This past weekend, Jack and Jill were planning a birthday celebration dinner for near and dear family. The meal target was a crown roast of pork. Jack dug in his archives, but couldn’t find anything quite up to the occasion, so he went to that great recipe book in the sky, Google! Well, it pulled back 58,000+ recipes, more than he could read before prep time. Looking down the finds, he spotted a favorite, Cooks.com and they had 27 really great recipes. The basic cooking of the crown roast is pretty straight forward in all the recipes. The singing and dancing is different for the variety of sauces, dressings and stuffings. The one that took Jack’s eye was Crown Roast of Pork with Cognac Glaze (What’s not to like about the title?)
After a trip to the market to get the ingredients, here’s Jack’s rendering of the Cooks.com recipe.
Crown Roast of Pork with Cognac Glaze
Ingredients
7-8 lb crown roast of pork (Jack had about about 18 ribs)
MARINADE
1 cup orange juice
1 (12oz jar) red current or grape jelly
1 envelope Lipton onion soup mix
½ cup cognac soup mix (Jack could not find this locally, or online; okay to skip).
½ cup cognac or brandy (Jack used a fine cognac)
½ tsp ground ginger
22 oz mixed dried fruit
2 cups orange juice
3" piece fresh grated ginger (reduce by ½ if not fond of ginger)
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
3 cinnamon sticks
1 tsp whole cloves
1 cup seedless grapes (Jack used red)
STEP 1
Preheat oven to 450ºF
STEP 2
• In saucepan heat the juice, jelly, soup mix, cognac, and ginger over low heat.
• Stir occasionally until jelly is melted.
STEP 3
• Arrange roast in roasting pan.
• Brush with jelly glaze, then pour remaining over roast.
• Fill center of roast with a foil ball. This will help the crown to keep its shape.
• Loosely cover with foil.
• Put roast in oven; decrease temperature to 350ºF.
• Roast until meat thermometer reaches 175 degrees. Remove foil.
Continue to roast, basting occasionally (adding water if needed) 20 minutes or until temperature reaches 180ºF.
STEP 4Do this during the last stage of roasting
• In saucepan mix dried fruit and remaining ingredients except grapes.
• Bring to a boil and simmer 5 minutes.
• Stir in grapes; remove cinnamon.
STEP 5
• Move roast to platter.
• Remove foil from cavity, and spoon fruit compote in center and around roast.
• Skim fat from pan drippings. Serve juices with roast.
• Carve between ribs and serve with fruit and roast juices.
Jack’s dish was served with brocollini, Potatoes Anna, and a sweet South African Shiraz.
A big hit.
Thank You Cooks.com
ENJOY!!
