Swedish Corned Pork Roast

Submitted by Engrossed

"Please note that this recipe takes ten days of pickling time, but is well worth the effort! This is from "The Frugal Gourmet Celebrates Christmas". I made the entire "Swedish Winter Feast" for a past Christmas and it was wonderful! I'll post the other recipes next: Swedish Sauerkraut, Swedish Green Split Peas with Bacon, Mashed Rutabaga, Turnip, and Potato & Sweet and Hot Mustard, served with Rye Bread. I expected not to like anything and ended up LOVING everything!"

 

• Ready In: 242hrs 15mins
• Ingredients: 7
• Serves: 12-16

ingredients

• 2 gallons water
• 1 lb pickling salt
• 1 teaspoon saltpeter, I made it without and it was fine (optional)
• 8 lbs boneless pork butt, tied (I used the latter) or 8 lbs pork loin roast (I used the latter)
• 2 bay leaves
• 15 whole black peppercorns
• 5 whole allspice

directions

1. In a large stainless steel pot or pickling crock, mix the water, pickling salt, and saltpeter together until dissolved. Untie the pork roast and place in the pickling solution. Place a heavy plate on top of the pork so that it will remain submerged.
2. Cover and refrigerate for 10 days. Check occasionally to be sure the pork is covered by the liquid.
3. After 10 days, remove the pork and retie it into a roast. Rinse well with fresh water. Place the roast in a large cooking pot, cover with cold water, and add the remaining ingredients: bay leaves, peppercorns and whole allspice.
4. Bring to a boil, cover, and simmer 2 hours 15 minutes.
5. Slice the pork and place on large platter.
6. Serve with Sweet and Hot Mustard.

Reviews

[olen50]

Sorry, but no professional cook uses pure saltpeter (potassium or sodium nitrate) as an ingredient anymore. In fact it is illegal. Only pink curing salt (which is mostly regular salt with about 5% sodium nitrite added). Nitrites do their job of making the meat pink, and killing pathogens, and then break down into harmless nitrogen dioxide relatively quickly. Nitrates do so also, but it takes much longer...so they are only used for long cured salami's and such. If meats are cooked and high temperatures (such as frying bacon), and they contain nitrates, they can be converted to nitrosamines, which are suspected of being carcinogenic. Thus, frankly, most recipes with saltpeter as an ingredient should be considered to be obsolete.

 

[Sydney Mike]

Those 10 days seemed to take forever, but the wait was well worth it ~ the taste of this roast is different & very, very good! Certainly a different way to prepare! Thanks for posting such an unusual recipe!