Homestyle Pork Roast

Sometimes you just have to have good homestyle comfort food. For many of us, especially in the Midwest, that's a nice pork roast. Bacon has become a trendy item to cook with, but it also makes an excellent self-baster and tastes amazing in just about anything. Pork roast happens to be my personal favorite and apparently I live in the right state for it.

Roasts are not only delicious, but they are easy to prepare and many times leave you some delicious leftovers for another meal or two. Options for sides are endless, gravy or not, it's all up to you. This recipe is very flexible too. Change up the herbs to something you like or have on hand. Don't like or don't eat pork? No problem. Grab a beef roast and go with that. Some roasts are better braised or cooked low and slow in a crock pot, but this particular recipe you want to use a fairly shallow, open pan to allow the bacon to crisp up. To make Bacon Wrapped Pork Roast, you will need:

boneless pork loin roast (mine was about 3 lbs)
bacon
1/4 cup olive oil
herbs- I used thyme, rosemary, marjoram
3-4 cloves of garlic, finely minced
4 TB grainy German mustard (or more for bolder flavor)
salt and pepper

Trim pork roast of any silverskin or excess fat. Place the roast in a heavy duty zip close bag- like a freezer bag. It's going to be a gallon or maybe 2 gallon bag depending on the size of your roast. To the bag add the herbs, oil, mustard, garlic and salt and pepper to taste. Close the bag removing as much air as possible. Then massage the bag to combine the ingredients and completely and evenly coat the meat. Place in fridge and marinate overnight.

When ready to roast, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Remove roast from bag, it's not necessary to remove excess marinade. Using bacon slices, wrap the roast completely, using twine to hold the bacon in place. 

Yes, I was out of kitchen twine, so I used yarn- hey it worked!!

Put the roast on a rack in a roasting pan. As you can see, I had to improvise a little and make a "rack" from foil "sticks". Roast uncovered at 350 degrees at least an hour or until meat thermometer registers 160 degrees. If you find the bacon is browning too quickly, tent the roast with foil. Remove from oven and allow to rest about 10 minutes before slicing.

I served the roast with mashed potatoes and green beans from our garden (thank you, pressure canner) and it was delicious. The roast was moist and tender and we skipped the gravy completely. This is a great meal for a lazy weekend day, Sunday dinner, or a cold dreary day when the heat of the oven would be welcome. As long as you have the oven on, why not throw in an apple pie? Let me know what time, and I'll be over for dinner!