SC - Pork Roasting

[Mike C. Baker]

I'm combining responses to Aine & Adamantius upon the general subject
of pork roasts:

- ---Aine of Wyvernwood <sybella at gte.net> wrote:
> my lord have you ever made pot roast out of a pork roast?
> it is quite tasty,  the next day the roast is so tender 
> it cuts with a butter knife.

Properly prepared, pork loin roast shares this same attribute
WITHOUT being dried out / tough ... and the juices are 
equally delightful with rice, bread, or whatever.

 Adamantius (Philip & Susan Troy) wrote:
> On a slightly tangential note, I frequently serve roast 
> pork loins at events, and refuse to cook them to the 
> bone-dry plywood stage almost invariably called for in most
> cookbooks. 

Covered pan? "Bagged"? Laboriously basted?

My favorite method for pork loin involves a paper bag,
oil, spices, and long, slow, roasting. Considering other
uses of parchment in "antique" cookery, d'ya think that
a parchment envelope could be used for the same purpose?
(I've been cooking many years, but am still trying to
learn more about traditional / "ancient" techniques...)

> The standard reason people give for pork being well-done 
> is to eliminate the danger of trichinosis, a disease that 
> has had, as far as I know, few or no cases in the US in the
> last 20 years or so. 

And the majority of reports I am aware of were related 
to ursince and not porcine flesh (bear, not pig).

> Trichinosis parasites and their eggs are killed at
> 137 degrees F. internal temperature, at which point 
> the meat is still pretty rare. I generally cook it to 
> an internal temperature of 150 degrees, technically 
> medium. Some people do become alarmed in spite of
> this, and have been known to complain that the meat 
> wasn't sufficiently dead to their taste. It has juice. 
> It has flavor. Bad cook!

As a relative dabbler and culinary heretic, I do not even
own a meat thermometer. In particular with the "bagged"
pork loin, experience, proper timing and oven temperature,
and observation (is the surface of the roast a uniform
nut-brown? are the carved slices / pulled shreds tender and
moist, juicy but without bright pink color or running blood?) 
tell me everything that I need to know, at least for my own 
consumption. (Opening the bag before the cooking time has 
completed is one of the most certain ways to spoil this 
particular dish.)

Given that there is still some risk, just how important is
the use of thermometric measurement as opposed to eyeball
and experience?

> I have taken to leaving the pancake griddle turned on 
> in the kitchen (we have one particular site that we use 
> twice a year, and I often am the cook for those events), 
> so people can bring sliced portions of roast back to cook 
> to their taste, if necessary. So far I've had one taker,
> and very few leftovers.

An excellent tip. I may have had the occasional individual 
question my bagged loin roasts, but generally NOT after they
have gone ahead and tasted the results.

This tip is worth remembering for far more than pork roasts,
however.

> However, this is always my Golden Opportunity to have a 
> herald announce the admonition from Le Menagier de Paris, 
> modified from carp to pork:
> (Pardon the paraphrase!) It is a known fact that Germans 
> like their meat overcooked, as opposed to the French, who 
> prefer their meat properly cooked. One must not be 
> surprised if a German wishes to send his meat back to 
> the kitchen to be cooked again, for it is the custom of 
> their country. (The herald then asks if there are any 
> Germans out in the hall, who wish their meat recooked...)

Adamantius, I must thank you for a well-timed chuckle this
afternoon.

===
Pax ... Kihe / Adieu -- Amra / TTFN -- Mike
Kihe Blackeagle / Amr ibn Majid al-Bakri al-Amra /
Mike C. Baker       F.O.B. (Friend Of Blackfox)
My opinions are my own -- no one else would want them!

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