jurassic pork

Jurassic Park is a 1990 science fiction novel written by Michael Crichton that was made into a movie 1993. I personally thought it was a dumb movie, but it did very well at the box office.

Jurassic Pork is a dish that I made soon afterward, in parody of the name, but one that I liked well enough to scribble down the ingredient list. There is nothing about the recipe that places it anywhere in the Mesozoic era, except its title.

Recently (in October 2010), I bought a hilarious, but honest cookbook entitled Looney Spoons: Low-Fat Food Made Fun! by Janet and Greta Podleski. It contained a recipe entitled Jurassic Pork Roast, which little resemblance to mine, but their narrative introduction is much funnier than this one. I have not tried their version, as my own is still good enough for me.

  • 2 lb BNLS pork top loin roast (or so)
  • 2 cloves garlic, each sliced in 4 pieces
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 2 tbsp Rib Rub Roberto †
  • 1 cup low-sodium, reduced-fat beef broth
  • ½ cup unsweetened apple juice
  • 4 oz unsweetened apple sauce
  • ¼ cup sugar-free apricot jam
  • 1 tbsp fat-free sour cream
  • 1 tbsp cornstarch
  • <salt> and pepper, to taste

Cut 8 deep slits in the top of roast. Using a very sharp knife. Insert garlic into slits.

Make a paste out of the olive oil and Rib Rub Roberto mixture. Coat the roast evenly all over, including the ends.

Place roast in roasting pan with a rack. If there is a fat side, place it pointing up. Insert a meat thermometer into the thickest part of the roast.

Heat your oven to 450°F, put the roast on the middle rack, and set the timer for 10 minutes.

Warm the broth, apple juice, applesauce, and jam in a small saucepan over medium-high heat until well blended.

After 10 minutes, turn the oven heat down to 250°F and baste lightly with the apple-jam broth. Continue basting lightly every 10 to 15 minutes until the temperature reaches 150°F. You may also want to turn the roast periodically during this time.

Remove the roast from the oven and set on a meat cutting board (one that has a trough for juices). Cover the meat with tin foil and let it rest for about 15 minutes before slicing it. The temperature of the roast will continue to rise about another 5°F. If there is a fat layer, cut it off and discard. Remove garlic from slits.

Pour the pan juices, remaining basting liquid, if any, and cutting board juices into a medium saucepan. Skim off as much fat as possible. Spoon about ½ cup of the pan juices into a small bowl, add sour cream, and mix well. Add cornstarch and blend again until smooth.

Bring pan juices in the saucepan to a boil and reduce slightly. Whisk in the sour cream mixture and cook over medium-high heat for 2 minutes, until thickened and taste of cornstarch is gone. Voila! You have pork-apple gravy. Correct the seasoning, as needed.

Serve apple gravy over thin slices of pork roast.