There is nothing more wonderful than the smell of a slow cooked pork roast to tingle your taste buds in the afternoon. Many people are often wary about cooking large pieces of meat because they worry that somewhere in the middle of that meat isn’t cooked thoroughly enough and could make them bad. However, you shouldn’t be worried about this and it certainly shouldn’t put you off, all you need to know is exactly how to cook that pork roast and it really isn’t difficult to do.
The key to roasting a large pork joint is to slowly cook it, as this will make the meat tender and moist giving that beautiful mouth-watering taste.
The first thing you will need to do with any large piece of meat is to preheat the oven so you are putting the meat into the oven at the optimal temperature. Usually you will want to whack up the oven to the 450F mark and let it heat nicely over the course of the pork preparation period.
With most pork joints you will see a layer of fat on the one side, it’s important to keep this on and not cut it away because it will essentially help to keep the roast moist and will offer that crispy crackling.
What you will need:
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Rosemary
Sage
Thyme
Oregano
A Roasting Tin
Add a table spoon of the herbs above (so that it equals to one tablespoon, not one tablespoon of each), to a dish. Then pour in about a tablespoon of your olive oiland gently mix the ingredients together. You should get a wet paste where all the herbs are clumped nicely together. Now just add a couple of pinches of salt and bout a pinch of black pepper.
Mix until everything is blended together well.
Take your hands and scoop out the mixtures and be sure to rub it evenly over the pork roast, leaving no area untouched. So make sure its all over the bottom and the sides of the meat for maximum coverage.
The oven should be now at a good temperature to introduce the pork roast to, so make sure that you place the roast (fat side up) on a rack. Sometimes the grill rack will act just as good, but try and use a rack on top of a roasting tin if you can.
Keep the oven at 450F for about 10 minutes which will help the roast achieve that golden brown look and then after 10 minutes is up put the temperature down to around 250F which will be the temperature we use for the rest of the cooking process.
Depending on the size of the meat you roast will take a further 50 – 90 minutes of cooking, especially if your roast is short and fat. If you have a thermometer then use this to check the temperature of the meat at its thickest part.
The temperature should read: 145F
Once the roast has finished cooking you can remove it from the oven and let it rest on the side, preferably with a tent of foil covering it up. What this rest time will do is let the juices be absorbed by the roast which will add to the tenderness and moistness of the meat when you come to eating it. The rest time we advise is about 15 minutes which allows the juices to absorb so you can then cut it.
Again, depending on the size of your meat will depend on how far it can go around the table and this is an important point that you really don’t want to forget about. The general rule of thumb is that you can get 3 servings from a 1.5lbs pork roast, so double the weight to 3lbs and you should comfortably be able to feed 6 people, and so forth.
You can eat the pork with many types of dishes, from oriental noodles, pasta, or more traditional dishes such as a good Sunday roast with vegetables, potatoes and gravy. Although pork isn’t as versatile as chicken it’s still a meat that can be used in a variety of different ways, and above all its one of the most easiest meats to both season and then cook.
You no longer need to worry about cooking large pork roasts and fearing that a section of it will be uncooked, hopefully our guide here will have helped you gain a better understanding of the times and preparation that is involved when cooking a large sided pork roast in the oven for your dinner guests. Enjoy!