Welcome to Roast Season. After months of quick summer cooking, salads and things thrown on the grill, there’s a particular pleasure in putting a roast into the oven and letting passive cooking do all the work.
You season it, tuck it into the oven, walk away and let time, heat and a few good ingredients take over. Roasted Pork with Earthy Blackberry Sauce is taking the lead as we head into fall, with late summer fruit.
Welcome Back, Roast Season.
Living on Vancouver Island means blackberries are EVERYWHERE around here. Feet thick, they line hyways and backroads and invade your garden if you let them. These nuggets were harvested from the top of the driveway — because the driveway doubles as a berry patch.
The pork is a boneless shoulder roast, dry salt-rubbed overnight, then roasted slowly over thick-cut onions with fresh thyme and rosemary. A final brush of maple syrup gives it a glossy crust.
Oven Sear & Slow Roast
Once we season we oven sear, at high heat. Uncovered. Ideally – 450°f to 500°f – for 25 to 30 minutes.
Then immediately baist, cover, drop your temperature down to 325°f and cook for about 2 1/2 hours (depending on roast weight). We are targeting an internal temperature between 180°f to 205°f.
Uncover, baste with maple syrup, increase oven temperature to 375°f, and return to oven for about 15 minutes. You can get a deeper colour with a higher temperature, but you sometimes compromise moisture, making the meat dry.
Rest. That. Roast.
Whenever we’re cooking a large cut like a roast, a ham, or tomahawk steak – it’s important to give it enough time to rest. Deep joint muscles, and bone in roasts, need a much longer resting time. Up to an hour.
That way the meat stays beautifully moist and cuts cleaner.
If you cut it while it’s too hot, the meat will shred. If you want more of a pulled pork finish, cut or tear it up, hot. Then toss the shredded meat in some hot pan juices and finish with sauce at the table. But still, rest it.
Sauce From The Brambles
And then there’s the sauce. Pan drippings, caramelized onion, blackberry, brandy, maple syrup, grainy mustard and butter come together into a rustic sauce that’s savoury, sweet, tart and gloriously rich.
I love blackberries, so I didn’t bother passing mine through a sieve. I didn’t even mash them completely. Rustic, textured and bloody glorious. But if you want smooth, strain.
Why Blackberry Works So Well with Pork
Pork loves a little sweetness, but it also needs acidity to keep richer cuts from feeling heavy. Blackberries give you both.
Their natural tartness cuts through the richness of the pork while the deep fruit flavour works beautifully against maple, herbs and the caramelization left in the pan. Brandy adds another layer of warmth, and grainy mustard that hint of acid, for balance.
We don’t want a dessert sauce wandering on to the savoury menu here.
It’s a deeply savoury pan sauce, with blackberry.
Why I Love It
Huge fan of passive cooking. Why stand over a stove when the oven can do everything?! We roast a great deal in the cooler months here on Peace Love & Butter.
The salt rub seasons the pork deeply and helps the exterior dry out before roasting. The light maple glaze goes on with the lid off, giving the pork a firm, caramelized crust. And that rustic farm-style blackberry sauce? Fabulous.
Blackberry cuts through the richness of pork and that blast of maple and brandy round everything out. Grainy mustard and butter pulls the whole sauce together. Our transition to sweater season.
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Roasted Pork with Earthy Blackberry Sauce
- Total Time: 0 hours
- Yield: serves 6
- Diet: Dairy-Free, Gluten-Free
Description
Roasted pork shoulder with a maple crust and rustic blackberry pan sauce with brandy, mustard, herbs and pan drippings. Let dinner cook itself. Put on a sweater. Grab a good book.
Ingredients
For the Pork
- 3-4 lb boneless pork shoulder roast
- 1 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt, for overnight dry brining
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 f tablespoons fresh thyme leaves
- 1 tablespoons fresh rosemary, finely chopped
- 1 - 2 large onions cut into 1-inch thick slices
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup
For the Blackberry Sauce
- 1 cup pan drippings and cooked onions, with excess fat removed
- 1 1/2 cups fresh blackberries
- 2 tablespoons brandy
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon grainy Dijon mustard
- 1 tablespoons cornstarch
- 2 tablespoons cold water
- 1 tablespoons butter
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Instructions
Dry Brine the Pork
- The night before cooking, pat the pork shoulder dry.
- Rub it all over with kosher salt.
- Place uncovered in the refrigerator overnight.
- This simple dry brine seasons the meat more deeply and helps develop a better exterior during roasting.
Prepare the Roast
- Remove the pork from the refrigerator about 30 minutes before roasting.
- Pat the surface dry.
- Rub the roast all over with oil seasoned with salt, pepper, thyme and rosemary.
- Arrange the thick-cut onion slices in the bottom of a roasting pan.
- Place the pork shoulder directly on top of the onions.
Roast the Pork
- Preheat the oven to 425°F.
- Roast the pork uncovered for 30 minutes.
- Reduce the oven temperature to 325°F.
- Cover the roasting pan tightly with a lid or foil.
- Continue roasting for approximately 2 hours, or until the pork is tender and cooked through.
- Cooking time will vary depending on the size and shape of the roast, so use temperature and tenderness as your guide rather than the clock alone. Target internal temperature: 190°F – 205°F
Finish with Maple
- Remove the cover and brush the pork generously with maple syrup.
- Increase temperature to 375°F. Return the roast to the oven uncovered.
- Roast until the exterior is deeply browned and the maple has formed a firm, glossy crust.
- Remove from the oven and let the pork rest for approximately 45 minutes before slicing.
- Don’t skip the rest. This is a substantial piece of meat and needs time to settle before you carve it.
Make the Blackberry Pan Sauce
- Remove the roast and onions from the roasting pan.
- Pour off the pan drippings into a measuring cup or separator and remove the excess fat.
- Return the flavourful drippings and cooked onions to a saucepan, thin with water or chicken stock if needed, blend lightly or mash onions a fork until smooth.
- Add the blackberries, brandy and maple syrup.
- Bring to a gentle simmer and cook for several minutes, allowing the berries to soften and the brandy to cook down.
- If the sauce needs thickening, combine the cornstarch with cold water to make a slurry.
- Add the slurry gradually, stirring until the sauce reaches your preferred consistency.
- Remove from the heat add the grainy mustard and stir well.
- Finish with butter.
- Taste and adjust with salt and pepper.
Rustic or Silky?
- The sauce consistancy is entirely up to you.
- If blackberry seeds aren’t your thing, pass the finished sauce through a fine-mesh sieve, pressing gently on the berries to extract all that flavour.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 2.5 hours
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Roasting
- Cuisine: British
