This pork roast tastes and smells like the holidays, savory with the scent of rosemary, cozy with a caramelized crust and warming with black pepper. Even though the marinade has only four ingredients, the finished roast has the wow factor of a restaurant dish. The best part about this centerpiece? You can’t mess it up. And though the accompanying cranberry sauce is optional, it brings a welcome fruity tang and pop of red to the table. The sauce can be made up to a week ahead of time and the pork can be marinated the morning you plan to roast it.

Miso-Marinated Pork Roast
Ingredients:
• 1/2 cup red miso (see tips)
• 1/3 cup granulated or light brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh rosemary, plus 2 sprigs
• 1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
• One 4- to 5-pound bone-in or boneless pork shoulder roast
• 1 large onion, cut into wedges

For the sauce (optional):
• 24 ounces fresh or frozen cranberries (6 cups)
• 1 1/3 cups light brown sugar
• 2 ripe but firm pears, diced
• 8 slices fresh ginger, smashed
• Juice of 2 oranges
• 1 cup dry white wine, such as vinho verde
• Pinch of salt

Directions:
Mix the miso, sugar, minced rosemary and black pepper until well combined. Unfurl the pork if it’s boneless and cut along its natural breaks to butterfly the meat without cutting all the way through. Rub the marinade all over the meat in an even layer.

If needed, roll the pork back into a somewhat cylindrical shape. Use kitchen twine to tie it in 1-inch intervals. Refrigerate in an airtight container for 4 to 8 hours.

If you’re making the sauce, bring all of the ingredients to a boil in a large pot, stirring occasionally. Reduce the heat to medium-high and continue boiling, skimming off and discarding any pink foam that rises to the surface, for 10 to 12 minutes. The liquid should be syrupy and the pears tender. The sauce can be refrigerated in jars or airtight containers for up for up 1 week. You’ll have about 6 cups.

Remove the pork from the refrigerator an hour before you want to start cooking (about 4 1/2 hours before you want to serve it). If the sauce has been refrigerated, let it sit at room temperature as well.

Heat oven to 325 degrees. Wipe off any thick patches of marinade from the pork and place on a roasting pan or sheet pan. Scatter the onion and rosemary sprigs around the meat and pour in 1/4 cup water (or wine or stock).

Cook for 1 hour, then baste with the pan juices. Continue cooking, basting every 30 minutes, until an instant read thermometer registers 165 degrees in the thickest part, about 2 hours longer. Tent with parchment paper when the pork is dark brown.
Let rest on a cutting board for at least 30 minutes. Slice and serve, with the sauce, if you’d like.

Tips:
Red miso, generally made with a higher proportion of soybeans and fermented for a longer period, is strong and savory, making it ideal for meat. If you can find only milder white or yellow miso, which is also sweeter, you can use it instead and reduce the sugar to 1/4 cup.

Pork shoulder, which comes from the upper portion of a pig’s foreleg, is usually split into the fattier top, known as Boston butt, pork butt or just butt, and the lower portion, called the picnic shoulder, blade roast or picnic roast. They all can be labeled pork shoulder and they all work in this recipe.

Total time: 4 3/4 hours, plus 4 hours’ marinating, serves 12-16.

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