Crown roast of pork makes stunning holiday dinner centerpiece

With its skyward-reaching ribs, a regal crown roast makes a stunning centerpiece.

Especially at the holidays – Christmas, New Year’s, Feast of the Epiphany, maybe even Easter, if we dare think ahead to spring – this dish is a sight to behold.

Charred sticks of bone jutting from a wreath of fork-tender meat make this main seem medieval – as well as fit for a king and queen. There’s just something about a crown roast that makes it look like it belongs in the center of a long table in the dining room of a drafty castle filled with tapestries and enormous fireplaces.

Those pork ribs look impressive, if a little imposing, coiled into a crown. But for some home cooks, this dramatic dish seems terribly intimidating.

There’s no reason for that.

The presentation is solely for appearance. If you can roast a chicken or turkey or leg of lamb, you can prepare a majestic crown roast of pork.

Season it simply with salt and pepper, then tuck it into the oven. Later, fill its inner circle with stuffing or fresh herbs or apples, celery, shallots, garlic or other aromatics. Dress it with gravy or a string of fresh cranberries. Set it on a bed of greens or herbs, and place vegetables – roasted potatoes or sweet potatoes, fennel, crimini mushrooms – around the rim.

Any way you make it, a crown roast of pork is a stately showstopper.

You don’t even have to decorate the blackened, exposed bones with those funny little foil caps or paper booties. The roast itself provides plenty of pomp and pageantry.

Low and slow

Crown roast of pork is made from the rib portion of the loin. The meatiest part of the ribs forms the stable base of the crown.

These cuts of meat, tied together and ready for roasting, typically cost about $6 per pound.

If that sounds expensive, consider this: order online and Williams-Sonoma will ship you a frozen Kurobuta Pork Crown Roast for $199.95. (The ribs come from Boise-based Snake River Farms.)

Common fears with making any roast are overcooking and drying it out, or cooking it unevenly.

Many recipes for crown roast of pork suggest cooking temperatures from 375 to 450 degrees. Martha Stewart’s January 2001 recipe recommends starting a crown roast at 425 for 15 minutes, then reducing the heat to 375 for about 1 ½ hours. Most instructions were similar.

J. Kenji López-Alt takes a different approach in his 2011 “How to Cook a Perfect Crown Roast of Pork” post on The Food Lab section of the Serious Eats site, where he serves as managing culinary director.

“The key is to realize that the hotter your oven temperature, the more uneven your roasting will be,” he wrote, mostly in bold type.

López-Alt noted if you roast a crown roast in a 400-degree oven, by the time the center is at the desired temperature, the outer layers are well past the 165- to 180-degree mark. Then he noted if you roast a crown roast in a 250-degree oven, “you can get the entire thing pretty much exactly at” the proper temperature from edge to center.

His description made the process sound simple and the end result more appealing.

Still, his cooking temperature is lower than the 325 degrees the United States Department of Agriculture recommends. For a 10-pound crown roast of pork, the USDA also recommends 12 minutes of cooking time per pound, or about two hours.

The USDA also recommends cooking all raw pork steaks, chops and roasts to a minimum internal temperature of 145 degrees.

Keep in mind the roast will continue to cook when you take it out of the oven. López-Alt suggests taking it out at 140 degrees, tenting it with foil as it continues to cook, then returning it to the oven to crisp and brown the exterior.

Sounded good to me

I picked up a 7.35-pound crown roast of pork on a snowy afternoon at the end of December at Rosauers in Browne’s Addition. Even raw, it looked noble. The checker even asked what it was, saying he’d never seen one before.

The previous evening, a night meat clerk told me he’d only seen a crown roast of pork ordered three times in the year he had worked there and instructed me to call back in the morning. When I reached the meat department around 10 a.m., I was told a crown roast of pork would be ready for pickup by 2 p.m. The total cost was $44.

The butcher had it all tied up for me, but the crown roast didn’t appear to be frenched. The process of frenching removes the meat, fat and connective tissue from rib bones on a rack roast, such as a rack of lamb or crown roast of pork. Usually, a sharp paring knife is used to scrape the bones and cut down between them to base of the roast. I did my best to cut away the membrane and fat clinging to the rib bones, but I didn’t get them as clean as I would’ve liked.

Here’s the other slight disappointment: According to López-Alt’s instructions, cooking time would take “about 2 hours,” or about a half-hour longer than the nearly hour and a half my 7.35-pound roast would’ve taken using the USDA’s 325-degree, 12-minute recommendation.

A half-hour is no big deal. But, after two hours in a 250-degree oven, my roast’s internal temperature only registered 115 degrees.

A half-hour after that, its internal temperature was 130. And another half hour after that – or a total of three hours of cooking time – my roast still hadn’t reached 140 degrees. Finally, after 3 hours and 10 minutes, it registered 140, which is – remember – still five degrees shy of the USDA’s recommended temperature for pork.

Now, I wasn’t cooking at a high altitude, and my oven is new, installed within the last six months. So I found the longer cooking time a bit curious.

Still, I proceeded to follow the rest of the instructions, tenting the roast with foil before putting back in the oven at a high temperature. I tented for 20 minutes, during which time the roast’s temperature held steady.

After 10 minutes at 500 degrees, the roast’s exterior started to crisp and brown, but the internal temperature wasn’t quite 145. I didn’t want to risk under-cooking or over-charring, so I dropped the temperature to 350 and continued cooking the roast just a bit longer.

Despite the added time, I was pleased with the way the pork turned out: tender and juicy. And I felt a bit like royalty digging into it for dinner.

Any time it graces the dinner table, an elegant crown roast seems celebratory. Why save it for the holidays? It would turn a Sunday night family meal into a special occasion with leftovers that could be used well into the work week. And it would surely impress friends at your next dinner party, no matter the time of year.

Perfect Crown Roast of Pork

By J. Kenji López-Alt via Serious Eats

One 6- to 10-pound crown roast of pork (about 12 to 20 chops)

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 250 degrees and adjust oven rack to center position. Season pork roast liberally with salt and pepper and place on a wire rack set in a rimmed baking sheet. Transfer to oven and roast until internal temperature reaches 140 degrees, about 2 hours. Remove from oven and tent with foil for at least 15 minutes and up to 45 minutes. Meanwhile, increase oven temperature to 500 degrees. Return roast to oven and cook until crisp and browned on the exterior, about 10 minutes. Remove from oven, tent with foil, allow to rest for 15 minutes, then carve by slicing in between each rib and serve.

Find J. Kenji López-Alt’s crown roast of pork post on the Web at: www.seriouseats.com/ 2011/12/the-food-lab-how-to-cook-a-perfect- crown-roast-of-pork.html.

For additional ideas for a crown roast of pork, visit the Too Many Cooks blog at www.spokesman.com/ blogs/too-many-cooks.