The video actually states the noodles...they are cavatelli noodles. They are good ones as they help to capture some of the sauce.

Here is a link to what they look like (just scroll down and search for cavatelli) http://www.ilovepasta.org/shapes.html - Cheers!

Is not a noodle; it is a macaroni pasta to be exact, as it does not contain eggs, and it is seldom made fresh anymore. Macaroni is usually confined to machine made pasta, so...but it is just not a noodle like a fettuccine or linguine. JMO, but I think it is accurate.

Just made this and served it along side Sautéed Fennel with Parmesan. Both were new dishes to the family and were well received. It was quite yummy. However, I still managed to turn a 3 hour recipe into a 5 hour recipe. One of these days my cooking will get faster.

Glad that you and your family liked the recipe. As for getting faster in the kitchen this just takes practice (and then more practice)...but don't beat yourself up sometimes things just take longer than other times (like when cooking a pork shoulder). Keep up the good work - cheers!

Darren, one thing I've noticed about being fast: when I try a new recipe for the first time, I'm always pretty inefficient and slow. The second time I'm much faster already. In the end the more I do one recipe the faster I get at it.

So if you keep trying new recipes every time you cook, chances are you'll be pretty slow every time, but as you do the same recipes again, or at least use the same techniques again in a variation of the same type of recipe, you'll get faster, not to worry.

Hope that helps.

Superb!!

Even the kids liked this one. However I made a huge roast and have a ton of leftovers.

Can I freeze this? I have one of those foodsavers that suck all the air out of the bag.

I made it with egg noodles-firm but not aldente.

any suggestions on freezing? Put the noodles in with it? Or throw the noodles out? Or...many possibilities.

Thanks!

You can freeze the pork for sure. I suggest you do it separate from the pasta. Leftover pasta can be frozen. For the best results, use your vacuum machine to get out all the air and then just plunge it into boiling water to reheat it. Cheers!

One more question, this sauce was surprising to me in that it had a little tang like cheese. In fact the family thought I put cheese in it.

I said, I don't know why it's like that. Maybe it has something to do with reducing the cream/milk. Maybe that's part of how they make cheese?

Not sure.

It had a pretty perfect balance in all the flavors. Just wondering, besides lemon juice, what would you use to give it an inch more tang.

I don't think it needs anything else. Just curious how you would "brighten" this sauce.

I can't wait to make it again and experiment a little bit at a time with flavors. I have so much to learn about that.

I was just wondering why the temperature in this recipe calls for 300 F. The usual temp. for combination cooking, according to the drill down, is 200 F. Would this have something to do with the milk, so that it doesn't separate or something? Or because it's pork, to kill bacteria?

You are paying good attention. This dish can be cooked at 200F with no problems. The temperature noted of 300F has nothing to do with food safety or the splitting of the cream. It's just a bit faster.

As you learned in the Combination Cooking lessons, slow and low cooking provides the best results; however, if you are short on time, you can increase the temperature.

We are trying to teach people a variety of ways of doing things so there aren't so many restrictions (i.e. Do this or else...). By understanding the impact that different temperatures will have on the final product, this gives you - the cook - flexibility to do your own thing. So go ahead and cook this dish at 200F and you'll be more than happy with the results. Cheers!

Thanks Kimberly :) That is so nice to know. I am so happy to have my question(s) answered.

My roast was 1/2 the weight and when the meat thermometer read 68 C it wasn't nearly fork tender, so I reduced the oven to 200 F and will keep cooking. I think it will turn out very dry.

Now I am thinking smaller roasts need low oven temp. so the internal temperature can rise at / or about the same time it becomes fork tender. Or should I forget temperature and just focus on fork tender?

With combination cooking, it isn't about testing the internal temperature of the meat with a thermometer. It is about the meat cooking all the way through and becoming fork tender all the way through (whether the cut is large or small). If the meat comes out a bit dry, it is likely that the cut didn't have much fat and/or connective tissue to begin with. The sauce should compensate somewhat for this though.

It sounds like you just need to continue to cook the meat. Be patient and keep testing the texture by pulling the meat apart with two forks as shown in the video. Keep us posted! Cheers!

