Recipe: Apple-Maple Roasted Pork Loin

Apple-Maple Roasted Pork Loin

Feeds 6

Come fall in Central New York, there's nothing that clears your head better than a motorcycle ride through the countryside bustin' with apple orchards and flamin' with red sugar-maple trees. So it just comes naturally for us to combine apples, maple syrup, and barbecue.

The Pork
1 pork loin with the rib bones attached (3-1/2 to 4 pounds)

The Rub
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon freshly cracked black pepper
Pinch of cayenne pepper
3 tablespoons olive oil

The Sauce
1/4 cup butter
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and minced
Pinch each of kosher salt and black pepper
1 pound McIntosh apples, peeled, cored, and diced
3/4 cup pure maple syrup
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
3/4 cup Mutha Sauce
1/4 cup water

The Garnish
3 tablespoons sliced scallion

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees. Get the butcher to cut the chine bone from the roast for easy carving later. Mix up all the ingredients for the rub, and massage it all over the roast. Place the roast, rib side down, in a roasting pan and pop it in the oven. Cook for 30 to 40 minutes to caramelize the outside, then lower the heat to 350 degrees and continue roasting slowly for another 25 to 30 minutes, til the internal temperature registers 150 degrees.

Throw together the sauce while the pork is roasting. Melt the butter in a saucepan. Toss in the garlic and jalapeños with a pinch of salt and pepper, cooking til soft. Dump in the apples and give them a stir. Cook til soft but not mushy, 8 to 10 minutes. Add the maple syrup, cinnamon, allspice, Mutha Sauce, and water, and simmer gently for 15 minutes. Keep warm.

Take the roast out of the oven and let it rest for 15 minutes. Slice the meat between the ribs into chops. Pour any meat juices that ooze out while carving into the sauce and stir it up a bit. Ladle some sauce onto each chop and sprinkle with scallions. Serve 'em up and pass the remaining sauce at the table.

Buy the Book!

Dinosaur Bar-B-Que
An American Roadhouse
By John Stage and Nancy Radke
Ten Speed Press, 2001
Hardback, $24.95
192 pages, full-color photographs throughout
ISBN: 1-58008-265-3
Recipe reprinted by permission.