Mistake = best pork roast ever

That is to say: I made what seemed to be a critical error while preparing Shirley Corriher’s ‘Fall-Apart Tender Slow-Roast Pork’ from her best-selling tome, Cookwise: The Secrets of Cooking Revealed… and damned if it didn’t turn out to be the best roasted pork I ever made. Again: ever.

My occasional cooking companion, the M5 Multitronic Unit (whom you may have seen in such original Star Trek episodes as “The Ultimate Computer”) will explain. Welcome back, M5, and proceed:

Error detected after 3.5 hours of oven cooking at 200°: Operator had failed to place lid atop Pyrex food vessel containing 3.75 pound pork shoulder cut colloquially termed ‘Boston butt.’ Observation: Pork possessed superior browning of meat and fat than if lid had been in position. Adjustment: Operator placed tightly-fitted lid atop vessel and adjusted oven temperature upward to 400° for an additional 45 minutes of cooking time.

The result:

I was furious with myself with having neglected to put the lid on the Pyrex dish before putting the pork butt in the oven. All that went away, though, when I saw that golden-brown flesh and fat smiling up at me, the bottom of the casserole dish filled with dark bubbling juices. So much richer and more appealing it seemed, so much more promising of flavor than previous roasts that had been slow-roasted with the lid on throughout.

I put the lid on belatedly and raised the temperature back up to 400°. I left the meat to cook that way for forty-five minutes, making the total cooking time four hours and fifteen minutes (recipe called for five hours at a minimum for a four-pound cut). The meat thermometer read 160°; I tented the roast with foil (on a rack set over a plate, so that the meat wouldn’t sit in a pool of its own juices). I skimmed the fat from the juices in the Pyrex dish, then cooked those juices down to a rich sauce (twenty minutes over medium heat, or until the sauce clings to the back of a spoon).

This really was the best roast I’ve ever made. (Did I mention that earlier?) Tender, moist, and so full of flavor. All because of a mistake.

I will start my slow pork roasts without a lid from this day forward.