A Tale of Two Porks

Mark Bittman's "Puerto Rican-style pork"

The other day I bought a four-pack of pork sirloins from Costco, thinking it was a good deal. After I made the first one, however, I had second thoughts about my purchase.

The reason was quite chilling -- even though we had one of the sirloins defrosting in the refrigerator for more than 24 hours, the core was still frozen and there was no way to tell when it was done. As a result, when I opened the oven and checked it, it still had a ways to go. And then I'd let out precious heat, causing the cooking time to lengthen.

When we finally got the finished product, it just seemed like a fleshy mass of food -- not to my liking.

The second time was perfect. That's because we 1). Let it defrost for more than 24 hours and had a secret weapon to know when it was done and 2). Used a delicious Mark Bittman pork recipe.

Around the time I made the second piece of pork, I'd received from co-workers at a going away party a remote thermometer. These things are quite neat, as it will let you know what the temperature is of your meat without you having to open the oven.

But first I needed to make the spicy rub for the pork from a recipe that Bittman says is one of his favorites. I took four peeled garlic cloves, a quartered onion, a few tablespoons of fresh oregano and some salt and pepper. I drizzled in some olive oil and two tablespoons of cider vinegar and pulsed everything into a coleslaw-looking paste using a food processor.

Then you rub the paste all over the pork and let sit to marinate. The recipe says you should refrigerate it if you leave it out more than two hours.

During this time, I preheated our oven to 350 degrees and then roasted it. I wasn't sure if my remote thermometer would work for the oven (it was made for grills) but I carefully inserted the probe into the pork and threaded out the wire outside the oven door and connected it to the base unit.

There I could tell that even with more than a day's defrosting, the pork was still frozen at its core -- it was 30 degrees. But as the pork cooked, the temperature rose. Without having to open the oven, it hit the desired 150 degrees (no more than 160 degrees according to Bittman's recipe) in two hours.

I pulled out the pork and then let it rest for 10-15 minutes.

It was savory and delicious. It's amazing what a spicy rub can do to improve the taste of pork!