This beautiful Crown Roast come to us from Betty Crocker. Who would have thought it, right? I have a bucket list of recipes I’m dying to try, yet for one reason or another, haven’t. Usually, these shortfalls are a direct result of that undeniable excuse – life.
Life gets in the way or circumstances prevent us from checking something off our culinary to do list. For me, it’s been the Crown Roast. I can remember, a very long time ago, when grocery stores regularly featured a nice selection of Pork Crown Roasts around the holidays. Nowadays, you’ll be lucky to find one in your typical grocery meat counter – holidays or otherwise. Once a few years back I spied one sitting all lonely in the meat counter. I can only assume someone had ordered it, then failed to pick it up, so there it sat waiting for a new home. Unfortunately, we were leaving town, and I really didn’t want to freeze the beautiful TALL standing roast for later use. Hubby was already bugging me about the amount of freezer space dedicated to a goose, a duck and a Capon Chicken. Heavy sigh, I walked away.
Still, this Betty Crocker sensation is on my bucket list for a Holiday Supper – perhaps as a part of a New Year’s Eve Midnight Supper or something equally spectacular. I wanted to share this recipe as I dream just a little of champagne and caviar and all foods wonderful.
Pork Crown Roast with Fruited Sausage Stuffing
Crown Roast
1 pork crown roast, about 16 to 18 ribs (8 to 10 lb)
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon pepper
Heat oven to 325 degrees.
Sprinkle pork with salt and pepper. On rack in shallow roasting pan, place pork with bone ends up. Wrap bone ends in foil to prevent excessive browning. Insert oven-proof meat thermometer so tip is in thickest part of pork and does not touch bone or rest in fat. Place small heat-proof bowl or crumpled foil in the center of crown to hold its shape evenly. Do not add water.
Let Crown Roast cook for about 3 hours. While pork is roasting, prepare the stuffing.
Fruited Sausage Stuffing
1 lb bulk pork sausage
1/4 cup butter
4 medium stalks celery, chopped (2 cups)
3/4 cup chopped onion (about 1 large)
1 cup chicken broth
1 teaspoon dried sage leaves, crumbled
1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
6 1/2 cups unseasoned stuffing cubes (16 oz)
1 can (8 oz) crushed pineapple with juice
1 cup applesauce
1 cup orange marmalade
Brown sausage in a large skillet over medium-high heat, breaking sausage apart as it cooks. Drain and set into a large bowl. Set aside.
Melt butter in the now empty skillet. Add chopped celery and onions. Saute until celery pales and onions become translucent.
Add sautéed vegetables to the sausage.
Warm chicken broth. As broth warms, add sage and poultry seasoning. Set aside.
Add stuffing cubes to sausage mixture. Add pineapple, applesauce and orange marmalade. Gently stir ingredients to combine.
Slowly add chicken broth to the stuffing mix until the desired consistency of “stuffing” is reached.
About 3 hours into roasting the Crown Roast, remove from oven. Remove the foil or bowl from the center and fill crown with stuffing mixture. Cover stuffing with foil, return roast to oven and continue to cook for 30 minutes.
Remove foil from stuffing and return roast to oven one final time to complete cooking. Roast is done when thermometer reaches 145 degrees.
Remove roast from oven, tent loosely with foil to keep warm and let rest for 3 or 4 minutes.
To serve, transfer stuffed Crown Roast to a large serving platter. Remove foil wrapping from bones, and place paper frills on the ends of the bone. Garnish the platter with some greens and strips of orange or even peels of carrots, anything to give contrasting color.
When ready to serve, spoon out the stuffing into a bowl to pass or onto individual plates at the table, then cut roast between the ribs and serve.
Note: Any excess stuffing can be baked in a casserole dish to be served with the roast.
Here’s to a life fully lived. Make every moment count!
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