French-Style Pot-Roasted Pork Loin

From America's Test Kitchen Season 13: Meat and Potatoes à la Francaise

Enchaud Perigordine is a fancy name for what’s actually a relatively simple French dish: slow-cooked pork loin. Cooked in the oven in a covered casserole dish with a trotter (pig’s foot) for body and flavor, the roast turns out incredibly moist and flavorful, with a rich jus to accompany it. At least it does when it’s prepared in France. But while pigs in France are bred to have plenty of fat, their American counterparts are lean, which translates to a bland and stringy roast. To improve the flavor and texture of our center-cut loin, we lowered the oven temperature (to 225 degrees) and removed the roast from the oven when it was medium-rare. Searing just three sides of the roast—rather than all four—prevented the bottom of the roast from overcooking due to direct contact with the pot. Butterflying the pork allowed us to salt a maximum amount of surface area for a roast that was thoroughly seasoned throughout. And while we eliminated the hard-to-find trotter, we added butter for richness and a sprinkling of gelatin to lend body to the sauce.

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Pot roast almost always start with a fatty, flavorful cut that turns tender and juicy after hours of cooking. Is it possible to produce the same results from today's lean, bland pork loin?