated by remembering the Cougars who were teammates of Dennis Hogg: Ted Wierman, Lenny Allen, Gary Elliott, Rick Erickson, Jim Meredith and others.
On February 15, 1969, I got to see the WSU Cougars host the dynastic UCLA Bruins in Bohler Gym in Pullman. In other words, as a ninth grader, I got to see Lew Alcindor (now Kareem Abdul Jabbar), Lucius Allen, Lynn Shackelford, John Vallely, Curtis Rowe, and, off the bench, Sidney Wickes defeat the Cougars 83-59, in person. Thanks to Terry Turner's half brother, Denny Crum, then an assistant coach at UCLA, we had tickets right behind the UCLA bench and that game remains a highlight of my life as a sports fan.
No comments:
Post a Comment