I made the brined roast rack of pork in the Bouchon cookbook this weekend. In the end, it was really good, but something was wrong with the timing.

Recipe calls for 4 1/2 lb roast. Mine was just a bit over 5lb.

Recipe says let roast sit at room temp for 1 hour. Preheat oven to 350. Sear roast. Put in oven and lower temp to 325. Roast for 15 mins. Baste. Roast another 15 mins. Take temp. Should be 135.

I wanted to go for 140-145 (just a personal taste thing). I used convection because I have had really good results with Keller's roast chicken using it. I was surprised (and my schedule was thrown off quite a bit) that it took about an hour and a half to get the roast to that temperature.

So I have been scratching my head. Where did I go wrong?

I think the recipe is wrong. I would find it pretty amazing to get 4.5 to 5 pounds of meat to an internal temp of 140F in just 30 minutes after searing. But hey, that is why they have thermometers!

As I read the recipe, you're trying to get a five pound roast up to temperature in 30 minutes (plus searing time). That's wildly optimistic, even if the pork got to room temperature in the hour it was out, which it almost certainly did not.

ETA: Like Mike sez.

Where can you get a rack of pork around here?

Union Meat in Eastern Market, for one option.

I reviewed the recipe and it sounds like you did everything except tying the "eye" for a more compact piece of meat. Or maybe you did tie it? Could that make so much of a difference that it took your roast over 2x the amount of time as prescribed? Doesn't make sense to me.
Is Keller's pork cooked more before it goes into the oven because he sears it in a pan which is stoked by heat unobtainable by cooktops in most residential kitchens?

I got mine at the Organic Butcher in McLean. You can also get at at Whole Foods. The Organic Butcher has a larger, fattier cut. Both will tie and/or french the rack for you. You should call ahead if you go that route.

Thanks for the responses. My sense was that the recipe was way off.......


I tied it. Thanks for reviewing the recipe. I read it and reread it and kept thinking I was missing something.....

Whole Foods or Balduccis, for sure. Dean and Deluca probably, but you'd have to sell an internal organ in order to afford it.

That recipe seems way off. Even with convection there's no way 30 minutes would cook it to 135. I wonder if it's been corrected in more recent editions?

A rack of pork to 135, even using a low moisture pork like Neiman Ranch (WFM) will take 12-14 minutes a pound. hats at least an hour. With a more traditional pork, I would guess 15-18 minutes a poiund so for 5 lbs, it would be 75 to 90 minutes or what you found.

By the way, once you get past a 5 lb rack, the cooking time does not differ as the convection of heat from the end slices only goes in 3 inches. Once your roast is much longer than 6-8" the cooking time does not grow any longer.