This Is Our Most Popular Recipe of All Time...but Why?

Don't tell any of my friends, but whenever I go over to someone's house, the number-one thing I love to do is peek into the refrigerator.

I've always felt that the food a person chooses to stock is a window into that person's soul. (My fridge has bottles and bottles of chardonnay, 1,000 ketchup packets from takeout, and dozens of eggs.) The dishes we cook are telling, too—they're indications of our identities in the kitchen.

As an editor at Food52, I'm always thinking about what home cooks like to eat. And when I'm not spying on the contents of someone else's crisper drawer, I'm often looking to numbers (i.e., page views and clicks) to observe patterns of behavior.

One that's emerged loud and clear over the years is how much you all love this recipe:

Crockpot Brown Sugar & Balsamic–Glazed Pork Tenderloin

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Since its publication in 2013, this simple slow-cooker pork tenderloin with brown sugar and balsamic glaze is the most-popular recipe in Food52 history.

Of our nearly 50,000 recipes, it's had the most page views of all time—not to mention the glowing comments and 100-plus reviews.

Back in 2016, Caroline Lange tracked down its origin story. It's a fun read if you're interested in how recipes get passed down and adapted and tweaked. But if you're just here because you clicked through from a really delicious-looking photo of pork, here's the SparkNotes version she drew up:

The main (and some might say unfortunate) event was when it somehow went from pork loin to pork tenderloin, a cut that's more delicate but also leaner and sans fat cap, making it a dangerous contender for the low-and-slow cook of a Crock-Pot.

Food52's Test Kitchen Director Josh Cohen remembers when he had to cook the dish for its photograph: "The original one?" he asks, when I show him the picture. "The one that didn't taste good?"

"Yes," I say. "The original one."

Here he pauses, as if suppressing a bad dream. "You know when you open up a can of tuna fish and you dump it into a bowl?" he tells me. "Just imagine tasting only the tuna, how dry and crumbly and neutral in flavor it is, without the mayo and lemon juice and salt. That's what it tasted like."

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So then why do people love it so much?

Genius Recipes columnist Kristen Miglore attributes the recipe's success to the brown sugar and balsamic vinegar glaze: "You could put this on anything."

I suspect it also comes down to the white meat of it all. Like with boneless, skinless chicken breasts (one of Google's most-searched food terms), many people just prefer white meat. And in the pork world, tenderloin is as lean as you can get.

But "ultimately, the slow cooker just isn't the best method for cooking this recipe," Lange writes in her research, "especially with as lean a cut as a tenderloin or even a loin."

And so, per Miglore's suggestion one late night at the office, I've taken the uber-popular recipe and repurposed it with boneless pork shoulder. Fatty shoulder, more than lean tenderloin, gets effortlessly tender when slow-cooked like this. In addition to making the recipe totally hands-off, the Crock-Pot is an insurance policy against the meat drying out.

I upped the ante on the glaze, too, adding a little mustard powder to balance out all that sweet and salty.

Whether or not you like it as much as the original, you tell me—or, next time you invite me over, I'll just check your fridge for leftovers.

Slow-Cooker Pork Shoulder With Brown Sugar & Balsamic Glaze

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Ingredients

4	pounds pork shoulder (boneless pork butt)
4	cloves garlic, grated
2	teaspoons ground sage
2	teaspoons kosher salt
	Freshly ground black pepper
4	bay leaves
1/2	cup water
1	cup dark brown sugar
1/2	cup balsamic vinegar
1/4	cup soy sauce
2	tablespoons mustard powder
2	tablespoons cornstarch

4	pounds pork shoulder (boneless pork butt)
4	cloves garlic, grated
2	teaspoons ground sage
2	teaspoons kosher salt
	Freshly ground black pepper
4	bay leaves

1/2	cup water
1	cup dark brown sugar
1/2	cup balsamic vinegar
1/4	cup soy sauce
2	tablespoons mustard powder
2	tablespoons cornstarch

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