This is a great dish to have on a cold fall or winter night and comes together quickly thanks to the help of the Instant Pot.
This is a reworking of a recipe from one of the first issues of Savuer magazine. I made the original recipe, Pork Loin with Apples, Cider, and Calvados back in 1996 when the magazine first came out. When new owners took over and Savuer became part of Bonnier, the recipe was republished and I made it again. Why did I wait so long between times of making it? Well, one of the ingredients, Calvados, was hard if not impossible to find. But guess what? Regular, decent brandy can be used instead, after all, Calvados IS Franch brandy.
What You Need to Make Pork Loin with Apples and Brandy
As I said above, if you cannot get Calvados, feel free to use a brandy you like. If the brandy is an apple brandy, all the better. When I recently made this, I had a bottle of brandy for making fruit cake, so I used that. Christian Brothers make an apple brandy that’s usually available at the supermarket that isn’t too bad.
The other ingredient you need is hard apple cider. It’s seasonal and only appears in the fall and winter. Stella Artois makes hard cider that I really like. It’s very refreshing, not very sweet, and doesn’t get you looped.
Don’t try to substitute plain apple cider because it is too sweet. There is no concern about alcohol in this dish. Both the brandy and hard cider are cooked out only leaving flavor. However, if you are an alcoholic or guests are, it is better to stay away from this recipe. Just put it on the DO NOT MAKE list and leave it at that.
What to Serve With This Dish
This goes very well with roasted red potatoes. I make them in my air fryer about 20 minutes before serving time. The other thing that goes very well with this is cabbage. You can saute cabbage with a little ghee or you could make Red Cabbage with Wine and Apples or White Cabbage with White Wine. Since you might a lot of apples, Baked Julia Apples would make a great dessert.
Email Me the Recipe
Pork Loin With Apples and Cider in the Instant Pot
Equipment
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Ingredients
- 2 pounds Pork Loin Roast
- 1 tablespoon Flour
- 1 tablespoon Ghee
- ½ Onion, chopped
- 1 Garlic Clove, chopped
- 1 tablespoon Rosemary, fresh
- 1 Apple, peeled and cored
- 12 ounces Hard cider
- ¼ cup brandy
Instructions
- Mise en place.
- Trim roast of excess fat.
- Chop rosemary, onion, and garlic. Core and quarter apples.
- Flour the pork to assist browning.
- Put ghee in a dutch oven and let it melt. Put the floured roast in the dutch oven.
- Let it brown well on both sides.
- Remove the roast from the dutch oven and put it in the inner pot of the Instant Pot.
- In the dutch oven, saute the onion, apple, garlic, and rosemary together. Add the brandy and deglaze the pan. Set aside.
- Pour the bottle of cider into the inner pot of the Instant Pot. Put the inner pot in the outer pot, close it, adjust the valve, and put it on Pressure for 35 minutes. Natural release for 10 minutes and quick release after.
- Put the dutch oven on low heat and let it simmer until the liquid is reduced by half.
- Put the roast in the dutch oven accompanied by the juice in the Instant Pot.
- Slice the roast and arrange it on a serving plate with the apples and onions on top, pour the juice overall.
