Coca Cola Roast Pork
You may be on call to make at least one more festive winter meal before everyone calls it quits. So might as well do it up right. This is one of those recipes with so many ingredients, it might seem intimidating. But read on! In about 15 minutes everything, including the pork loin, gets poured or dropped into a plastic bag, then left overnight in the fridge to let all those ingredients make friends with each other—and slow cooked the next day.
Down our way Coca Cola is used for everything from front porch rum and cokes to loosening rusty nuts and bolts to dousing a bee sting. It’s also a great ingredient in barbecue sauce and chocolate cake. Here, it’s the base for a very tasty marinade and pan sauce. And only you’ll know that the whole delicious thing started in a plastic bag.
Coca Cola Roast Pork
In a bowl combine:
• 3 Tblsp vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1/3 cup ketchup
• 2 Tblsp Worcestershire sauce
• 2 Tblsp balsamic vinegar
• 1 Tblsp Dijon mustard
• Garlic powder or oil, or 2 crushed garlic cloves
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• Dash or three of jalapeño sauce
• Juice of ½ lemon
• 2 tsp paprika—sweet or smoked
• Salt and pepper
• Then add 1 can Coca Cola
Seal pork with marinade in reclosable plastic zipper bag and make sure meat is covered—refrigerate overnight, turning occasionally when you think of it. Cook the next day. Pour meat and marinade, either stovetop into a heavy dutch oven at low heat, or in a small roasting pan sealed with foil in oven at 300’-325’ degrees. Meat thermometer must read 165º F when done—check after 1 ½ hours.
Remove roast and cover to keep warm. In small sauce pan, add 2 tblsp butter to pan juices, bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer for 10 minutes to slightly reduce. Thicken sauce more if desired, by adding 1 tblsp cornstarch mixed with 1 tblsp water and stir constantly.
Slice roast, spoon a little sauce over slices. Serve with mashed potatoes, apple sauce, a steamed green vegetable—and the pan sauce on the side.
The Kitchen Hive
