Roast pork loin with crackling

Tired of turkey? Bored with beef? Try roasting a bone-in, skin-on pork roast for a delicious holiday change of pace. It’s easier than you might think.

December 10, 2009; 11:25 AM • by Chris Mattera

Tired of turkey? Bored with beef? Try roasting a bone-in, skin-on pork roast for a delicious holiday change of pace. It’s easier than you might think.

Feeds 8-10

Ingredients:

5-7 lb bone in, skin on pork loin (You may need to order this in advance from a butcher. Most commercially available pork is packed skin-off, much to my dismay.)
1 large or 2 medium white onions, peeled and cut into medium slices
1 TBS kosher salt
1 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp fresh rosemary leaves, finely chopped
3 large cloves, garlic
Olive oil
1/2 cup white wine (Pinot grigio works well, as does Chablis)

Instructions

Pre-heat the oven to 450 degrees

Pat the pork roast dry and score the skin about 1/4 inch deep, about every inch. (A box-cutter or Exacto knife works well for this. Otherwise use a paring knife, being careful not to cut into the underlying fat or meat.) Score again, perpendicular to the first cuts, to make a square or diamond shaped pattern of score marks. Set pork somewhere to come up to room temperature.

Meanwhile, peel the garlic and remove the small green sprout from the center by cutting each clove in half lengthwise and removing the sprout with the tip of a paring knife. Discard the sprouts. Mince the garlic, sprinkle with a pinch of salt, and work into a paste with the side of a chef’s knife.

Mix together the remaining salt, the chopped rosemary, and the pepper.

Drizzle the olive oil all over the pork, and then massage with the garlic paste. Liberally sprinkle the salt mixture on all sides of the pork, including the bottom.

Place the freshly anointed pork roast in a roasting pan, and put in the oven for 30 minutes. Resist the strong urge to lower the heat and/or open the oven door.

After 30 minutes, lower the oven to 325 degrees, add the sliced onions to the pan, placing them next to the roast but not on top. Pour in the wine. Baste the roast with any fat from the bottom of the pan.

Roast an additional 15 minutes per pound of pork, or until a thermometer inserted in the thickest part of the meat, away from the bone, reads 165 degrees, basting at least once more.

Remove the roast from the oven, and allow to rest someplace warm for at least 15 minutes.

Carve off the bone and serve a piece of crackling (that’s the skin) with each slice of pork. Sure to become a holiday classic.

Chris Mattera (a gentleman we refer to as “The Sausage Kind of Richmond”) is a charcutier at Belmont Butchery. In addition to making sausage and cured meat for a living, he has shared his culinary know-how with the likes of Food & Wine and Richmond Magazine.