Our Recipes

Adapted from West Coast Prime Meats Cooks © 2015

Pork Brine

Ingredients

• Two gallons hot water
• Three dried ancho chiles
• Thirteen ounces kosher salt
• Four ounces black peppercorns
• Two ounces garlic cloves
• One large red onion, peeled, cored and cut in 2-inch chunks
• One tablespoon crushed red pepper
• Quarter-ounce (approximately 20) whole cloves

Instructions

1. Put all ingredients in a stock pot large enough to hold two gallons of water. Put the pot on the stove over medium heat and bring the mixture to a slow simmer. Do not let the water come to a boil. Let the ingredients steep in the simmering water for 10 to 15 minutes. 
2. Take the brine off the stove, allow it to cool slightly, then refrigerate it until it is completely chilled. Do not strain the brine. To manage your time, make the brine in the morning and then it will be completely chilled and ready in the evening.

Smoked Crown Roast

Ingredients

• Ten pound crown roast of pork, tied*
• Two gallons Pork Brine, chilled (see recipe)
• Quarter-cup coarse-ground salt
• Half-cup cracked black pepper
• One quart apple juice
• One quart water
• One four-inch deep disposable aluminum roasting pan
• Aluminum foil to wrap the roast bones
• Small bag apple wood chunks

*We recommend that you ask your butcher to tie the crown roast, it is more complicated than simply crowning the racks.

Instructions

1. The day before you plan to serve your roast, submerge the pork roast in the cold pork brine and allow it to marinate in the refrigerator overnight, or for at least 12 hours.
2. The next day, remove the roast and towel dry. Let the roast sit for one hour to come up to room temperature, then coat the roast inside and out with the salt and pepper.
3. While the roast is resting, light your smoker or grill to 230 degrees Fahrenheit, making space on the floor of the smoker or grill for the aluminum roasting pan.
4. When the smoker and the roast are ready, fill the aluminum pan with the apple juice and water. Place a grill rack above the liquid and set the crown roast on that rack, directly over the liquid. Close the lid.
5. For the next two hours, monitor the temperature of the kettle or smoker so that it does not exceed 230 degrees. Add wood chunks and open or close the vents as needed to maintain a steady burn. (See How to Turn Your Kettle Grill Into a Smoker) 
6. When the roast has been in the smoker for approximately one-and-a-half hours, preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
7. At the two-hour smoking mark, remove the roast from the smoker. Place the roast on a roasting rack that is set into a sheet pan. Wrap the exposed ends of the roast bones with aluminum foil and place the roast in the oven.
8. The roast should take an additional hour to one hour and fifteen minutes in the oven or until the internal temperature reaches 150 degrees. Take the roast’s temperature after 30 minutes to make sure you do not overcook it. If your oven does not heat evenly, turn the sheet pan 180 degrees at the 30 minute mark.
9. Remove the roast from the oven and let it rest at least 20 minutes before carving. The roast will carve easily into individual chops by cutting between the bones along the angle of the bone.

Copyright © 2015 by Amy and Craig Nickoloff and West Coast Prime Meats
Recipes reprinted with permission of the owners.