Slow Roasting a Pork Shoulder

Pork shoulder is among the least expensive cuts of pork, often cooked for the Southern BBQ dish known as Pulled Pork. Recently, one of my pastured meat suppliers (Roffey Cattle Company) had pork shoulders on sale and I bought 2, intending to cube and grind them to add to my venison for sausage.

At the price, I expected bone-in shoulder cuts, but they came boneless and rolled. They looked so good that I decided to try one in a recipe posted by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall (of The River Cottage Meat Book fame) in the Guardian, for my New Year's Dinner even though the recipe called for a bone-in roast.

HFW says, "This sumptuous dish is based on a recipe by the late Edna Lewis, who specialised in the rib-sticking, soul-feeding dishes of the American South. Brining the pork first, then cooking it slowly before blasting the skin in a hot oven gives you juicy, tender pork, perfect crackling and a rich, savoury sauce - what more could you want for your feast?"

Between starting this process on Dec. 30th, eating it on Jan 1, and now writing about it today, I lost the first two photos due to a computer problem. I know these photos here make the roast look pale and gray, but it was a beautiful crisp, almost caramelized exterior and a pale pink interior... I really need to get a better camera (and learn how to use it)! The photos I lost were of just the raw naked roast, and one in the brine pot. I'm sorry I lost those photos, but the roast was too yummy and fork-tender not to post it anyway!

The recipe calls for brining 24 hours, but my previous experience with brining meats told me to only brine mine for 12 hours based on the smaller weight, lest it become too salty. It was perfect!

Here's the recipe and instructions. His instructions are in italics and my notes and changes are just plain text. I have a kitchen scale that measures in grams, but if you don't, there's a good conversion tool here.

For the brine
40 grams flaky sea salt per litre (about a quart) of water
60g demerara sugar (brown sugar will suffice, but I happened to have some demerara on hand)
6 juniper berries, lightly crushed
1 tsp white peppercorns
A couple of cloves
1-2 dried chillies or 1 tsp chili flakes
A couple of bay leaves

Note: I added the entire amounts of brine ingredients per quart of water, not just the salt, based on my previous brine experiences. It took 3 quarts of brine to cover my meat, so I had 120g salt (half a cup); 180g sugar (3/4 cup); 18 crushed juniper berries (they are soft and crush with your fingernails unless they are old and dried out), 1 Tbs white peppercorns, 6 cloves, 3 small dried chillies and 6 bay leaves.

Put the ingredients for the brine in a large pan and warm gently over a low heat, stirring, until the sugar and salt dissolve. Remove from the heat, cool, then chill. Put the pork in a big clean plastic bucket or tub, add brine to cover and leave in a cold place for 24 hours. (Actually, I put the pork in my large stainless soup pot to measure how many quarts of water I needed to cover it completely, and then removed the pork back to the refrigerator while I prepared the brine. I chilled the covered brine in the pot outside in the snow!)

1 bone-in pork shoulder
½ tsp each salt and black pepper
2 tsp thyme leaves, chopped
3 garlic cloves, peeled and thinly sliced lengthways
12 bay leaves
2 onions, peeled and thickly sliced
2 carrots, peeled and quartered lengthways
1 bottle red wine (or port)
A good slug of double cream
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 300ºF. Remove the meat from the brine, rinse and pat dry. Using a small, sharp knife, cut 12 evenly spaced slits into the skin about 2cm wide and 3cm deep. Mix together the salt, pepper and thyme, and spoon a little into each slit, followed by a sliver of garlic and a bay leaf - let the bay stick out a bit so you can remove it easily later. Sprinkle any remaining seasoning over the pork. (Note: I only inserted the garlic slivers and bay leaf pieces; the salt, pepper and thyme mix was just rubbed into the surface of the pork.

Scatter the onions and carrots in the base of a roasting tin and put the pork on top, skin-side up. Pour in the wine, lay a piece of greaseproof paper over the pork, then seal very tightly with two layers of foil. Cook for four to five hours, until the meat is spoonably tender. Remove from the oven and up the heat to 425ºF. (Mine was small and cooked 3½ hours to reach the safe 160ºF on my meat thermometer.)

Remove and discard the bay leaves, then cut the skin away from the meat, and cover meat to keep warm. Strain the pan juices into a saucepan, pressing on the veg to extract as much liquid as possible. Skim off most of the fat. Slice the skin into thick strips, place on an oven tray and roast until puffed up, crisp and golden, 10-13 minutes.

