2000s Recipes + Menus

Peppercorn Roasted Pork with Vermouth Pan Sauce

Serves8
  • Active time:25 min
  • Start to finish:1 day (includes marinating)
September 2009
Infusing pork butt with pink peppercorns and garlic enhances its superb flavor. The vermouth in the pan sauce has a masterful synchronicity with the juniper-like aroma of pink peppercorns and gives you enormous complexity from just one ingredient. View more of our favorite recipes from this issue.
  • 6 tablespoons pink peppercorns, divided
  • 2 tablespoons black peppercorns
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons fennel seeds
  • 7 garlic cloves, minced
  • 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 1 (5-lb) boneless pork shoulder roast (butt end)
  • 1/2 cup dry vermouth
  • 2 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
  • 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened
  • 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

  • Equipment:

    an electric coffee/spice grinder
  • Grind 1/4 cup pink peppercorns with black peppercorns and fennel seeds in grinder, then stir together with garlic, oil, and 1 Tbsp salt.
  • Pat pork dry and use a paring knife to make about 16 (1-inch-deep) slits all over roast. Stuff slits with all but 1 Tbsp garlic-peppercorn paste, then rub remaining Tbsp all over roast. Put in a small (13- by 9-inch) flameproof roasting pan and marinate, chilled, 8 to 24 hours.
  • Let pork stand at room temperature 1 hour. Preheat oven to 350°F with rack in middle.
  • Roast pork, fat side up, until an instant-read thermometer inserted into center of meat registers 150°F, 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Transfer pork to a cutting board and let rest 30 minutes.
  • Meanwhile, pour off all but about 1 Tbsp fat from roasting pan. Add vermouth to pan and boil, scraping up brown bits, 2 minutes. Stir in broth, any meat juices from cutting board, and remaining 2 Tbsp pink peppercorns and boil until reduced to about 11/2 cups, about 5 minutes.
  • Knead together butter and flour, then whisk into sauce and boil, whisking constantly, until just slightly thickened, about 2 minutes.
  • Serve pork with sauce.

Recipe by Andrea Albin

Photograph by Roland Bello

Keywords
pork,
garlic,
vermouth,
andrea albin

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