[monicaqu]

I am trying a Crown Pork Roast for Christmas dinner this year. The recipe has a stuffing to accompany the roast and calls for ground pork but not cooked. I have always cooked the pork in stuffing recipes I've made before, is this ok? Sorry if this is a dumb question but I have never used raw pork in a stuffing recipe. Thanks for your help.
Obviously New.

[Suzanne]

There's never a dumb question here -- especially when it has to do with food safety!

Raw pork in a stuffing just means that you will have to cook the whole roast long enough for the stuffing to cook thoroughly. An instant-read thermometer is really helpful here, to check that the stuffing has reached at least 160 degrees F. It might mean that the roast itself is cooked a little more than you might like, though. Cook the roast for the time indicated in the recipe, then check the stuffing (and the meat) with an instant-read; if it's way below 160 you should leave the roast in longer. But if it's pretty close (say, 155), you can probably take it out because the stuffing will continue to cook ("carryover cooking") as the roast rests before you carve it.

When I was in culinary school, one of the dishes I made for the first time was a stuffed crown roast of pork, with raw pork in the stuffing. It came out of the oven looking beautiful -- but the filling was still mostly raw. If that had been at home and I was carving at the table, I would have whisked the whole thing back into the kitchen, scooped the stuffing into a microwave-safe baking dish and nuked it until it was thoroughly cooked. Just a thought in case you have the same problem.