Roast Loin of Pork with Apple Stuffing

When we were looking for Russian recipes, I came across a website that had Russian food recipes targeted at Kiwi’s. So just to make sure we have this right, we’re hapless American cooks reading a Russian recipe that’s been translated so New Zealander’s can cook it.

That proves one thing. Food brings people together. In a day in age when fear is fed daily to us and the world seems to be falling apart at it’s ozone seam, it’s reassuring.

Thursday night’s recipe was Roast Loin of Pork with Apple Stuffing. Since the recipe looked easy, we added a dessert to the mix and also tackled another Russian recipe: making our very own marshmallows!

Roast Loin of Pork is not the same thing as a Pork Loin. They are in fact two different cuts off of a pig. At least that’s what my husband informed me of when I at first told him we needed to buy ham.

We’re not buying ham, dear it’s Roast Loin of Pork.

Ok. A Pork Loin!

No…that’s not it either.

Damn. Why?!

We headed off to the store for Roast Loin of Pork. Except it didn’t matter. The store only had Pork Loin. In fact the pork section was down right pathetic. All they had were pork chops and pork loin. My husband grabbed up the pork loin with extra force and threw it into our cart. He loves meat. So much so that when we started dating, I was actually a vegetarian. That lasted for all of three dates before I gave in to my carnivorous desires. We’ve been happily married and eating every animal you could think of since then.

Due to the fact that we purchased a different slab of meat, we had to halve the stuffing ingredients. Aside from downright ignoring the idea of sewing up our meat with string (since we have none and could not find where or what type of string you’d purchase for it), this recipe was a easy. We melted butter in a pan and sautéed a red onion. Added in breadcrumbs, orange rind (I’d go easy on this it has a bigger effect then you’d think for just flakes), 1/2 Granny Smith apple diced, 1/4 cup of craisins (raisins are so 90’s…), and sprinkled cloves, salt, and pepper.

Thankfully, we had saved a packet of Apple Cider we purchased in a seasonal mood and never ended up drinking. We dissolved it in some water, added it to a glass pan and then added sour cream to the pan and mixed it. It immediately turned into a brown, chunky white bath that we hesitantly slipped the pork loin into.

Done right? Nope. Before I knew it, my husband whipped out our new Meat Thermometer and impaled the loin on it while it cooked. I couldn’t help but feel uncomfortable although there was no reason for it. It’s not that I don’t want to know the temperature of our meat. I just like to cook it far passed the eye ball point of guessing. That’s how I’ve been trained. Kill, Kill, KILL the beast!!

We turned our oven to 425˚ for just 30 minutes. Basted it in the goopy sour cream cider bath and turned the oven down to 350˚ as the recipe specified. Thirty minutes later the Meat Thermometer informed us it had reached 180˚. Since pork only needs to reach 160˚ we were 20˚ over the kill point.

It smelled heavenly. It looked perfectly cooked. And according to my husbands smile on his face as he ate, I knew it tasted good too. But I eyed it suspiciously. The meat was so moist. How can it be cooked? How?? Cooked meat tastes dry.

When I said that last part out loud, his jaw dropped and he went in a long lecture about what he claims is a history of overcooking meat and stated he would help re-educate me that you do not have to dry meat to cook it properly. In fact, that’s just a “anti-meat sentiment and fear campaign.”

Stupid Meat Thermometer.

It did taste amazing once I got over the softness of the meat which I still find odd. The cider sour cream bath made it shockingly sweet. With that in mind next time, we will leave out the pepper to the stuffing mix. The spice of pepper did not go well with the sweet loin and apple stuffing taste.

You can find the recipe here: Roast Loin of Pork with Apple Stuffing.