Gordon Ramsay's Rolled Pork Loin

You Tube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yaki4HUsiNM

I tried this recipe this past week. I had the butcher at my local grocer butterfly the pork loin for me. The steps appeared incredibly easy, but there were a few problems with the end result.

I filled, rolled and tied the roast as Gordon showed without a problem. I bought a disposable roasting pan for easy cleanup. My first problem was that Gordon states to pop it into a "hot oven". Hmmmmm….. so I looked up what temperature is considered "hot". I found 400-425F was the general consensus. Since I have a convection oven, I opted for 400 degrees F. He claims that the roast is done in 45 minutes.

I looked in my favorite cookbook and decided that the internal temperature should read around 170 degrees F. After 45 minutes, the internal temp was only up to about 135! So I put it back in the oven until the desired temperature.

Unfortunately, the result was a very dry and tough piece of pork. The seasoning was great with the garlic, lemon and sage. Sadly, I ended up chopping up the roast and using the leftovers for barbeque sandwiches and a pork fried rice.

It wasn't until after I did a lot of searching on the Internet that American pork no longer carries trichinosis (a potentially fatal disease affecting the lungs). This is because pigs are no longer fed food tainted with ground-up animal parts. Because of this, we can now cook pork to a much lower (and much juicier) temperature.

Will I try the recipe again? Probably so, and I'll have to find out what the "new" safe internal temps are for pork roast.