I never thought there would be such a big difference with Berkshire Pork. This whole meal was a highlight of the month for me at home - including the sides. Try it and at a minimum, brine your pork roast if not Berkshire, which is much more expensive.

Please advise where I can get this fantastic pork.
Thanks.
Faye

Not sure where you live, but if you call your local butcher they may be able to point you in the right direction.

What city do you live in? If in Vancouver, I know you can buy it at Armando's Finest Meats on Granville Island (Armando is fantastic).

Did I miss something? When you say to "add the stock" -- what do you recomend? Will good old chicken stock be okay? And, how much?

If I can, I always use homemade chicken stock, this way I can control the salt. If you don't have any on hand, just use a good stock that is low in sodium, this way you will have more control over the saltiness.

For this dish I used a dark chicken stock for added richness, but you could also use vegetable stock, veal stock, or just a white chicken stock.

As for how much to use, (good catch, I forgot to add it...oops!), about 1 cup should be enough.
Good luck! Let me know how it turns out...

Will you achieve the same results if you brine a BONELESS pork loin and then roast at this low temperature? Every recipe I see for pork loin has the oven at 350 degrees (at least) and sometimes up to 450+. I know the bone helps with moisture and as a buffer from the heat, but a boneless roast would work well for a quick weeknight meal (and is much less expensive). Thoughts?

You can use a boneless pork loin instead. As for whether or not you will achieve "the same results", I would have to say no. As you are changing the cut of meat so the results will not be the same but they will likely still be delicious.

Also remember to keep an eye on it as you do not want to over cook pork like this as it can be dry. That is part of the reason why I like the slow and low cooking for it. For more info on this you might want to watch the lesson on Combination Cooking (in particular the last topic that talks about slow and low cooking). Cheers!

This may be a stupid question, but I've got to ask it anyway because I've read several recipes recently that call for overnight marinading, or more alarming when I was making crème fraîche for my French friend, leaving it out at room temperature overnight. So, how many hours are implied by 'overnight'?

Overnight is a fairly loose term but is usually considered anywhere from 8 to 12 hours. If marinating, larger cuts can withstand longer marinating times. You may want to check out the lesson on How to Marinate as this is covered in detail.

Btw, it's not a stupid question :-) If you prepared the pork the night before and left it to marinate overnight, you're not likely going to cook it the following morning. It'll marinate for longer than that by the time you get it in the oven and this - more often than not - is just fine.

Also, the process of making creme fraiche actually requires the dairy products to be left at room room temperature for several hours until the bacterial cultures activate. This is required so that the mixture can thicken. Hope this helps! Cheers!

I have an 8 rib pork roast to prepare for tomorrow - Christmas! Do I double the brining ingredients? I am very fearful of a much too salty roast.

Hi John- It's OK to have too much brine. As long as the solution is correct in terms of ratios/proportions you will be fine. The important part is making sure you have enough brine to adequately cover the roast. I hope this helps! Enjoy.

Two comments here. First kudos to the staff for the timely response to my question since it needed to be answered within a few hours to make a difference in the holiday meal planning - and Christmas Eve yet! Thank you.

Second, I did brine the pig, tripling the amount of liquid, as well as aromatics, in the instructions to cover the thing. It sat in the brine for 12 hours, was removed and air dried in the refrigerator, smeared with a light cover of crushed garlic, pepper and grape seed oil -no salt at all - and seared in a very hot oven as I do not own a pan large enough to use stovetop.

Bottom line, the best pork roast I have ever had. It was moist and beautifully flavored and accompanied by the pan juice sauce recommended in the recipe. Thanks for great recipes, instructions, lessons and staff. I wish Rouxbe Cooking School tremendous success in the New Year and for the future.
John

Thanks for your kind words John. We are most happy to hear that you had such a delicious holiday meal. Sounds like the brining worked out really well for you.

I also wanted to mention, that I find that after practicing a particular cooking method/or technique (ie, Brining), it is helpful to review or re-watch that particular lesson—either to refresh my memory or to see if I missed anything from the first time around. It just seems to stick better once you have put the lesson into practice—or maybe that's just me :-)

Keep up the good work!