Roast pork at low temperature

Ingredients for 10 servings:

• 3 kg roast pork with rind (organic ham)
• Sea salt, coarse
• a few garlic cloves
• some rosemary sprigs
• 1 bottle of dark wheat beer
• 1 bunch of soup vegetables
• 2 bay leaves
• Caraway seeds
• 2 shallots
• 1 jar gravy
• some cream to refine the sauce
• butter
• salt and pepper

Instructions

Working time approx. 1 hour; Rest time approx. 2 hours; Cooking/baking time approx. 4 hours; Total time approx. 7 hours

simple but time-consuming

Have the butcher score the rind in a diamond shape and divide the roast into two equal halves to make it easier to handle. A large roast will probably work too if you have a bit more cooking experience; I found it easier to handle this way. Season the meat generously with salt and pepper. Massage sea salt into the rind and stud it with garlic cloves and rosemary sprigs. Fill a roasting pan with about 1 cm of beer and place the roast in it, rind-side down, so that only the rind is in the beer. Let it rest for about 2 hours. In the meantime, clean and chop the vegetables and place them in a large roasting pan. Add 1-2 bay leaves, caraway seeds and a few cloves of garlic. Preheat the oven to 80 degrees Celsius. Remove the meat from the beer, pat dry and sear on all sides. The rind will NOT be seared. Deglaze the pan with the remaining beer and pour it over the vegetables. Then season the roast again with salt and pepper and place it, rind-side up, in the nest of vegetables. The roast shouldn’t float, as the liquid won’t evaporate at the low temperature. Half a bottle should be enough. Insert the thermometer into the center of the roast and set it at an internal temperature of 65 degrees. For a 4 cm thick roast, you can expect to cook for about 4 hours. Brush the rind with brine about every 30 minutes so that it dries out thoroughly and becomes nice and crispy afterwards. Do not add beer or stock, otherwise the crust won’t pop. In the meantime, prepare the sauce. Finely dice the shallots and sauté in butter, deglaze with the meat juices and let it simmer slightly. When the internal temperature reaches about 63 degrees, remove the roast, transfer to a new, empty, preferably preheated roasting pan and quickly return to the oven. Set the temperature to 230 degrees top heat or ideally grill and continue cooking. Watch carefully so that the crust does not burn. Add the vegetables and the beer juices to the sauce and simmer together. Season with salt, pepper and caraway seeds to taste. It should already be quite spicy. Drain the vegetables through a sieve and refine the sauce with a little cream. If necessary, thicken with a sauce thickener or small lumps of butter and flour. That’s a matter of taste. If you like, you can of course also pass the vegetables through a sieve. Personally, I find it too mushy. For me, the time from taking the vegetables out until the core temperature reached 65 degrees was exactly enough to cook the sauce and, at the same time, to grill the rind until nice and crispy. This can of course vary from oven to oven, so watch carefully. The roast will then be just cooked through, super juicy and tender, with a fluffy crust and perfectly seasoned. Suitable side dishes include: For example, classic potatoes or bread dumplings and red cabbage or sauerkraut.