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Pork, Loin of, Savoury
Score the skin of a fresh loin of pork in lines a quarter of an inch apart. Rub it thoroughly in every part with a savoury powder made by mixing together a salt-spoonful of powdered sage, a salt-spoonful of salt, a salt-spoonful of dry mustard, half a salt-spoonful of pepper, and a chopped onion. Wrap the joint entirely in oiled paper, and put it down before a clear fire, though at a distance from it, and baste liberally. Half an hour before the pork is taken down, remove the paper, and baste the joint again until the crackling is nicely browned. Serve on a hot dish, and send brown gravy and apple sauce to table with the meat. Time, twenty-five minutes to the pound. Probable cost, 9 1/2d. to 10 1/2d. per pound.
This is spit-roasting instructions, written for a joint hung on a jack before an open fire. Translating it to an oven is straightforward, but the pork itself is the part that needs the most rethinking.
- A salt-spoonfulThe small Victorian salt spoon held roughly a quarter teaspoon. So the rub is about 1/4 tsp each of dried sage, salt and mustard powder, 1/8 tsp pepper, plus one chopped onion. That is a very light hand with salt by current taste; for a 4 lb joint, 2 tsp salt is more usual now.
- Skin-on loinThe recipe depends on a joint with the rind still attached, which is what produces the crackling. Supermarket pork loin is often sold skinned; order a bone-in, skin-on loin from a butcher, or the scoring and final browning have nothing to work on.
- Fire to oven"Down before a clear fire, at a distance" means moderate radiant heat and constant turning. In an oven, roast at 350F on a rack over a shallow tin, then raise to 450F for the last 20-25 minutes with the paper off to crisp the rind.
- The oiled paperOiled kitchen paper was the period's method for keeping the outside from drying while the interior cooked. Parchment, loosely tented, does the same thing; foil traps steam and softens the rind, which is exactly what you are trying to avoid.
- Timing, and why 25 minutes to the pound is too longTiming, and why 25 minutes to the pound is long by modern practice -- English cookery had long insisted that pork be roasted right through, and the rate assumes meat cooked well beyond what is now thought necessary. Roast to an internal temperature of 145F at the thickest point and rest 10-15 minutes. On a 4 lb joint that is usually 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours, not the 100 minutes the rule implies.
- The onion in the rubChopped raw onion will not adhere or dry the way the powders do, and it scorches under the final blast of heat. Scrape the onion off before the paper comes away, or put it in the tin under the joint where it flavours the drippings instead.
- Gravy and apple sauce'Brown gravy' in books of this period usually means a separately made stock-based gravy rather than the pan juices. Deglazing the tin with cider or stock is a reasonable substitute.
- YieldA 4 lb bone-in loin serves six to eight. The costing of 9 1/2d to 10 1/2d a pound is a period retail price and useful only as a record of what pork cost when the book was compiled.
Cassell's presents this as a straightforward roast, and its interest now is largely in the method: the joint is hung before the fire rather than shut into an oven, at a time when closed ranges were common in British kitchens but open-fire roasting was still held to give the better flavour and the better crackling. The seasoning is entirely conventional for English pork — sage, mustard and pepper — and sage is often said to be paired with pork as a foil to the meat's richness. Apple sauce alongside belongs to the same logic. The scoring of the rind at quarter-inch intervals is the one technical detail worth noting: it is what allows the fat to render out and the skin to blister rather than merely toughen, and it has not changed at all.