Pork Roast Is Even Better When You Throw This Into The Mix

A pork roast can be a lot of things. A bit of extra butchery can create a showstopping crown roast, or you can pop a loin in the oven with little more than a few herbs and spices and carve up a feast. Whichever way you slice it, apples are the ideal pork roast companion every time.

As mild as pork can be in lean cases, roasts, which are often fattier, typically end up rich, a little salty, and packed with inimitable porcine flavor. Apples' sweet, often lightly tart quality cuts through all that savory salinity to brighten up the whole dish, regardless of your roast approach. Just avoid either extremes on apples' sweet-to-sour continuum; Honeycrisps, which are great for snacking, have just enough sweetness and glancing pucker to be lovely with your pork roast.

Sweet and salty are broadly appealing sensations across culinary categories. One may associate the elements more with snacks and candies, such as chocolate-covered pretzels or peanut butter cups, but the combination also has tons of applications at dinnertime. Pork and apples are actually among the most classic examples — just look to the iconic roast suckling pig with an apple in its mouth to recall how famed the pairing really is. You can create a similar effect (even without preparing an entire animal from nose to tail) in your own kitchen.

Just like the varied pork cuts you can choose from and the many pork roast approaches you can take, so, too, are there tons of ways to incorporate apples. You might like them mingling with a pork shoulder in the slow cooker; follow your favorite recipe and simply add a few handfuls of peeled apple wedges to the mix in that case. The apples soften so you can cut them with a fork when it's all finished. You can take a similar approach if you braise your pork roast in the oven: peel, core, and cut the apples, then add them to the pot.

In both cases, the apples turn into a no-fuss side that seems more intentional than the onion quarters and carrot chunks you might more typically include. Also, consider adding a few shakes of cinnamon if your pork roast recipe doesn't already include it; the spice goes as nicely with the fruit as the fruit goes with the protein. Apples are rather forgiving, and don't need a ton of attention to impart pork with their lovely flavor, however you plan to use them.