To make the sauce, simmer the pan juices until reduced by half, stir in the cream and heat through. Roughly carve the meat, and serve with the sauce and crackling on the side.

I browned my roast first, although it was not listed in the recipe... and my pan would only hold about half the bottle of red wine. The recipe called for roasting at 300ºF but I did mine at 275º-280ºF. I also had no skin on my roast to cut off to crisp (after roasting). Nor did I reduce the pan juices or add cream to make a gravy. I preferred it just au jus!

The next day I sliced the remainder of the roast (which was still slightly pink in the center although cooked to 'done'), and reheated the slices in the au jus for dinner. The rest became another dinner and later sandwiches, so this 3 pound (before cooking) roast made 6 generous meals for me.

I must admit this was probably the tastiest and most tender pork roast I have made in years. I will certainly make it again. YUM!

Turkey on the Smoker/Grill

Out of necessity (broken oven) I cooked my heritage turkey on my almost-never-used 18" diameter smoker-grill. Good thing it was a small bird! I had lots of fear and trepidation about doing it, but that was my only choice unless I wanted to fry it in a skillet. My old gas grill bit the dust several years ago and it didn't seem reasonable on my limited income to buy another one, or a turkey deep-fryer. This smoker came new in a box, but cheap from a yard sale several years ago, and only my brother has used it when he visits... for grilled steaks and oysters steamed in their shells.

Thankfully, I found directions for cooking a turkey in it online. My small turkey had been brined several hours the day before, and then rinsed and refrigerated overnight. I had no charcoal starter since I hate the stuff and the taste it imparts to food, so I had a hard time getting a fire going. (I bought one of those chimneys to start charcoal last year but have no idea where I put it!) The charcoal I used is pure hardwood charcoal, not briquettes made chemicals and paraffin as a binder. I burned the bag as part of the starter so I can't tell you who made it.

Turkey went on when the temp indicator in the domed top said "Ideal". The stainless steel pan under the turkey was to catch the drippings, but that didn't happen until later. I was too clueless to take the smoker body off and notice the charcoal forms an ash covering that kept the fire temperature low. Had I noticed sooner, the bird would have cooked sooner/faster, and had more drippings from the fat in the skin and around the cavities!

After 2-3 hours, it was finally beginning to show a rise in the internal temperature of the bird! Shaking the coals to cause the ash to fall off helped increase the cooking temperature a lot!

Finally, after dark (I got a late start), the bird was done. It was very moist and juicy, and exceptionally tasty, like a free-range heritage turkey should be! Now I won't have to cook much for my Christmas  Dinner... lots of turkey, apple-sausage dressing, and half the giblet gravy makings in the freezer!

Would I cook a turkey on the smoker-grill again? Yes, now that I have tried it once!! I might even smoke it the next time... I had soaked some apple chips to add flavored smoke, but didn't use them after all. No particular reason, though... I just didn't. The turkey had no smoky taste, because the charcoal didn't put off much smoke and I didn't add any moist chips on the coals to make smoke.

Turkey Brine:

I used the Chez Panisse recipe, but cut the garlic by 3/4, the salt by 1/2 and added some fresh sliced ginger. I also cut the time to about 6 hours since my bird weighed only 7 pounds.

Chez Panisse Turkey Brine
2 1/2 gallons cold water (I only needed 2 gallons to cover my bird)
2 cups kosher salt (I used 1 cup)
1 cup sugar (I used brown sugar)
2 bay leaves, torn into pieces
1 bunch fresh thyme, or 4 tablespoons dried ( (I used fresh)
1 whole head of garlic, cloves separated and peeled (I used 4 small cloves)
5 whole allspice berries, crushed
4 juniper berries, smashed
(I added about a tablespoon or more of fresh sliced ginger)

Instructions
Place the water in a large non-reactive pot that can easily hold the liquid and the turkey. Add all the ingredients and stir for a minute or two until the sugar and salt dissolve.

Put the turkey into the brine and refrigerate for 24 hours. (I brined my bird only about 6 hours because it was small) If the turkey floats to the top, weight it down with a plate and cans to keep it completely submerged in the brine.

Note: You may halve or double the recipe. The important thing is to prepare enough brine to cover the turkey completely. Also note that the brine may make pan drippings too salty for gravy.