Lisa's All-Day Sugar & Salt Pork Roast -- The Slow Work That Holds Everything Together

The ISFA work continues — another kitchen table this week, another young family with numbers that might work. I sat across from a couple in Warren County and laid out the grants and watched their faces change from fear to possibility, and the change is the thing I live for now.

Thursday was tater tot hotdish, because Thursday is always tater tot hotdish and the schedule doesn't change for anything — not pandemics, not loss, not the passage of years. The tater tots go in at 375 and come out golden and the family eats them and the eating is the Thursday and the Thursday is the structure and the structure holds. But I also made spring risotto with peas earlier this week, because the kitchen doesn't only look backward. The kitchen grows.

The garden is waking up. The garlic that overwintered is pushing green shoots through the soil, the annual proof that buried things come back. Jack's seedlings are hardening off in the greenhouse. The Marlene cherry tomato — generation 4 now — ready for transplanting. Every spring the planting is the memorial. Every spring the name goes back in the ground.

A week of sitting across kitchen tables from families on the edge of something — fear turning to possibility, numbers turning to hope — leaves you wanting a meal that does its work slowly and without fuss, the way the best things do. Lisa’s all-day pork roast has been in the back of my mind since the garlic pushed up through the soil this week: buried things, patient things, things that come back transformed. You rub it, you set it in, and you let the oven do the long, quiet work while the rest of life moves around it.

Lisa’s All-Day Sugar & Salt Pork Roast

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 6–8 hours | Total Time: 6 hours 15 minutes | Servings: 8

Ingredients

• 4–5 lb bone-in pork shoulder roast
• 1/4 cup kosher salt
• 1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1 tablespoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 cup water or low-sodium chicken broth
• 4 medium carrots, cut into 2-inch pieces
• 1 large onion, quartered
• 4 cloves garlic, smashed

Instructions

1. Mix the rub. In a small bowl, combine the salt, brown sugar, black pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, smoked paprika, and dry mustard until evenly blended.
2. Coat the roast. Pat the pork shoulder dry with paper towels. Rub olive oil all over the surface, then press the sugar-salt rub firmly into every side, covering the roast completely. For best results, wrap loosely and refrigerate overnight — but even 30 minutes of rest helps.
3. Prep the pan. Preheat your oven to 300°F. Place the onion quarters, carrot pieces, and smashed garlic in the bottom of a heavy roasting pan or Dutch oven. Pour the water or broth over the vegetables.
4. Roast low and slow. Set the pork roast on top of the vegetables, fat side up. Cover tightly with a lid or heavy-duty foil. Roast for 6 to 8 hours, until the meat is deeply tender and pulls apart easily with a fork. The fat cap should be caramelized and golden.
5. Rest before serving. Remove the roast from the oven and let it rest, covered, for 20 minutes before pulling or slicing. Skim excess fat from the pan drippings and spoon the juices over the meat to serve. The carrots from the pan make a perfect side.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 410 | Protein: 38g | Fat: 22g | Carbs: 11g | Fiber: 1g | Sodium: 890mg