The American Favorites section is where we have placed recipes for dishes that have become American favorites; these recipes are for foods that are enjoyed by many people throughout this great country of ours. In this particular section, I won't assign a specific part of the country as being the origin of the recipe.
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STUFFING
3 T butter ½ pound well-seasoned sausage meat
¾ c finely chopped onion ½ c finely chopped parsley
¼ c finely chopped celery ½ tsp sage
½ c peeled, cored and coarsely 1½ tsp salt
diced tart apples Freshly ground black pepper
½ c fresh bread crumbs
1 pound ground pork (the crown A crown roast of pork, consisting
roast trimmings plus extra of 22 chops and weighing 8 to 9
pork if necessary) pounds
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Preheat the oven to 350°. For the stuffing, melt the butter over moderate
heat in an 8- to 10-inch skillet. When the foam subsides, add the onion and
cook, stirring frequently, for about 5 minutes, then add the celery and
apples. Cook without browning about 5 minutes longer. Scrape the contents of
the pan into a large mixing bowl. Add the bread crumbs, ground pork, sausage
meat, parsley, sage, and a few grindings of black pepper. With a large spoon,
mix all the ingredients gently but thoroughly together. Do not taste the
uncooked stuffing, for it contains raw pork; instead, fry a small ball of
the stuffing in the skillet. Then season the rest of the mixture with more
salt and pepper if necessary.Fill the center of the crown with the stuffing, mounding it slightly. Cover it with a round of foil and wrap the ends of the chop bones in strips of foil to prevent them from charring and snapping off. Place the crown on a rack in a shallow roasting pan just about large enough to hold it comfortably, and roast it in the center of the oven, undisturbed, for about 3 hours, or until a meat thermometer, if you have used one, reads 170° to 175°. One half hour before the pork is done, remove the circle of foil from the top of the stuffing to allow the top to brown.
Carefully transfer the crown to a large, heated, circular platter, strip the foil from the ends of the chops and replace it with paper frills. Let the crown rest for about 10 minutes before carving and serving.
To carve the pork, insert a large fork in the side of the crown to steady it and, with a large, sharp knife, cut down through each rib to detach the chops. Two chops per person is a customary portion accompanied by a generous serving of the stuffing. Buttered peas would make a fine and colorful accompaniment. Serves 10 to 12.
