“Brinified” Rack of Pork with Onion Mushroom Pan Gravy

It’s the moment of truth.  My first time ever cooking up a rack of pork.  Was it a success?  My answer is a resounding YES.  Followed promptly by a “why the heck haven’t I tried brining pork before?”  I honestly believe that this was the best piece of swine I have ever put my mouth too.  It was tender enough to cut with a butter knife and the flavor.  Well, let me just say that all three kids were practically begging for seconds and even thirds.  Drew, my youngest, kept saying “more chicken!” despite my efforts to educate him on the cut of meat before him.  He even cleared his plate of broccoli after I told him it was the only way to get a third helping.  Alex gave it not one, not two, but one hundred thumbs up (who knew kids had so many thumbs?).  And all three kids let out a whoop and a holler when I told them we would be having a repeat of the same dinner the next night (5 pounds of pork is enough to feed an army let alone a family of five.)

I will say that this isn’t a quick weeknight put together type of meal.  You need to set aside time for all the steps involved.  But that being said, it’s not difficult to achieve pork perfection and with a little patience, I think you’ll find the steps are simple and straightforward and your guests (and family!) will thank you over and over for your efforts.

Before I jump to the recipe, I want to remind you to stop back over at last Sunday’s post and cast a vote for your favorite pork recipe!  The highest vote getter will be awarded the coveted Costco gift card to help them create a bit of their own pork magic.

Time to “ham” it up with a delicious recipe.

Ok, that was just plain bad.

Reach for your trusty stock pot and fill it up with two quarts of water, a big ol’ pour of salt, some sugar, and a few select herbs and spices.

Bring it to a gentle boil; just hot enough to dissolve the sugar and salt.  Remove from the heat, add in another 2 quarts of chilled water, and place in the fridge to cool down completely.

Note:  This brine was measured out for a 5 pound rack of pork.  If your rack is significantly bigger or smaller, you may want to make adjustments to how much brine you make (i.e. half the brine recipe for a 2.5pd rack of pork.).

Once your water is good and cool, slide the pork into the pot being sure to submerge it completely.

Stick it back into your fridge and let the brine work it’s magic for the next 2 to 3 hours.

When time expires, you may either

A. Remove the rack from the water, drop it into a baking dish and pop it back into the fridge for another half hour or so to dry out

or

B. for us “short on timers”, grab up a couple handfuls of paper towel and pat it nice and dry (and I do mean nice and dry.  Pat until your paper towels are no longer seeing significant liquid.)

Grab up a large frying pan, swirl a couple tablespoons of oil around the perimeter and let it get good and hot.  Drop your pork into the pan and sear it up for a good 3 to 4 minutes per side to seal in all those lovely juices.

After he (or she) has been sufficiently “juice retained”, pop ‘er back into the baking dish and slide into your oven to cook up the rest of the way.

It used to be that you needed to wait until your pork reached on internal temperature of 160 degrees for it to be considered done, but the USDA recently revised their recommendation to 145 degrees with a three minute rest.  Personally, this pork loving person couldn’t be more thrilled.  The lower temperature really helps retain all those delectable juices that elevate a chop from simply fine to seriously fantastic.

Of course, what’s pork with out a pan gravy to go with it?

Grab hold of the pan you cooked the pork in (with the remaining oil and tasty bits still attached) and heat up some mushrooms, onion, and garlic; my version of the culinary holy trinity.

Stir in a few tablespoons of flour and then deglaze the pan with a glug or two of white wine and some chicken broth.

Slide the heat down a notch and finish it off with a little tarragon, sherry, dijon mustard and half & half.

Serve up a ladle of pan gravy along with the finished pork and prepare to indulge is a sweet swine feast.

As my rack of pork adventure comes to a lip smacking finish, I want to encourage everyone to get out there and try that one recipe that truly challenges your inner Iron Chef because chances are, you’ll surprise yourself with what you can accomplish in the kitchen.