I was lucky enough to receive a few different cranberry pork recipes and decided to make Mamame's the other night. She wrote it in the comments on the original pork post. I did change a few things around because I used fresh cranberries instead of canned, but otherwise tried my hardest to not stray too far.
I packed this up for some friends, and heard back today that they liked it. The kids found the cranberries to be a bit tart, so I added some additional sugar to the recipe ingredients.
The Ingredients.
serves 4-6
1 (2.5-3 lb) pork loin roast or rib roast
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon dried mustard
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 (16-ounce) can whole berry cranberry sauce
or: 1 cup fresh cranberries, 1/2 cup white sugar, 1/2 cup brown (I did add 1/4 cup
brown sugar half-way through cooking after tasting the sauce, but 1/2 cup would be
better. I learned from making my own cranberry sauce that you really do need a lot
of sugar to balance out the cranberries.
1/3 cup golden raisins (I only had regular)
1 clove garlic, chopped
1/3 cup cranberry juice
1/2 small lemon, thinly sliced (I put in a whole one, but Mamame is right, 1/2 is better. A whole one is too bitter.)
The Directions.
Use a 4 quart crockpot. In a plastic zipper bag, put dry spices and cornstarch and add meat.
Shake to coat. Put contents into your slow cooker. Add cranberry sauce, or your fresh cranberries and sugar. Put in raisins and garlic. Pour in cranberry juice, and top with lemon slices. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours, or high for about 4. The longer you cook the meat, the more tender it will be.Serve with rice or pasta.
The Verdict.
Mamame writes, "this is hands down our family's favorite crockpot recipe." My friend who tried it liked it a lot, and her husband said the meat was perfectly cooked and juicy. Her 9-year-old, Austin, reported "I didn't really like the cranberries so much, but I thought they really brought out the flavor of the pork."
oh my. He's adorable.
Oooooh, that looks like a good one! I love cranberries + meat!
February 4, 2009 at 1:46 PM
Mmm, that sounds delicious! I always thought I didn't like pork but lately I've been experimenting with different recipes and am loving it! I will definitely give this one a try.
February 4, 2009 at 2:03 PM
Looks yummy! I make one similar in my crockpot. I love to thicken the juices and pour the gravy it makes over mashed potatoes or egg noodles. Yum!
:)
February 4, 2009 at 2:26 PM
This looks fantastic! I'll have to try it soon!
February 4, 2009 at 4:16 PM
Stephanie, you are too funny. Do you promise to keep your comments as humorous in your new book?
February 4, 2009 at 5:14 PM
I am so glad I have discovered you. My crock pot is dusty from lack of use. Now I have tons of recipes to try! Thanks.
February 5, 2009 at 4:39 AM
Nice to see that Mamame's favorite Cranberry-Pork recipe is my favorite, too! I cut it from the newspaper probably 10 years ago, and now I know if I can't find it, it's living here, too.
Viva la Pork!
February 5, 2009 at 5:38 AM
I love your blog. I just bought a crockpot in nov and I am thrilled that you have not decided to just end it all after your year was up. Please let us know when your book hits the stands!
February 5, 2009 at 6:14 AM
I have a similar recipe for chicken that would work well for pork. I normally make it in the oven, but there's no reason it wouldn't work in the crockpot.
1 envelope Lipton French Onion Soup mix
1 cup bottled Russian Salad dressing
1 can whole berry cranberry sauce
Mix all that together and pour over your chicken, pork, whatever and cook on low for 6-8 hours. Makes a wonderful potluck around the holidays.
Don't know about the GF aspects, as we (luckily!) don't have to worry about that at my house.
Happy eating.
February 5, 2009 at 6:48 AM
You know what we need? We need a recipe (developed by you, of course) for vegetable stock or roasted veggie stock. Do you have anything?
February 5, 2009 at 3:30 PM
Ok this is for dinner tomorrow. This looks so good. I have been read your blog for a while and i really love it. Thank you for continuing on another year.
