Foolproof Slow Roasted Pork Shoulder Recipes

SLOW-ROASTED PORK SHOULDER

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 275 degrees F.
• In a food processor, combine the peppercorns, garlic, and cloves and puree. While the motor is running, drizzle in the oil until a paste is formed. Using a rubber spatula, scrape the garlic paste into a small bowl.
• Place the pork butt on a work surface and season all over generously with salt. Rub all over with the garlic paste. Place in an oven-safe roasting bag and close with a twist tie. Place in a large roasting pan, and cook until tender, about 5 hours.
• Remove roast from the oven. Slip the oven-roasting bag off the meat and discard. Transfer the cooking liquid to a medium saucepan. Skim the fat from the cooking liquid with a ladle or de-greaser. Bring to a boil, lower the heat, and simmer to thicken the juices slightly.
• Raise the oven to 400 degrees F. Return the pork, in the roasting pan, to the oven. Continue roasting, basting frequently with the simmering cooking liquid, until well-browned, about 30 minutes. If there is any cooking liquid left, pour it over the pork.
• Remove pork from the oven and let it rest at room temperature for 10 minutes. With the pork drippings you may make a vinegar sauce using this formula: for every 1/2 cup of drippings, whisk with 3 tablespoons vinegar and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Either carve the pork into thin slices, or, using 2 forks, pull into small pieces. Serve with the vinegar sauce on the side.

6-HOUR SLOW-ROASTED PORK SHOULDER

Steps:

• Remove the pork from the fridge for 1 hour before you want to cook it, to let it come up to room temperature.
• Preheat the oven to 220°C/425°F/gas 7.
• Place the pork on a clean work surface, skin-side up. Get yourself a small sharp knife and make scores about 1cm apart through the skin into the fat, but not so deep that you cut into the meat. If the joint is tied, try not to cut through the string.
• Rub sea salt right into all the scores you've just made, pulling the skin apart a little if you need to. Brush any excess salt off the surface then turn it over. Season the underside of the meat with a few pinches of salt and black pepper.
• Place the pork, skin-side up, in a roasting tray and roast for 30 minutes, or until the skin has started to puff up and you can see it turning into crackling. At this point, turn the heat down to 170°C/325°F/gas 3, cover the pork snugly with a double layer of tin foil, pop back in the oven and roast for a further 4½ hours.
• Meanwhile, halve the onions, carrots and celery, and break the garlic up into cloves (there's no need to peel them).
• Remove the pork from the oven, take off the foil, and baste the meat with the fat in the bottom of the tray. Carefully transfer to a board, then skim all but 2 tablespoons of excess fat from the tray into a jar, and pop in the fridge for tasty cooking another day.
• Add all the veg, garlic and bay leaves to the tray and stir them into the fat. Place the pork back on top of everything and place back in the oven without the foil to roast for 1 further hour, or until meltingly soft and tender.
• Carefully move the meat to a serving dish, cover again with tin foil and leave to rest while you make the gravy. Spoon away any fat in the tray, then add the stock (or replace with water, if you prefer) and place the tray on the hob.
• Bring to the boil and simmer for a few minutes, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon to scrape up all those lovely sticky tasty bits from the bottom of the tray.
• When you've got a nice, dark gravy, pour it through a sieve into jug using your spoon to really push all the goodness of the veg through the sieve. Season to taste, if needed.
• Serve the pork and crackling with the jug of gravy and all the trimmings - a dollop of apple sauce will finish this off perfectly.

ULTRA-CRISPY SLOW-ROASTED PORK SHOULDER RECIPE

Steps:

• Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat oven to 250°F (121°C).

SLOW-ROAST PORK SHOULDER

Steps:

