Rule the Roast

Winter is beginning to bite and we're craving traditional roast dinners, with supermarkets reporting booming sales of meat joints. Join the trend

by serving mouthwatering roast pork with all the trimmings for

a weekend feast

Look away now if you're veggie or vegan - the tradition of the Sunday lunch with a good slab of meat is definitely still alive and kicking.

While a roast with all the trimmings and lashings of gravy is traditionally a beat-the-cold winter treat, we're all rushing to serve it now despite the unseasonably warm weather.   

Supermarkets such as Sainsbury's are reporting booming sales of joints and all the accompaniments like cabbage and sprouts.

Sales of roasting joints are already up 75% compared to last year,

with sales of beef and pork joints expected to increase by a further 20%.

Sainsbury's beef buyer Rich Squire says: "Even though October's been so warm, shoppers have still started to enjoy all the traditional, tasty food associated with winter.

"We don't normally see

sales of this level until the temperatures are much lower, but it seems our shoppers couldn't wait

any longer."

Ruth Watson, food writer and presenter of TV's The Hotel Inspector, believes our love of

'a roast' will never die.

She says: "However partial we are to food from other cultures - and we are - it's highly unlikely there'll come a time when the Sunday roast doesn't represent the acme of gastronomic pleasure to the vast majority  of Brits.

"It seems the need to consume trencherman slabs of roast meat on Sunday is as firmly embedded in our genetic make-up as buying a poke of chips on a Friday night."

Ruth, whose new book Something For The Weekend features mouth-watering 'big roasts' in a collection of recipes sensibly created to feed at least eight people, says rising meat consumption figures show that "despite the burgeoning number of vegetarians, deep down in our collective soul we remain implacable carnivores".

Make that joint of pork a

lip-smacking treat for family and friends with Ruth's unusual recipe for a Honey And Herb-Roast Loin

Of Pork.

A perfect roast

Britons consume 17kg of beef per person a year, 29kg of chicken, and 7kg of lamb.

Ruth has the following advice to ensure you get it right: "For the perfect roast you should buy your meat from a good butcher; choose a cut that's meant to be roasted; bring the joint to cool room temperature before putting it in the oven; let it rest properly after it comes out; and use a sharp knife to carve it. Easy."

HONEY AND HERB-ROAST LOIN OF PORK

Ask the butcher to bone out the loin, score the rind and leave the joint untied. This pork needs to marinate for 12 to 24 hours. Start roasting

the joint about two hours before you sit down.

4-6 garlic cloves, crushed and finely chopped

2-3 bushy sprigs of fresh thyme, leaves chopped

1 sprig of fresh sage, leaves chopped

2 sprigs of rosemary, leaves chopped

olive oil

2 pinches of ground cloves

about 2.5kg pork loin (boned-out weight)

5-6tbsp runny honey

500ml dry apple juice or medium-dry cider

Combine the garlic and herbs. Working on the flesh side, lightly oil the meat, dust it sparingly with the ground cloves and then season it with ground black pepper. Spread the herb mixture over the meat, using your hands to help distribute the flavourings. Roll the meat up loosely, then leave it to marinate in the fridge for 12 to 24 hours.

Preheat the oven to 210C fan/gas mark 8. Curl the loin into a  fat sausage shape, and tie it up with fine string: start with a loop round

the middle, drawing it tight and knotting it, then move to each end, then fill in the spaces, making a knotted loop every inch or so. Make sure the rind is absolutely dry, smooth it with oil, then rub in plenty of fine sea salt (all of which helps the crackling).

Put the joint in the rack in the roasting tin and cook it for 30 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 160C fan/gas mark 4 and continue to cook for another 40 minutes. Remove the pork and brush it with the honey. Continue to cook the joint for another 45 minutes, pouring the apple juice or cider into the pan halfway through.

Leave the pork to rest in a warm place, draped with a piece of foil or a thick oven cloth, for 15-30 minutes. (If the crackling needs any crisping up, cut it off in one piece, put it on a tray and bung it in a very hot oven or under the grill).