A Word About Brine

Last week I received another challenge from Melissa (of savory cupcake fame). She decided she liked brine, so she challenged me to brine something. I gladly accepted, and I began digging deep into my cookbooks for some ideas. Das neue grosse Kochbuch has a good Sauerbraten recipe, and it talked a little about Schweinebraten, but neither one is really brine intensive. The good old Joy of Cooking has an amazing corned beef recipe that requires the brisket to be corned for two weeks! After consulting with Mom about Swedish pot roast, and Oma about Sauerbraten, I settled on pork and came up with this recipe. The gravy was a bit on the strong side, but the meat was meltingly tender and delicious.

Corned Pork Roast

1 pork loin roast, about 1/2 pound per person
3/4 c white wine vinegar
1/2 c salt
1/4 c sugar
1 onion, sliced roughly
3 cloves garlic, whole
2 bay leaves
4 cloves
1 cinnamon stick
1 tsp peppercorns
1/2 tsp whole coriander seeds
water to cover

Place the roast in a stainless steel pot just large enough to fit, add the brine ingredients and cover with water. Set in the refrigerator to pickle for 12-24 hours. Reserve the onions, garlic, and some of the whole spices from the brine, and discard all but a few tablespoons of the pickling brine. Wash the roast under running water and pat dry with paper towels.

For gravy:

2 T vegetable oil
1 1/2 c boiling water
reserved onions and brine
salt, sugar, vinegar and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350. Have ready an oven-proof dish or pan with a tight fitting lid. Set the dish over high heat with the oil. Brown the roast well on all sides. Add the onions and cook another minute without burning them, then carefully add the boiling water and the reserved brine. Cover the dish and place in the oven for 45 minutes to an hour.

Remove the roast from its juices and set aside to rest while you prepare the gravy. Strain the juices into a saucepan and give it a taste. Add sugar if it's too sour, vinegar if it's too sweet. Season it with pepper and salt if necessary. Prepare a thickener if you want to with cornstarch, potato starch, or flour in water to make a slurry. Whisk in a tablespoon or two of the slurry into the gravy over medium heat and bring to a boil. The gravy will start to thicken. Add a little water if it's too thick, or more starch if it's too runny. Check the seasoning again and serve.

I decided that Bavarian shredded potato dumplings would make a good side dish, but something about my mixture didn't come out right. Danger Mike suggested we batter and fry them, and it turned out to be just the thing those dumplings needed. A little beer batter, a touch of breading on one side, and they were crisp, golden and delicious, especially with a smothering of sweet and sour gravy. Prost!