• In a small bowl, mix the treacle, cider vinegar, paprika, cumin, mustard powder and chilli powder until smooth. Using a sharp knife, make deep slashes in the skin of the pork shoulder to cut through the skin and fat layer, but not the meat. Place the joint, skin-side down, in a large dish and rub the spice paste into the meat (not the fat). Turn skin-side, cover tightly with cling film and put in the fridge overnight, or for 24 hrs to give the pork maximum flavour.
• Heat oven to 150C/130C fan/gas 2. Transfer the pork, skin-side up, to a deep roasting tin, rub 1 tbsp sea salt onto the skin and pour 500ml water into the bottom of the roasting tin. Cover tightly with foil and roast in the oven for 5 hrs.
• Remove the foil, turn up the oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6 and cook for a further 1 hr 30 mins or until the pork is very tender and the skin has turned to crispy crackling.
• Once the pork is ready, take it out of the roasting tin, cover with foil and leave to rest. Pour the juices from the roasting tin into a jug and leave to separate. Pour off the fat layer and transfer the remaining juices to a large sauté pan. Simmer over a high heat, stirring, until reduced to a rich gravy.
• Once rested, cut the pork into pieces - it should pull apart with very little effort - and break the crackling into shards. Serve the pork and crackling with the gravy poured over and mustard mash, honey-roasted carrots and quick pickled red cabbage on the side (see goes well with below).

MEAL PREP SLOW-ROASTED PORK SHOULDER

Steps:

• Put a large ovenproof Dutch oven, without the lid, into the oven and preheat to 425 degrees F.
• Meanwhile, rub the pork all over with 2 tablespoons salt and 1 teaspoon pepper.
• Once the oven is preheated, carefully remove the Dutch oven and add the pork to it fat-side down. Roast until golden all over, 45 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 300 degrees F and flip the pork so it is fat-side up. Continue to roast until the internal temperature is about 175 degrees F, about 3 hours. Cover the pot with the lid and continue to cook until the internal temperature is 195 to 200 degrees F, about another 30 minutes. Remove the pot from the oven, uncover and let rest until the meat is cool enough to handle, about 30 minutes.
• Transfer the pork to a cutting board. Skim off the fat from the liquid at the bottom of the pot with a spoon or ladle and discard it. Reserve the liquid for re-warming the meat.
• Pull the meat from the bone and discard it. The part of the meat that was in the bottom of the pot and cooks in the liquid is perfect for shredding with two forks. The top part that roasts for most of the cooking time should be sliced in to 1/2-inch pieces for browning in other recipes Refrigerate in airtight containers for up to 5 days.

FOOLPROOF SLOW-ROASTED PORK SHOULDER

Steps:

• Gather the ingredients.
• Preheat the oven to 500 F. Mix all of the spice rub ingredients together in a small bowl to form a paste.
• Use a basting brush or spoon to coat the roast. (You might have some left over, depending on the size of your roast.)
• Place the seasoned pork shoulder on a rack in a roasting pan and transfer it to the oven.
• Roast for 20 minutes. Lower the heat to 250 F and cook until your probe thermometer reads 140 F, which will take another hour or so. The exterior of the roast should be a beautiful brown color.
• Remove the roast from the oven, cover it loosely with foil, and let it rest for 15 minutes, during which time the temperature will continue to rise until it reaches the target temperature of 145 F.
• Slice, serve, and enjoy.

EASY ROAST PORK SHOULDER

Steps:

• Heat the oven to 240C/220C fan/gas 9. Remove any packaging from the pork, retaining the string, and pat dry with kitchen paper - you want the skin to be as dry as possible. Score deep cuts into the skin in a diamond pattern using a sharp knife (you want to cut into the fat). If the skin is already scored, make sure each cut is dry and can be easily opened. Rub the oil into the skin, rubbing it well into each cut, then sprinkle the salt over in an even layer, rubbing this into the cuts, too.
• Scatter the onion slices over the base of a large roasting tin and sit the pork joint on top. Roast for 20-30 mins, or until the skin starts to blister and bubble. Put the kettle on to boil.
• Pour half a kettle of boiling water around the joint to cover the base of the tin, ensuring it doesn't drip onto the skin. Reduce the oven temperature to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Roast for another 2 hrs 30 mins, or until the meat under the skin is very tender when pressed. There's a lot of fat in pork shoulder, so cooking at a low temperature this way ensures the meat doesn't dry out - if needed, it can cook for up to 3 hrs.
• Turn the oven back up to 220C/220C fan/gas 7 and continue to roast the pork for 20-25 mins until the skin is very crisp and has started to harden - it should feel brittle when tapped with a knife. If needed, cook for 10 mins more to achieve this. Remove the pork from the oven and rest for 20 mins in the tin, loosely covering with foil. Remove the crackling in large pieces, then break into smaller chunks. Carve the meat and serve alongside the crackling and your favourite sides.