Baked pork can be both a daily family dinner dish and the main accent of a festive table. In order for it to succeed, it is important that two conditions are met: fresh, not very fatty meat has been purchased and a suitable recipe has been selected.
When deciding which part of the carcass is more suitable for cooking, you should focus on the back leg, neck or loin, from where the bone was previously removed. Other parts are less suitable for baking, so it is better to provide different recipes for them.
Among professional chefs, there is an opinion that pork should have a small layer of fat for a delicious baked dish. It is the fat that ultimately gives that unique flavor that everyone loves so much in pork. Another point to pay attention to when buying meat is its color. It is not worth buying very bright or very pale pork - in both cases, most likely, it was artificially prepared for sale by skilled butchers, and their "witchcraft" may go sideways to consumers.
If the meat purchased from the store was frozen, it should be placed in the refrigerator for a day and only then taken out to thaw. Otherwise, pork will give up meat juice, eventually turning into a spoiled product.
In order to cook deliciously baked pork, you should think about spices and herbs in advance. There are two main ways. The first is conventionally called "Mediterranean", it will be characterized by a set of black pepper, rosemary, thyme, sage and yellow mustard seeds. The second is "Chinese", which includes chili peppers, ground ginger, some cinnamon and grains of anise. Of course, you can season the pork for baking and any other spices of your choice.
Before rubbing the meat with them, rinse it, dry it well with paper or cloth napkins, make deep cuts, add salt to them and place narrow pieces of garlic cut along the cloves. Only then season the piece of pork with spices.
Place the meat on a baking sheet and place in the oven. It is important to water the pork with the resulting juice from time to time. This will prevent the meat fibers from drying out too much during baking. Ideally, check readiness with a thermometer equipped with a metal probe. The temperature in the thickness of the finished baked pork is 85 degrees. If there is no such device in the household, you can use the recommendation of professional chefs: 40 min. roasting for every kilogram of pork, and for them another 20 minutes.
The third option for determining readiness is even easier - pierce a piece with a knife. The juice that comes out of the hole should not have the characteristic "red" meat color. If so, turn it off. Deliciously cooked baked pork is ready.
