Savory Pork Roast

Christmas. The journal is complete but I keep adding — a second journal started, for Rémy's recipes and Colette's innovations. The first journal is Mama and Joey. The second journal is the next generation. Two leather books, side by side on the kitchen shelf. The past and the future. The roux that was and the roux that will be.

Gifts: Luc got LSU gear — an embarrassing amount of purple and gold that he'll wear to orientation this summer. Colette got a new camera — a real one, not a phone — for photographing her paintings and the food and the cottage and the bayou and everything she sees that deserves preserving, which is everything. Rémy got a smoker. A tabletop smoker. His own. For his room? No. For the backyard, next to the pit. The boy has his own smoker at eleven. God help us. God help the neighborhood. God help the pork shoulders of Louisiana.

Réveillon at the cottage. Midnight mass. The hymns. Mama's voice weaker but singing. Rémy's voice stronger and joining. The old voice fading. The new voice rising. The balance shifting, the way it shifts every year, like the bayou shifting its banks — slowly, imperceptibly, until one day the shore is somewhere else and the water is somewhere new and the song continues in a different throat but the song is the same. "Jolie Blonde." Mama and Rémy. Old voice and new. The song holds.

Rémy’s smoker is still in the box, but the pork shoulder was already on my mind before the wrapping paper hit the floor—because Réveillon calls for pork the way the bayou calls for fog, quietly and completely. I wrote the recipe into the second journal, the one that belongs to the next generation, and I made it at the cottage while Mama sang and Rémy sang louder. A savory pork roast slow enough to outlast midnight mass, bold enough to anchor a table full of people holding on to each other across time—this is the one I’ll keep making until one of them makes it without me.

Prep Time: 20 minutes | Cook Time: 2 hours 30 minutes | Total Time: 2 hours 50 minutes | Servings: 8

Ingredients

1 bone-in pork loin roast (4 to 5 lbs)
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried rosemary, crumbled
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
1 medium yellow onion, roughly chopped
2 stalks celery, roughly chopped
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

Instructions

Preheat and prep. Preheat your oven to 325°F. Pat the pork roast dry with paper towels and set it on a cutting board.
Make the rub. In a small bowl, combine the minced garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper, smoked paprika, thyme, rosemary, onion powder, and cayenne. Stir into a thick paste.
Season the roast. Rub the paste all over the surface of the pork roast, pressing it into any crevices around the bone. Let it rest at room temperature for 15 minutes.
Build the base. Scatter the chopped onion and celery across the bottom of a roasting pan. Pour in the chicken broth and Worcestershire sauce. Set a roasting rack over the vegetables and place the seasoned roast on the rack, fat side up.
Roast low and slow. Transfer the pan to the preheated oven and roast uncovered for 2 hours to 2 hours 30 minutes, or until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part reads 145°F. Baste with pan drippings halfway through cooking.
Rest before carving. Remove the roast from the oven and tent loosely with foil. Let it rest for 15 minutes before carving—this keeps the juices where they belong.
Serve. Carve along the bone and slice into generous portions. Spoon the pan drippings over the top and serve alongside your Réveillon sides.

Nutrition (per serving)

Savory Pork Roast — The Réveillon Table That Holds Us All