The day after I returned from a weekend of good eating in Louisville, I made this pork roast. Four days surrounded by some of the best bourbon, the lifeblood of the city, made me want to cook with it. Turns out that bourbon and pork are as good together as pitmasters say they are.
The foundation of this dish is onions and apples, classic pork go-withs in both France and America, while the flavorful wet rub — grainy mustard (French), honey, brown sugar, Sriracha and bourbon (from Kentucky) — is a mélange. Roasted in the oven for under an hour, everything comes together in a mix of sweet and hot that calls for some dunkables — biscuits or baguette.
I’m sure you know this, but just in case: Save the good stuff to drink before, during or after the roast. The pot is no place for splurge bourbon.
— Dorie Greenspan
BOURBON-ROASTED PORK LOIN is excerpted from EVERYDAY DORIE © 2018 by Dorie Greenspan. Photography © 2018 by Ellen Silverstein. Reproduced by permission of Rux Martin Books/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. All rights reserved.
- One 3-pound (1-1/2-kg) boneless pork loin roast (not tenderloin), at close to room temperature
- 1/4 cup (60 ml) bourbon
- 1/4 cup (60 ml) grainy mustard (preferably French)
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon Sriracha
- Fine sea salt and freshly ground pepper
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 medium onions thinly sliced, rinsed and patted dry
- 2 apples such as Gala or Fuji, unpeeled, cored and cut into 6 pieces each
- Using a sharp paring knife, cut a shallow crosshatch pattern in the roast’s top layer of fat, taking care not to cut into the meat.
- Mix the bourbon, mustard, honey, brown sugar, Sriracha, 1 teaspoon salt and a few grinds of black pepper together. Rub this over the pork, covering all sides. If you’re cooking the roast now, just set it aside while the oven preheats. Or put it in a covered container and refrigerate until needed. (The rubbed pork can be refrigerated for up to 8 hours — pull it out of the refrigerator about 30 minutes before cooking.)
- Center a rack in the oven and preheat it to 400 degrees F.
- Warm the oil in a Dutch oven or other heavy high-sided ovenproof casserole over medium heat. Toss in the onions and apples, season with salt and pepper and cook, stirring regularly, for about 10 minutes, until the onions are translucent and the apples are starting to soften.
- Center the roast on top of the apples and onions, pour in whatever liquids from the rub have accumulated and slide the pot into the oven. Roast the pork, uncovered, for 45 to 55 minutes, basting it a couple of times, until a thermometer inserted into the center of the roast registers 135 to 140 degrees F.
- Allow the roast to sit for a few minutes before slicing and serving it with the onions, apples and delicious pan juices.
WORKING AHEAD: If you’ve got the time, you’ll get even more flavor if you give the pork up to 8 hours in the refrigerator after you coat it with the bourbon rub.
STORING: The leftover roast will keep tightly wrapped in the refrigerator for about 4 days. You can heat it gently if some pan juices remain. Or slice it and make great sandwiches.
