Garlic and Herb Pork Loin Roast

This recipe calls for a bone-in pork loin roast, sometimes referred to as a pork sirloin roast.  You could use the garlic-herb rub, borrowed from the terrific Complete Meat Cookbook, on a boneless roast but you would need to adjust the times below as the presence of the bone dramatically alters the cooking time.

The bone-in pork loin is an inexpensive yet delicious roast but can be rather tricky to roast properly.  The problem has to do with getting the inner part of the roast next to the bone, to cook through without overcooking the outer part of the roast.  The bone will, at first, impede the cooking of the interior of the roast until the bone becomes heated through.  At that point the heated bone will continue to cook the meat adjacent to it even if the roast has been removed from the oven.  Using this little bit of science (learned from Cook's Illustrated) one can roast this particular cut of meat to perfection.

Mash the garlic and salt together using a mortar and pestle until a paste is formed.  Add the herbs, pepper and olive oil and continue to mash until well combined.  Rub the roast all over with the garlic-herb paste and return to the fridge and allow to marinade up to 24 hours until ready to roast.

Preheat the oven to 475 degrees.

Put the roast, fat side up, onto a cake rack placed in a shallow roasting pan.  Place the roast in the center of the oven and cook for 35 minutes.  Remove the roast from the oven and allow to rest for 35 minutes. Meanwhile, reduce the oven temperature to 325 degrees.  During this time the internal temperature of the roast will rise up to 30 degrees as residual heat in the bone is conducted to the adjacent meat, allowing it to continue cooking from the inside out.

Return the roast to the cooler oven to finish cooking.  This will take another hour to hour and fifteen minutes, or until the internal temperature of the roast reaches 145 degrees.

Remove the roast from the oven and allow to sit for 20 minutes before carving.  At this point the internal temperature of the roast should be about 155 degrees.