Roast Pork with Apples and Cider Sauce Recipe

 

Did you know that October is National Pork Month? Yup, and to celebrate we have a super delicious recipe to share with all of you.

Boneless pork loins have an unmistakable ‘wow’ factor that can anchor any celebration. Low in fat yet bursting with flavor, this versatile cut can be roasted whole as a festive centerpiece, stuffed with flavorful ingredients or broken down into chops.

Pork Makes the Party: Pork’s versatility and its ability to pair perfectly with a variety of foods and flavors makes it perfect for bringing people together this holiday season. This holiday season celebrate pork as the catalyst that “makes” any party – join in!

Temperature News: The USDA reduced the temperature guideline for pork loins, chops and roasts from 160 to 145 degrees F, with a three minute rest. This will yield a juicy, flavorful product that may be pinker in color than most home cooks are used to. Ground pork, like all ground meat, should be cooked to 160 degrees.

Check out our yummy pork recipe!

Roast Pork with Apples and Cider Sauce Recipe

Serves 9
Start to finish:90 min
Granny Smith apples give tangy bite to pork roast.

On a Saturday in Fall we decided to go apple picking which lead me to combine two of my favorite foods for a nice family meal – Pork and Apples.

Locally in Virginia we apple pick on a small mountain in the Shenandoah Valley. This weekend, Granny Smith apples were in full season, and after a nice late morning fest at the orchard, I had all the ingredients I needed to cook my pork roast with a delectable apple butter cider sauce.

The orchard, called Carter’s Mountain, is a “pick your own” family friendly farm. They grow several families of apples, as well as have a large vineyard, country store, ice cream shop, and hayride tractor pull. From the Orchard I was able to get a few things – 1 Granny Smith Apple, half gallon unfiltered cider, and local clover honey.

For the Pork Shoulder Roast, my wife picked up a 5 lb roast from COSTCO which was perfect for the recipe. I prefer the Shoulder Roast for this recipe vice the tenderloin as the cuts are a bit larger and I find the roast stays juicer which nicely complements the apple sauce.

Roast Ingredients:

  • Pork Roast – Costco 5-6 pound shoulder roast
  • Olive Oil – three tablespoons Extra Virgin
  • Salt – ½ teaspoon
  • Black Pepper – ½ teaspoon
  • Rosemary – 1 teaspoon
  • Dry cooking vine – 1 cup

To begin, preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Pat the roast with three tablespoons of olive oil mixed with the salt and peeper and generous sprinkling of rosemary.

I roasted the pork for 10 minutes at 425 then reduce the temperature to 250 degrees cooking the meat until the inside of the thickest portion is 155 degrees – About 90 minutes for this size roast. The immediate high temperature locks in the flavors of the roast and keeps the pork very moist.

Here is a picture of the Pork right before coming out of the oven:

At this step, the pork can sit covered on another carving plate for about 15 minutes wrapped over with foil.
This will give you time to take the remaining juices in the pan and combine them with 1 cup of dry white cooking win and let simmer for 5 minutes. This will be a nice broth to drizzle over the carved pork to keep it moist.

Apple Butter Sauce:

For the apple butter sauce you will need:

  • 3 tablespoons of unsalted butter
  • 1 Granny Smith Apple – cut in ½ inch slices
  • ¼ cup of sugar
  • ¼ cup of honey
  • 1 ½ cups of apple cider unfiltered
  • ¼ teaspoon of nutmeg
  • 1 tablespoon of brandy

About five minutes before you are ready to pull the pork out of the oven is a good time to begin working on the sauce. In a medium saucepan heat the apple slices and 1 tablespoon butter for 5 minutes until apples are translucent. Then add the cider, sugar, honey and continue cooking on low for about 10 minutes. Once the apples are soft, you will need to strain the apples thru a strainer pushing them back into the mixture so that the skin and core can be discarded. From there, keep cooking the mixture back up to a boil until it is reduced to about 1 cup of thin apple sauce. Here you will then add the rest of the unsalted butter (2 tablespoons), nutmeg and brandy.

Slice the meat on carving board in ½ inch slices. On plate drizzle the juices from the pork over the meat and then finish with a large tablespoon of Apple Butter sauce over the meat.

Simply delicious and a great meal to follow-up a nice day at the apple orchard with the family.

Enjoy.

Check out this video about preparing Whole Boneless Loin: Spice Rubbed Pork Loin BLT Sliders with Dijon Remoulade