I want to try this. The meat I have is a port shoulder that has been cut into 1" steaks. Would this be an appropriate cut (reducing time)? Thanks. Alison

Pork shoulder steaks are the same as the cut of meat used in the recipe. The only difference is that ours is a whole shoulder roast. Turn and cook the steaks until they are fork tender. Depending on how many steaks you have the amount of liquid and the cooking time will vary. Cheers!

I made this as my practice session for the Combination Cooking lesson last night. It was a HUGE success with the family. The pork was flawlessly cooked and the sauce...the sauce....I could eat it straight on pasta!

I modified it to cook on a grill with a dutch oven. My dutch oven was slightly too big, but thanks to the lesson, I knew how to adjust for that without watering down the sauce. (http://www.nibblemethis.com/2011/02/milk-braised-pork.html)

Thanks for another fabulous lesson and recipe, Rouxbe Team!

I am going to cook this and chicken parmigiana for my nephews wedding reception for 75 people, I have cooked both dishes several times with great results. With the chicken I know I can make lots of extra sauce (just incase). But the pork I am worried it will not make enough sauce, could I maybe cook the pork in stock, and then make a sauce by emulsifying it with cream? Or would it be better to cook as recipe and add more cream and milk at the end stage after pork is taken out? I will be making all dishes day before so any advice would be great, thanks for the great lessons, my cooking skills have greatly improved.

The amount of sauce that this dish makes is quite a lot. Rather than reducing it at the end to thicken it, you could thicken it with a slurry instead. Just make sure to add it bit by bit and let the sauce come up to a simmer each time before adding more so you don't over-thicken the sauce. Enjoy the wedding! Cheers!

My dutch oven is a little too big and I was wondering....could I cook potatoes in this along with the pork? Does that sound awful?

Would be nice to add some veggies to do a sort of one-pot-meal deal.

Thanks!

Indeed you could throw in potatoes just know that they would need to go in later (see the Stewing Lesson for more details about adding vegetables to this kind of stuff). Also, because this sauce can sometimes split the potatoes may not look as sexy. If needed you could always remove them from the pot roast once everything is done and then finish the sauce as per the recipe. Cheers!

Hi,

I've been making this about two times a month now. It's still a big hit in this house, even when I forget to add the garlic and rosemary. This recipe is literally idiot proof, I should know.

I'm trying to get away from processed fats. So today instead of throwing away the huge chunk of fat I had to cut off the roast, I fried it up and put the drippings in the frig. I also used it to sear the roast. Nice.

Lately I've been using cream and no milk. It's really good.

Thanks for this recipe. It's the best thing for guests as you know you can't screw it up and can cook a day in advance. You gotta love that. I know i do.

My favorite aspect of Rouxbe is that I'm learning processes and techniques that can be applied to all my cooking instead of being a slave to a recipe. That said, I am wondering why the pot in the video was placed on a tray in the oven. The pot had handles that could have been used to grab it, so I'm wondering if there is a specific reason the tray was used (even out the heat?) or if it just was an idiosyncratic choice on the part of the cook and not a necessary step.

I made the recipe and after the pork was done cooking I noticed there was some amount of fat floating on top. I reduced the sauce and then used a fat separator, but it looked like the gentle boil to reduce the sauce had emulsified some of the fat into the sauce. My question is whether this was a good thing (since I know fat can carry flavor) or whether I should have used the fat separator prior to the gentle boil to reduce the sauce?

A tray under the pot is not required, but can be used to prevent any spills on the bottom of the oven from happening. Cheers!

Always remove fat first. I always take two days to make this. I put the whole thing from oven to the frig overnight, next day I remove the fat, much easier that way.

If it still tastes good, don't sweat it. Just remove the fat first next time.

Try making it over two days like I do. IT IS AMAZING!!

A fat separator is not required for this cream sauce. Once reduced and blended, the fat does emulsify into the sauce. If this were a stock-based sauce (not a cream sauce that contains fat), it is better to skim off the fat so the sauce isn't greasy. You can remove some of it but part of the mouth-feel and richness in cream sauces is due to the yummy fat. Cheers!