Milk-braised Pork: Simple, Strange, Delicious

Sometimes cooking and eating are a matter of faith. Or, perhaps more accurately, a calculated risk. I had a three pound pork loin in my freezer that I needed to do something with but I wanted something different and I was clueless. So I sent an e-mail to my friend Doc Biggles at Meathenge and asked him for suggestions. And he came back with a suggestion for pork braised in milk - Arrosto di Maiale Al Latte, which he published back in February of 2006.

Doc got the recipe from Kate at Accidental Hedonist who posted the recipe a few days earlier. Actually, that's what I figured Doc would suggest because he'd just tried a variation using pork chops.

Perhaps it's just me, but braising pork in milk seemed like a strange idea to me. It is also such a simple recipe that (pork, milk, garlic, and salt and pepper) that I wondered how much flavor it would have. But Doc has never steered me wrong, and I did want something new so I decided to give it a shot. However, I decided to follow Kate's original recipe rather than Doc's posting because I didn't want to incorporate any variations Doc may have made on this first trial -- which doesn't mean I followed Kate's recipe exactly.

Kate browned her roast in butter before braising, however at medium-high heat I knew the butter would burn during browning, so instead, I elected to brown the roast in bacon grease. I think this was consistent with the recipe while using something like olive oil wouldn't have been.

I varied the cooking technique as well. Kate cooked it on the stove top, but my experience is that braising works best in the oven. In the oven, particularly if you have a good heavy cast iron dutch oven like my Le Crueset. Using the oven and cast iron the braise is cooked simultaneously from all sides instead of just from the bottom. This results in more even cooking and produces a superior result.

Lastly, instead of whisking the liquid at the end of the cooking process, I used my immersion blender, which produced a smooth, thick sauce with the garlic evenly distributed throughout.

Arrosto di Maiale Al Latte

3 - 4 lb pork loin roast
salt and pepper
2 tbsp bacon grease
2 1/2 c whole milk (don't use anything low fat or skimmed)
5 cloves garlic - peeled

Heat oven to 325F.

Melt bacon grease in a large dutch oven over medium-high heat. Generously season pork with salt and pepper, then brown on all sides in the dutch oven. Pour out the fat in the bottom of the pot, add the milk and garlic, cover, and place in the middle of the oven.

Cook for one hour. turn roast over and cook another hour. Turn roast over again and cook 30 minutes more. Remove from oven and set roast on a plate, covered with foil, and allow to rest 10 - 15 minutes. Blend milk sauce using a blender and season to taste with salt and pepper. Serves 4 -6.

This is an amazingly good dish. The milk really brings out the pork flavor and, although as a rule a lean cut like pork loin isn't a good candidate for a technique like braising, in this case although the meat shrank to about half it's original size it wasn't dry. The sauce was incredibly rich and flavorful with a nice, but not overwhelming, garlic lilt to it. If you make this, please resist the urge to add additional seasonings the first time, you should understand the baseline before you screw around with the recipe.

I've got some chops in the freezer and may try Doc's most recent variation in the near future - the onions sound like a good idea.

Kevin Weeks is a Gather food correspondent (Paisano), personal chef, cooking teacher, and writer in Knoxville, Tennessee who spends too many hours on his feet, cooking. "Paisano" is a column focused on peasant dishes from around the world. To read more of Kevin's writings or connect to him click here. His blog,Seriously Good, is read by 75,000 cooks a month and in addition he writes a weekly column forSpot-On.