Lori
(Nevaeh's Mommy)
February 5, 2009 at 4:35 PM
I made this for dinner tonight...YUM! Mom, my picky eater loved it. I didn't have cranberry juice so I subbed apple and dried cranberries for rasins and was out of lemon...but it was fantasic! I am going to try it with a turkey breast I have in the freezer. Steph thanks so much for this website. I have used my crock pot for every lunch and dinner since October when I found your site. I have even been going through my old standbys to adapt them for the crock. You rock...
February 5, 2009 at 5:50 PM
Looks delicious! can't wait to try it.
February 5, 2009 at 6:23 PM
I don't know why, but I just love to try anything with cranberries! This looks like it will be very good! One that I tried once, and was super easy:
Turkey parts (I used drumsticks)
1 can cranberry sauce
1 envelope of onion soup mix
And that's it. And it was soooooo good! But I wonder if there is a way to make your own kind of substitute for the dry onion soup mix that is not so high is sodium?
February 6, 2009 at 6:29 AM
Hi, Love your blog, have tried several of your recipes! I wanted to let you know about the french toast bake... If you are using sliced bread, you need to break it into smaller pieces (like 4). If you are using regular bread, I would probably add more cinnamon to the mixture. I used rice milk and no cream (milk allergy) and I overslept and 9 hours is too long...things I thought you might like to know to add to the book! Thanks again! Mary
February 6, 2009 at 10:42 AM
I've been so scared to try anything but stew or soup in my crock pot-- but I found your post on a random blog hunt and I'm really inspired by this recipe. Thanks!!!
February 6, 2009 at 1:15 PM
hi! i made this for dinner last night- (after a special trip to the store for the lemon!) and it ws great! i had a big ol' hunk of meat, so doubled the reicpe. would not double the cranberries, though, again. i used fresh. i use lots of recipes from your site. be sure and let us know when the book comes out!
February 7, 2009 at 3:47 AM
I just got a used crockpot, so I'm excited to start using it. This recipe looks great!
February 7, 2009 at 7:58 AM
Something with cranberries in the crockpot -I love cranberries! And also for the Chicken Makhani -thanks you - my body needs curry and ginger for my health - glad I found you! cheers, jeannette
February 7, 2009 at 11:41 AM
This looks so good. Came by from SITS! I'll be back.
February 9, 2009 at 12:36 PM
Boy, that 9-year old is going to be something! I bet your friends wish there were more foods you couldn't eat so they'd benefit. ;-) Seriously, it's so generous of you to be willing to try these recipes for our and your friends' benefit even though you can't eat them. I made a pork tenderloin with maple glaze the other day that came out wonderfully. It called for cranberry chutney, which I didn't try then, but will next time.
Thanks so much!
Shirley
February 9, 2009 at 1:28 PM
This looks very pretty in the picture with the lemons over the top of it. I wish I was more of a pork-lover. I wonder if this would be good with a beef roast? Hmmm, things to ponder....
Erin
February 9, 2009 at 2:10 PM
This was fabulous! I didn't have any cranberry juice, so I used orange juice instead. It took about two minutes to put this together, and it tasted great. (Pork roast on sale this week, too, so the whole thing cost about $6.)
This one's a keeper at my house.
February 9, 2009 at 3:11 PM
Love your blog!
February 9, 2009 at 11:19 PM
This recipe is utterly delicious. Restaurant quality flavors. I used a loin roast, cooked on high for 5 hours and it was soooo tender. I used fresh cranberries and only the minimum sugars and yum!!!! It would make a great valentine's day dinner.
February 11, 2009 at 5:49 PM
Made this and loved it. My husband made pulled pork sandwiches on it for lunch the next day, and the day after. :)
February 13, 2009 at 6:02 PM
Yeah!! My recipe made it someplace other than my house! LOL This is on the menu for this week again - it was requested by everyone. It's so yummy! I always keep everything in the house but sometimes I don't have a lemon so I just give a good squirt of the bottled lemon juice.
I'm glad ya'll enjoyed it!
February 15, 2009 at 6:54 PM
I made these this week using boneless chops instead of a roast because that is what I had. The flavor was great and I enjoyed it for leftovers the next day, too. A few of my chops dried out/burned at the edges, but I think that was more because of my crock than anything else- John did ask to have this again as a roast instead of chops.
