Project Pork: The Shoulder

It's been a while since my last Project Pork post! I learned a lot from that experience and I feel a lot more confident in my ability to cook a large hunk of beast flesh. Plus, my sister gave me a probe thermometer for Chrismukkah (my family's blended winter holiday), which helps ease my worries about under/overcooking - I can just set my desired cooking temperature and the thermometer alarm will go off when the meat reaches that temperature. I am still learning about the best place to put the thermometer though, there can be some big variations in temperature especially in cuts like this that have a bone through them.

For this pork shoulder I decided to go with a simple Mark Bittman recipe for classic Puerto Rican pernil. It involves making a paste of onion, garlic, oregano, vinegar, olive oil, and a couple of spices - I used cumin, paprika and chili powder. You just rub the meat with the paste, let it sit for up to 24 hours, and then roast at a low temperature for several hours.

It took about 3.5 hours for this 4-lb shoulder to reach a "safe" temperature of 160F. The savory garlic-herb smell in my apartment was almost unbearable at this point. 

We definitely cut off a few bites and ate them as-is (with plenty of finger-licking), then mixed another portion with barbecue sauce and made some simple tacos with corn tortillas, spinach and plain Greek yogurt.

We have so much leftover pork! We're planning to make an almond butter satay sauce (due to peanut allergies) for tonight's leftovers, and maybe make put some of the rest of it on a pizza, with apples and cheddar. I love how the flavor of the garlic-spice rub is so versatile!


Puerto-Rican Style Roasted Pork Shoulder
Adapted from Mark Bittman

Ingredients:
1 4-to-7-pound pork shoulder

4-6 cloves garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
1 small onion, roughly chopped
1 tablespoon dried oregano (or 2 tablespoons fresh)
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon paprika
1 tablespoon salt
2 teaspoons ground black pepper
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon olive oil

Directions:
Cut off excess (but not all) fat from the meat.
Put all of the remaining ingredients (garlic through olive oil) in a food processor or blender and puree for about 10 seconds. Rub the mixture all over the meat, be generous. Place the meat on a rack on a baking sheet and refrigerate overnight up to 24 hours.
Heat oven to 325F and place meat in a roasting pan. Roast, turning every hour or so until it reaches 160F. Let rest about 15 minutes before cutting into chunks.

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Here are some other pork shoulder recipes that look fantastic:

Beer-braised in a dutch oven at The Kitchn

A wintry recipe with fennel and orange at Leite's Culinaria

And the Pork Queen has an entire blog devoted to pork shoulder!

Apple-Pear Butter

A couple of weeks ago we went out and picked a bunch of apples and pears. They were at varying stages of ripeness, from rock-hard Flemish Beauty pears to the perfectly ripe Bartletts and Gingergold apples shown below. So, with the ripest fruits, I made Apple-Pear Butter! I looked at a dozen different recipes, considering the equipment I planned to use/not use, and my personal preferences for spices and sugar content. I am too scared of canning for now (I want to try it at some point in the future!) so I divided it into three containers, two of which went into the freezer.

I used a total of about 5lbs of fruit (about 3 lbs of Bartlett pears and 2 lbs Gingergold apples), which yielded about 2 1/2 cups of butter.

Here's what I did: peel and core the fruit, then cut it into 1" chunks. Place in a large pot and add 1 cup of apple cider and 1 cup of water. Liquid will not come above the level of the fruit. Simmer, uncovered, until very tender, about 45 minutes.

Put the mixture in a blender or food processor until very smooth. Pass the fruit puree through a sieve back into the pot, in batches. This step alone took me about half an hour, so if you have a food mill, now is the time to use it!

Add 1 cup of brown sugar (you may need more sugar if you are actually canning, to help discourage bacterial growth - please make sure to consult a recipe for this), a cinnamon stick and a lump of peeled fresh ginger. And some ground cardamom (1/2 tsp) as well.

Cook on low for a very very long time, about 2-3 hours, stirring frequently. Better put on some music and get a tasty beverage for this one. When it tastes and looks right, remove the cinnamon and ginger and pour into as many containers as you wish.

This was a lot of work, but the final product is totally worth it. Thick, sweet, almost honey-like. So far I have just been eating it by the spoonful, or on top of yogurt with some of my favorite homemade granola (yes I will share, soon!). But I kind of want to try making some muffins or scones with little dollops of this apple-pear butter inside or on top... I will have to experiment.

Project Pork: The Brisket

I used to be a vegetarian. For almost eight years, from high school through most of my last year of college. Then, there was a day when I just really (really) wanted a BLT. And I got one. And I ate it. It was so good. And although I still eat a lot of vegetarian meals, bacon will always hold a special place in my heart.

So I have a bit of a fondness for various cured pork products. Not all pork products, but a few. Pork brisket is one I had never heard of, but it turns out to be a cut from the the front of the ribs/chest, rather fatty but with some very nice rib meat as well.

Before this week, I had never cooked such a large piece of meat. I've never roasted a chicken, either. So this was definitely a "project."

Step 1. Make a spice rub (proportions for a 2 lb brisket):

• 3 tsp ground cumin
• 2 tsp smoked paprika
• 1 tsp regular paprika
• 1.5 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground pepper
• 2 cloves garlic, minced

 Step 2. Massage your brisket (all sides) with the spice rub:

Step 3. Cover with foil and refrigerate overnight, up to 24 hours (longer is better).
Step 4. Preheat oven to 275-300F (again, wonky oven here). Place your brisket, still covered with foil, in the oven and cook for 3-4 hours until the meat reaches 165F. I flipped this beast over after 2 hours and ended up cooking it for the full 4, and it was closer to 175F by the time I got it out of the oven.

Step 5. Peel off the kind of scary layer of fat. Shred the meat with two forks. Enjoy some of the crispy bits that have developed (can you SEE how much liquid pork fat is in the pan above?)

This was really tender and tasty even plain, but better with your favorite barbecue sauce.

Conclusion: this was a really fun project!