Goodness Gracious! This Glaze!!!

Sunday dinners used to be a thing. After church we would sit down to a table set with the good china on a tablecloth. Food was placed on the table to be passed around family style. That is how we learned to set a table and how we learned good table manners. How on earth my mother got the dinner cooked on Sundays, I am still not sure. It felt like it magically appeared after church. But it was a given...we would sit down together and eat,

Fast forward several decades and things are different. Pre-pandemic, we often would go out to eat after church. No lunch to cook. No dishes to wash. And we would always see some friends to visit with as we left the restaurant. If we did eat at home, it likely was something I had picked up at a drive-thru on the way home. (KFC, anyone?) 

Roasted sweet potatoes, green beans, & pear salad on the side.

But on Sunday of this week it felt like we time traveled back to the 1960s. The table was set. A full meal was ready. And we—just the two of us—sat down together and shared a proper meal. Daddy-O saw this recipe a couple of weeks ago and he told me he'd like for us to try it. I suggested that he cook it. And he said, "Sure. If you will make the side dishes." The deal was done. 

He found the recipe for glazed pork loin in the online version of our local newspaper. Not the pork tenderloin that we cook fairly often. But a pork loin. Make sure you buy the right cut of pork. This roast is cooked, uncovered, in the oven and basted with a tasty glaze. 

I make pork loin in the slow cooker sometimes. This excellent oven version is almost as easy. This particular pork roast came from Whole Foods (I have discovered they will deliver to my front door) instead of the big box store where I have picked up groceries for months now. I will still order pork loin from the big box store but I do think the pricier Whole Foods roast was the better piece of meat. It's nice to have options.

But y'all...this recipe is all about the glaze. It is delicious. After putting the first slices on our plates we realized we needed to spoon some glaze over the top. And the best part of this recipe might have been the leftovers. We sliced the remaining roast very thin and put the slices back in the glaze to be reheated. So. Very. Good. The last slices were made into sandwiches on toasted buns topped with a sliced of Swiss cheese that got all melty.

If you are close to my age, you remember cutting recipes out of the newspaper or a magazine. When you find a recipe online now, it's still possible to print it out (ask a grandchild how if necessary) if you like to cook from a printed copy. I do. And there are several ways to save them online, too. I like the "CopyMeThat" app. It only saves the recipe. Pretty uncomplicated. I only use it to clip recipes. Maybe it does get complicated if you try to do more, but it's easy to save recipes.

MAPLE GLAZED PORK ROAST

1 (3-lb) pork loin roast

2 teaspoons canola oil

1-1/4 cups maple syrup

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Preheat oven to 375º.  Season roast well with salt and pepper. Heat oil in 12-inch skillet until just smoking. Brown roast on all sides, about 10 minutes. Do not clean skillet. 

Move roast to a 9x13-inch baking dish. (We used a baking pan lined with foil.) Cook 50 to 70 minutes, until internal temp is 145º, flipping roast over about halfway through cooking.

While roast is cooking, make the glaze. Pour any fat out of skillet. Heat to medium-high and add syrup, cinnamon, cloves and cayenne pepper, scraping up any brown bits left in skillet into sauce. Simmer until slightly thickened and fragrant, about 30 to 60 seconds. Remove from heat and let sit until ready to use.

With 20 to 30 minutes left to cook, pour the glaze over the roast and roll the roast over in pan to coat it all. Return to oven to finish cooking. If glaze in pan begins to look dry, pour 1/4 cup hot water into pan. Check temp at 50 minutes. Continue cooking until desired doneness.

Slice and serve with glaze spooned over slices.

Serves 8. (Or two hungry people, with lots of leftovers)