Recipe of the Week: Best Ever Pork Roast and Sauerkraut

What do you wish for as we head into a new year?

If you hope 2023 will bring prosperity then fill your plate with pork on New Year’s Day, a superstition that comes from the fact that pigs root forward, which is a sign of progress.

Eat ring-shaped foods to bring the year full circle, and for a full circle of luck in the year ahead. Those foods include doughnuts and bundt cakes, plus some types of pasta.

Show off your Irish by eating buttered bread on New Year’s Day, staving off hunger for the year ahead.

Eat foods that are green to ensure you have financial prosperity according to many cultures. Those include cabbage and collards.

Dumplings are the favored lucky food in China, where they resemble gold ingots to ensure prosperity. In Spain, eating 12 grapes at midnight on New Year’s Eve is both a tradition and a superstition. Eating 12 grapes ensures good luck for the next 12 months.

I will be eating pork and homemade sauerkraut in the Pennsylvania Dutch tradition in hopes of luck in 2023. To increase my chances, I will be avoiding the foods that reportedly inhibit good luck: crab, shrimp and lobsters because they move backwards or sideways; catfish and halibut because they are bottom feeders, and chicken and turkey because they scratch backwards.

Here is a pork recipe from thekitchenwhisperer.net:

Best Ever Pork Roast and Sauerkraut

4-pound pork loin roast – boneless and at room temperature (this is important!)

2 pounds sauerkraut

1 tablespoon caraway seeds (note – you can omit this if you hate caraway seeds)

1 cup chopped yellow onion

1 peeled apple (gala or any sweet apple), chopped *optional

½ cup light brown sugar (add less if you like it more tangy)

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

½ teaspoon smoked paprika

1 cup water *optional

2 tablespoons olive oil

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees, rack in the middle. Pat the pork dry and sprinkle the entire roast with salt, pepper and smoked paprika. Heat a large nonstick pan over medium-high heat and add the olive oil. When the oil starts to simmer carefully place the pork roast in. Sear on all sides until golden brown – 5 to 8 minutes per side.

2. In a lidded 6-quart Dutch Oven place the sauerkraut all over the bottom. Sprinkle over caraway seeds, onions, apples and brown sugar. Place the seared pork roast on top nestling it in the sauerkraut. If you’ve drained your sauerkraut, add the water. If you did not you do not need the water. You want at least a cup of liquid in the pot.

3. Cover tightly with a lid and bake for about 2 hours or until a meat thermometer reads between 145 to 150 degrees. While it’s cooking check the pot to ensure that it’s not drying out. If needed, add more water. I have never had to but I always add at least a cup of liquid. Remove from the oven once the thermometer reads 145 to 150 degrees. Carefully remove the roast from the pan and place on a cutting board covering loosely with foil.

4. Allow to cool for about 15 minutes before slicing.

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