Crown Pork Roast inspired by BBQ Pitmasters own Melissa Cookston of Yazzos Delta Q

I sat down in front of my television on Thursday August 19th 2010 and watched with interest the 2nd episode of Season 2 of BBQ Pitmasters which throws the spotlight on some of North America’s Greatest competitive BBQ teams.

After watching 4 teams duke it out cooking among other things a Crown Pork Roast, I knew what I wanted to make for Dinner that coming week-end.

Even though on the BBQ Pitmasters website the recipes page is rather vague, showing only some of the ingredients but no quantities, I had to give this a shot on my Propane Gas Grill.

Let’s be clear here… I am by no means a Chef or do I have the fancy equipment that the pro teams have but I love to BBQ in my back yard and I have made BBQ a passion, wanting to try foods and cuts of meat that I have never done before.

I went into my local Loblaw Supermarket and found a great looking piece of Crown Pork Roast for $19.00. Before marinating I trimmed off any excess fat and peeled off any silver skin just like you would do with ribs.

I used a marinade consisting of a 40/40/20 split of Apple Juice and Peach Nectar along with Chicken Broth, added to that was a mix of Salt, Pepper and Garlic flakes and some Pork rub that I was given by @SamDogBBQ to test and review. Not only did I marinate the meat with the solution I also injected the meat with it as well.

After throwing the meat into a ziplock bag into the fridge it went to marinate for 4 hours. then I pulled the Pork out of its bag and coated the roast with a liberal amount of the SamDogBBQ rub and then back into the fridge for 2 hours more to give the Pork rub a chance to mingle with the meat and get acquainted. It should be noted that I did not use Melissa’s rub ingredients for my BBQ roast.

Using aluminum foil I made little mittens for the bone ends and started up the well used Gas BBQ that I have, I am hoping one day to pick up a Pellet grill to do these types of meals in the future but I have achieved many fine results with Propane.

To set up the grill I first put some foil under the area that the meat will be cooking in to catch any drippings for a faster cleanup. I then removed the grill grate from the left side of my grill and left that open so that I can put my foil packets of chunks of Cherry wood that I would use for giving some smoked flavour to the Pork.

To do this I take some chips or chunks of Cherry wood that have been bathing in a bucket of water for a couple of hours and made a foil packet around them and using a fork poke some holes in the top where the smoke could escape.

I turned my left burner on full and the burner under the Crowned Pork was left off, with a temp of 400F I closed the lid and let the meat sear for 30 minutes, then reduced the left burner to low thus dropping the temperature in the BBQ to between 225 and 260F and continued the cooking at Low & Slow for 2 and a half hours longer.

Once the internal meat temperature rose up to 150F . I brushed on some of Jake Albert’s wonderful Fuego Rojo which is a Sweet to Heat Pomegranate Habanero Glaze, I only used the glaze on one half of the Roast since others in my family do not like spicy sauces added.

After taking the Crown Pork Roast off of the BBQ at 150F I wrapped it in Aluminum foil and let the meat rest for 15-20 minutes in order to allow the fibers of the meat to relax which lets the juices come back to the meat. Cutting meat right away will leave a lot of cut of meat very dry. While the Pork was resting I made up some German Style Fried  Potato Salad (which I will link here in the future to that post once I write it up)

I chatted briefly with Melissa on twitter to let her know that I liked the results that she had on the BBQ Pitmasters show with her Crown Pork which by the way won her a cool $5000.00 and a spot in this years final of the show with a chance to win $100,000.

She mentioned to me that she would update her own website with a more descriptive recipe including a Peach Glaze to finish the meat that I did not use here. I should also note that in her recipe she does not inject the meat with marinade as I did.

The end result? The meat was juicy and had a slight smoke flavour and the added Fuego Rojo added a great flavour with some heat that did not over power the meat but rather enhance it. After I had my dinner I brought a couple of plates of the Pork and Potato Salad to have my friends Herman and Bob have a taste, I brushed some of the Jack Alberts Glaze onto each side of the meat and on Herman’s BBQ reheated the meat over direct flame and then used some more glaze for dipping, both Herman and Bob thanked me and gave the Crowned Pork props.