Pork St. Tammany

Named for a New Orleans parish, Pork St. Tammany is the kind of grand Creole roast that shows up at Christmas dinner and inspires next-day sandwiches nobody shares. A butterflied pork loin gets filled with a fragrant stuffing of long-grain rice, sauteed mushrooms and peppers, plumped dried apricots, and toasted pecans, then rolled jellyroll-style and draped in bacon.

Soaking the dried apricots in boiling water for 20 minutes softens them enough to chop without bruising. Skip the soak and they stay leathery and hard to spread evenly through the stuffing.

Butterflying the loin (slicing it open like a book, twice) gives you a large flat surface to spread the stuffing before rolling. A uniform thickness across the loin is what gives you even slices with consistent stuffing swirls.

The bacon on top does triple duty: seasoning, basting, and preventing the surface from drying out during the three-hour bake. Uncovering for the last 30 to 40 minutes lets the bacon crisp and the pork surface brown.

325°F (165°C) is deliberate. Higher heat shrinks the roast and squeezes out the stuffing’s moisture; lower heat won’t crisp the bacon. Pull when the thermometer reads 145°F (63°C) internal.

Chef Tips

• Tie with kitchen twine every 2 inches. Anything wider lets the stuffing spill out during roasting.
• Ask your butcher to butterfly the loin if you’re not confident. A clean butterfly is half the battle.
• Let the roast rest 15 to 20 minutes after the 5-minute stand, loosely tented with foil. It slices cleaner and juicier.
• Toast the pecans before adding to the stuffing. Raw nuts lose their character under the long roast.

Variations

• Swap apricots for dried cranberries for a more New England twist.
• Add ½ cup crumbled Andouille sausage for true Louisiana heat.
• Replace pecans with toasted walnuts or sliced almonds for a different nut profile.