I love garlic, but I think I might actually decrease the garlic next time, or use powdered.
September 5, 2009 at 6:56 AM
Yum! This worked out really well, I put foil over the top of the roast, and put some potatoes on top and cooked it on high for 4 hours. Dinner is done! Perfect. My husband raved about it. My daughter ate it right up, my picky eater declared he didn't like it. Oh well. 3 out of 4 is a success for me!
October 18, 2009 at 8:18 PM
Made this on Saturday for the 'rents who drove down to celebrate my birthday. I know Stephanie isn't big on searing the meat, but it's my preference, so after I ran it through the bag I browned each side in a hot hot pan. Then I used 2/3 cup of cranberry juice instead of just 1/3 to deglaze. Poured the liquid in a bowl with the sugars to get them kind of melty, tossed the cranberries in that, and dumped it in the crockpot. Oh. My. God. Another winner of a recipe from Stephanie!!! :-)
November 16, 2009 at 7:06 AM
yay, Jennifer! I'm happy this worked so well for you!
LOL on the searing... you've got me pegged! :-)
xoxo steph
November 16, 2009 at 7:27 AM
I just got your cookbook from the libray, and this recipe is the first one I'm trying, along with the Masshed Potatoes with Sour Cream and Cream Cheese. I've got two crockpots going right now, and headed out to take the kids to the Y for swimming and stuff. It's so nice to know that my dinner will be done and waiting for when we are done with our fun afternoon. Great cookbook!
May 18, 2010 at 12:22 PM
Stephanie,
I've got to ask you a question which has been bothering me for a long time. Whenever I cook meat in the crockpot, that meat, whether it's chicken or pork, turns out tender but stringy. The flavor is wonderful but the texture is consistently like pulled pork and the meat falls apart. Does this happen to you? Is there a way to cook a pork roast (or anything else) so that when you slice it, the meat retains it's shape?
Thanks!
Junko
October 20, 2010 at 8:42 AM
Hi Junko, if you don't want the meat to fall apart, you just need to not cook it as long. I'd suggest making a meat dish on a day you're home to monitor to see how long a particular cut of meat takes to cook through without losing shape in your pot.
Once you know that instead of 6 hours, it's really only 4 or so, you can set the pot to turn to warm until you arrive home on days you're out of the house.
October 20, 2010 at 9:27 AM
Thanks for the advice, Stephanie! I'll try it with a pork roast. I love your blog and it's so great that you respond to my question. Thank you!
Junko
October 20, 2010 at 12:11 PM
This is without a doubt, my favorite!! It is a wonderful meal to come home to after a long cold Oregon Autumn, winter day!!
November 29, 2010 at 7:29 AM
I made this yesterday. Except, I didn't have cranberry juice so I used apple. And didn't have mustard seed so I used the regular stuff in the fridge. Lemon juice instead of real lemons and regular raisins instead of golden.
The verdict? FANTASTIC! I loved it. My family loved it. I'll be making it again since a got a four pack of pork roasts at Costco.
November 2, 2011 at 9:25 PM
I've read that you can soak your cranberries for a day (or more) in apple juice to naturally sweeten them without using the processed sugars out there :)
November 14, 2012 at 7:40 AM
So I have this in the slow cooker right now and my husband says it has a fabulous flavor but is super tough. I bought a boneless pork loin roast (though it looked more like what you'd cut pork chops from). Did I use the wrong cut of meat? Would a shoulder cut/boston butt be better? I read someone made a pulled pork with it and there is no way this thing is shredding like that. Any hints would be greatly appreciated...thinking about throwing it in the pressure cooker as I have guests arriving in 20 minutes! Eek!
November 27, 2012 at 5:33 PM
Hi there, if you have guests on the way, the pressure cooker might be a good idea. With a super lean cut of meat, you need to cook it for a very long time in order for the meat to break down to then re-absorb the cooking liquid. If you don't plan on eating right away, you can slice the meat thinly and then place it back in the slow cooker for 20-30 minutes to help speed along the process.
I'm sorry you had this experience, and I hope this helps a bit! Enjoy your company!
November 27, 2012 at 6:20 PM