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Home » Italian Recipes » Pork Loin Braised in Milk Bolognese Style

Pork Loin Braised in Milk Bolognese Style

September 21, 2009 by Angela Roberts 5 Comments

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When I first purchased Marcella’s book, after pining over many choices for  Cooking Italy  I had some time to kill before meeting a friend. I went into Provence, a french bakery, for a coffee, a pastry and a place to begin reading the book. I say “reading” because the first fifty pages outline the fundamentals of Italian cuisine. And, as usual, I strike up a conversation with a manager and start talking Marcella Hazan. He assured me that not only did I pick the right cookbook author to follow, but I needed to make the pork braised in milk right away.

At first, my head went “ugh” as nothing about that sounded good. But he was a self-assured foodie type and I couldn’t squelch my curiosity. I waited until the weather would be cooler (missed the boat on that one) and we could welcome Autumn with a classic bolognese pork cooked in milk.

This week’s meat dish is similar to the bolognese sauce in that there are no herbs driving flavor, and it’s a long slow cook using milk. The pork simmers in the milk for hours, turning out an uncommon nutty flavor and a succulent, fork tender piece of pork.

How would anyone know to do this? I would have lived my entire life as an experimental, improvisational cook and never put the pig with the cow in this way. My favorite sandwich is ham and cheese, proof that the pig and the cow can harmonize, but I just never expected this. When I think pork, I think sultry, savory, olive oil and lots of herbs. I never think “why don’t I just cook this with milk?

This is precisely what makes Italian cooking so classically wonderful and unique. If you’ve been following the Cooking Italy series, you can see the “region” coming through, which would have been based on specific food sources for the area. Italian food is surely not just the red sauce many Americans have experienced. It is a large variety of regional cuisines based on terrain, the foods natural to the region, and the ingenuity of the home cooks.

The Process
I have not exactly gotten my pork photography legs yet, and with a minute of daylight left, this was the best I could do. Notice the golden brown tones of the sauce. This was the milk cooked down, and it’s an amazing, dreamy taste that you must try for yourself. And, the only spices are salt and pepper. There was actually a much thicker sauce that didn’t want to be in front of the camera, but this is so much better than I could get it to look.

I used a rib roast of pork (bone removed), but it didn’t have much fat on it, and that is always a problem with pork that tends to be very dense. You can also try this method with a pork butt, which I may just do the next time and take advantage of the pork fat.

The left overs got an original Spinach Tiger twist making sandwiches of french bread, pork and a muscadine grape reduction with fennel, which I will post soon.

This is a slow cooking process, but almost no prep time, so perfect for a day you are working from home with little time to cook. The meat is browned in butter and vegetable oil and baptized with milk. The key is to use a pan that barely has room for the pork, so that is continues to soak up the milk. As the milk cooks down, it get thick, golden brown and your kitchen will fill up with a nutty, creamy aroma.

Recipe
1 T butter
2 T vegetable oil
2 1/2 pounds pork rib roast (see notes)
Salt
Black pepper, freshly ground pepper
2 1/2 cups of milk (or more), divided 1 cup, 1 cup, 1/2 cup

Use a heavy bottomed pan which just fits the pork. Heat butter and oil.
Add meat when butter foam subsides.
Brown pork on all sides.
Add salt, pepper and 1 cup of milk, adding it slowly.
When milk comes to simmer for 20-30 seconds, turn heat way down.
Cover, but not all the way.
Cook for one hour, turning meat occasionally, until milk has thickened.
Once the milk reaches the nut brown stage, add one more cup of milk. Simmer ten minutes.
Cover lid tightly for another 30 minutes.
Continue cooking until there is no more liquid milk in pot, and then add last 1/2 cup of milk. When the pork is fork tender, and the milk is in dark clusters, it is finished.

You may need to tip the pot and spoon off the fat, leaving the milk clusters. You might also need to add a few tablespoons of water and boil it down, scraping all the cooking residue.
Transfer to cutting board. Serve immediately.

Notes on meat: Have butcher detach meat from bones, but split the ribs into three parts and cook the bones also. I wasn’t able to do that, and purchased a rolled pork rib roast, detached from the bones.

 

 

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Filed Under: Italian Recipes, Marcella Hazan Recipes, Meat Recipes Tagged With: milk, pork

« Slow-Roasted Rosemary Chicken Again and Again
Purple Food: Muscadine Grapes and Dressing Up a Pork Sandwich »

 

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As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Comments

  1. Phil Johnson says

    February 24, 2012 at 12:05 am

    Hi,

    I’ve just come across this page, having “Googled” for the pork loin in milk recipe and must say that this version seems to be the one I will cook.

    I tried, though, clicking on the link for “Cooking Italy” but it doesn’t work and I failed to find it by “Googling”.

    Is there a new blog address?

    As a very keen amateur, I would be very interested in learning more about “a group of friends and food bloggers who want to learn how to cook classic regional Italian cooking.”

    Any help would be, very much, appreciated.

    Best regards,

    Phil Johnson

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. A Year of Cooking Italy with Marcella Hazan - Spinach Tiger says:
    January 7, 2017 at 3:44 pm

    […] Marcella Hazan,, we made many more dishes, a few that I never captured well with the camera. The  pork cooked in milk  is something so interesting. The milk cooks down to deep brown, nutty sauce. The pasta with scallop sauce, bread crumbs and chili pepper is one of the easier dishes that […]

    Reply
  2. Pork Loin Braised in Milk, Bolognese Style | Maria Paray Jewelry says:
    July 24, 2012 at 8:16 pm

    […] Cooking Italy is a terrific group of ladies who have gathered to make several recipes each month from Marcella Hazan’s Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking.  I highly recommend you buy the book, as Ms. Hazan shares detailed instruction which is invaluable.  If you would like to take a peek at the recipe now, our group leader, Angela, has the recipe and group blog roll posted here. […]

    Reply
  3. Pork Loin Braised in Milk, Bolognese Style | mariaparay.com says:
    December 7, 2011 at 12:35 am

    […] Cooking Italy is a terrific group of ladies who have gathered to make several recipes each month from Marcella Hazan’s Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking.  I highly recommend you buy the book, as Ms. Hazan shares detailed instruction which is invaluable.  If you would like to take a peek at the recipe now, our group leader, Angela, has the recipe and group blog roll posted here. […]

    Reply
  4. Purple Food: Muscadine Grapes and Dressing Up a Pork Sandwich — Spinach Tiger says:
    October 23, 2011 at 3:14 am

    […] favorite way to enjoy a muscadine reduction is on this sandwich of left over braised pork loin made earlier this week. A pork sandwich needs crunch so I sauteed some fennel in butter, enough to […]

    Reply

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