Old Fashioned Pork Roast

from ButterYum

makes 10-12 servings

Ingredients

  • 6 pound boneless Boston Butt (aka pork shoulder)

  • 3 cloves garlic, minced

  • 2 teaspoons Kosher salt

  • 2 teaspoons ground pepper

  • 1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage

  • 1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary

  • 2 large red onions, sliced into 1-inch thick wedges

  • Olive oil (for roasting pan and possibly needed to coat onions)

  • 1/2 cup reserved pan drippings

Directions

One day before you plan to serve the roast:

  1. Preheat oven to 300F.

  2. Tie roast well with kitchen twine and place it in a lightly oiled roasting pan.

  3. Rub roast with mix of herbs and garlic and place in roasting pan.

  4. Bake in preheated oven, uncovered, for 3 hours.

  5. Remove roast from pan and add onions; toss with pan drippings (if there isn't enough fat in the pan, drizzle with a bit of olive oil and toss onions to coat).

  6. Place roast on top of onions and return to oven, uncovered, for an additional 4 hours (check pan every hour to be sure the pan drippings don't evaporate - add 2 cups of water if necessary).

  7. Remove the roast from the roasting pan and place it in a glass baking dish and allow it to cool before you wrap the dish well with plastic and put it in the fridge overnight.

  8. Reserve the onions and pan drippings separately in the fridge overnight too. You should have about 1 1/2 cups of drippings (maybe 1 1/4 after you remove the fat). Add water to the drippings if you don't have enough.

The day you plan to serve the roast:

  1. About an hour before you want to serve this yummy roast, preheat your oven to 300F,

  2. Remove the twine from the roast and slice into 1/4-inch slices.

  3. "Shingle" the slices in a large casserole dish.

  4. Pour about 1/2 cup of the reserved pan drippings over the slices, cover with foil, and place in preheated oven for 45 minutes (CI suggested preparing a gravy from the leftover drippings (recipe below), but I preferred the pan drippings straight from the pan).

  5. Season individual servings with salt and pepper and enjoy!

Sauce from the pan drippings

makes approximately 1 cup

Ingredients

  • remaining pan drippings (fat removed)

  • reserved roasted onions

  • 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

  • 1/4 cup apple jelly

  • 1 cup apple cider

Directions

  1. Heat in a saucepan over med-high heat for 15-20 minutes until reduced and thickened.

  2. Strain onions and serve.

Note: this sauce recipe has a vinegary flavor that I wasn't very fond of. I much preferred the pan drippings straight from the roasting pan, but I might have liked it without the vinegar.

I also think that this recipe would be just fine without the sage and rosemary, so if you're in a hurry, or don't want to pay $6 for fresh herbs, feel free to make it using only garlic, salt, and pepper. Enjoy!

recipe adapted from Cook's Country Cookbook