Milk-braised pork loin

EricC

Member
The other week Spurgeon posted "chicken in milk", a milk-braised chicken recipe. I was curious about the milk curdling and once he posted the recipe link I found out it curdles intentionally, giving up a little cosmetics in exchange for a flavorful sauce.

But while I was checking that out I ran across a number of milk-braised pork recipes. This included one from America's Test Kitchen, where they put a little science behind it to reduce curdling. The problem is that whole milk doesn't have enough fat in it to prevent breaking so they fixed the problem by adding fat, in the form of grease rendered from salt pork.

The recipe can be found here, though you may have to register to see the full recipe (registration is free and they haven't spammed me yet)...
https://www.americastestkitchen.com...?ref=new_search_experience_1&incode=MASAD00L0

So anyway, I have a new CI DO and The Wife was getting tired of BBQ so I decided to do it yesterday.

The salt pork rendering its fat...


My pork loin started at 4 lbs but after I trimmed some extra fat and cut it down to fit the DO (I'll do a stir-fry on Monday with the rest) it weighed in at 2.5 lbs, allowing me to follow the ingredient portions stated in the recipe without any conversion. Browning the loin...


Reducing the milk and related ingredients prior to braising...


Then the pork was added to the braising liquid, covered, and into the oven. After it was done the pork was rested and the sauce finished. And it worked, no curdling!


Sliced, sauced, garnished, and served...


The pork was tender and juicy, but the sauce was the real highlight, it was exceptional. More than exceptional; I don't have the words and I'm a wordy guy...

It was rich and velvety, loaded with flavor. If I was on death row I'd request my last meal to be served with this sauce. Don't even care what it's on as long as it has that sauce.

As I was writing this The Wife served my 5yo some leftovers and she says, "is there sauce? I want some sauce" (though it did already have sauce on it)...

This is one I'll likely serve at a larger family gathering sometime this holiday season. It really turned out well.
 
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