Slow Cooker Pork Roast

It’s set-it-and-forget-it season! Actually, the crock pot is good all year, but because it makes pots of lovely hot food, I think people associate it more with winter than summer. I know I do. The first thing I thought when I saw pork roasts on sale was “slow cooker.” But I didn’t really want barbeque. Nothing wrong with it, but it’s a flavor I’m bored of before the leftovers are gone. Molasses is a fall obsession of mine — while the world goes crazy for “pumpkin spice” everything, I want to drown in molasses (not literally. That stuff kills. Science!). So I started with molasses and went from there. Balsamic vinegar and some spices add up to earthy and hearty.

This pork roast will make a lot of leftovers, if it’s just one or two of you, or it’ll feed a crowd. And it is quick enough to be made first thing in the morning. I served this with some roasted broccoli and sweet potatoes — I hope to share the sweet potatoes as soon as I work out some kinks with that recipe. Pork and sweet potatoes are great together, and broccoli goes with everything.

Slow Cooker Pork Roast

• oil to grease the crock
• 1 sweet onion, halved and sliced thin
• 1/2 teaspoon of oil
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2-2.5 lb center cut boneless pork roast, fat side up
• 1 Tablespoon molasses
• 2 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon celery salt
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
• 1/4 teaspoon mustard
• 1/2 cup broth or stock, whatever you have on hand
• 1/4 cup hot water
• fresh ground pepper, to your taste (I used about 1/2 a teaspoon, not that I measured)

Grease the crock of your slow cooker. Add the sliced onion to the bottom, and drizzle on the 1/2 teaspoon of oil and the 1/4 teaspoon of salt.

Place the pork roast on top of the onions, with the fat side up (I do not trim this for the slow cooker — it’s good flavor).

In a small dish or right in a measuring cup, whisk or stir with a fork the next 7 ingredients (molasses through the broth/stock). Pour this over the roast. Use the last 1/4 cup of water to rinse all the seasoning out of the measuring cup, and pour this along the side (don’t rinse off the seasoning that landed atop the pork roast!). Grind the pepper right on top.

Cover and cook all day. Or, you know, 4-6 hours on high, 6-8 hours on low.

When this is done, take just the meat out. Attempt to slice it, and find out that it will shred instead. After breaking it up, put it back in the liquid you cooked it in, and stir well. This lets the meat soak up a little more of the cooking liquid to serve.

Alternately, you could also make a starch slurry (starch of your choice mixed with water, 1:2 ratio) and add that to the liquid for the last 30 minutes or so of cooking — this will give you more of a gravy consistency.

Serve with side dishes of your choice — roasted veg would be great, but go wild. You’re coming home to dinner almost done.