Posted on 12/01/2018 3:04:20 PM PST by Jamestown1630
We will be away this Christmas and probably won’t be cooking a big holiday meal. But one thing I’ve always wanted to try is a crown roast of pork – just because it’s so beautiful.
Especially this time of year, you can often purchase a crown roast that is already boned, trimmed, frenched and tied. Depending on where you are, you may have to order well ahead, and will certainly pay a pretty penny, but it will save you a lot of work – and this is definitely a Very Special Occasion or Holiday dish.
Here from Taste of Home is a recipe with Apricot/Apple stuffing:
https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/pork-crown-roast-with-apricot-apple-stuffing/
If you want to buy two rib halves of pork loin and do-it-all-yourself, Jimmy Kerstein, author of ‘The Butchers Guide: An Insiders View’, has an excellent video (all of his videos are very succinct and informative):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_rXxawB6Og
(Those pretty little paper decorations on the bone ends are called 'chop frills' and are easy to find on the Web.)
***************************************************
I don’t know if this is new, but I just discovered it a few months ago – Rice a Roni has a Cilantro/Lime flavored rice now, and it really is very good for a prepared, boxed item like this. If you have spent a lot of time and effort on a great Mexican or other dish and need a quick and unusual starch to go with it, you might appreciate this.
***********************************************
Chef John of Food Wishes has an interesting little ‘pudding’ dish that would make a nice lighter dessert for a fancy meal, and sounds and looks very Holiday: Lemon Gingersnap Posset:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_933Sthfx5c
*******************************************
Finally, one of my favorite holiday things is in the stores now - the Kraft Roka Blue Cheese Spread, which comes in a little jar that you can use as a juice glass later. We only seem to see this in our local stores from Thanksgiving through Christmas, and it's displayed on special stands in the dairy department (not refrigerated). They also make other versions, including an Old English one. This year there's a little flyer with coupon and recipes on the display.
-JT
I wish everyone a happy and peaceful Holiday Season, and a very good New Year.
-JT
And same to you as well!! (((HUGS)))
THANKS!
But I like lamb better :)
It’s so much more expensive though.
I liked lamb a lot when I was young; even liked mutton. For some reason, I’m just not inclined toward it now. Maybe it’s because, like everything else, they seem to be making it so lean (?)
I remember the nice rim of fat on the chops my Grandma would cook...
HUGS to you, too! Have a very happy holiday.
loved those cheese spreads. Never realized they were still around....cuz Aldi has some great cheese selections.
Happy Holidays to you!
I would love to try a crown roast of anything - beef or pork but it is probably out of my league wallet-wise. Where I am now situated it seems that a smoked ham is the holiday go-to product. They are showing up in the grocery stores. Massive things, too!
I remember something else that Kraft may have also made - a blue cheese dip that also had the term ‘Roka’ in its name, and came in a dark blue, fluted metal tin. This was a refrigerated item, and was probably my first introduction to the taste of blue cheese. I don’t think I’ve seen it since the 1960s.
Kerstein is very good in that video, showing how to prepare the meat, use the meat needle, etc. It may not be that hard to construct this from scratch, which would save a lot of money.
Very few meats are good without at least some fat flavor.
Some are downright delicious BECAUSE of that!!
If you get a crown roast of beef you better have a big oven.
People don’t realize just how much bigger they are than a pork crown roast.
Lamb is the best. My daughter and son-in-law have a sheep farm. They raise pastured lamb. It is so tender, rich in flavour, yet at the same time sweet and mild. There is quite the demand for lamb in Ontario.
The problem is that the labels are hard as heck to get off of those jars. I’ve had one in the dishwasher for a week ;-)
They kill sheep!?!?!?
“well yes idiot how do you think you get to eat them??!”
:)
They do sound delicious.
My grandfather used to chop off the Thanksgiving Turkey’s head in the basement after it was home for about a week.
The kids all played with it and loved it and then watched it get decapitated lol
I just bought a huge refrigerator and despite that fact, I can’t put anything larger than a ten pound bird in it unless I dump it in the overly large freezer! These new fridges are beautifully ill-designed, lol.
To be frank, I can no longer eat beef because of health issues although I love it and sneak it on occasion. I eat more fish and chicken and turkey now with the occasional lamb and pork. I adore lamb! I sometimes eat goat at my local Indian restaurant.
You’re correct. And it seems that whatever they do to the animal’s diet to make it ‘lower-fat’ also makes the lean meat tougher. I just don’t like meat very much these days, precisely because of the impact of the whole low-fat influence.
You as well.
New Zealand has 50 million sheep, and less than 5 million people— a lamb lovers paradise. That is why every lamb at Trader Joe’s is from there or Australia.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.