Food Gold: Greg + Darin's Cider Pork Shoulder with Dippin' Sauce

Posted on Apr 7th, 2010 in Food Gold by Mr. Goldbar

For this week’s FOOD GOLD we recruited Greg and Darin from Finger On The Pulse to hip us to the secrets of brining and roasting a pork shoulder. Timely!

We are always throwing dinner parties and we end inviting too many people. We try to make sure that we can feed everyone and have been getting into roasts and other large pieces of meat that can serve the hungry masses. This is the recipe for our pork shoulder. Its pretty tasty if we do say so ourselves.

Please note before going in that THIS IS A TWO DAY JOB. The first day is for brining your pork and the second is for slowwww roastin’.

1. Purchase 8 – 10 lbs pork shoulder which you can find at any local butcher (buy local! it’s better for you and supports community farmers)

2. Slice quarter inch hash marks on skin of pork, make sure not to pierce the meat. This will allow the brine (see below) to seep in.

3. Make a brine from the ingredients below and submerge the should for at least 12 hours before you cook, but the longer the better.

BRINE

6 cups warm water
2 cups dark brown sugar
2 cups kosher salt
1/2 cup crush black pepper
1/2 cup full black pepper corns

4. After a day or so, remove pork shoulder from brine and place on paper towels. Meat should be relatively dry.

5. Pre-heat oven to 300 degrees. Once your oven is hot, it’s time to cook some apples and add cider.

APPLES, BUTTER, CIDER

1 stick butter

3 lbs Macintosh Apples, cut into quarters, cores removed

1.5-2 liters Apple Cider

6. In a roasting pan or wide pot,  melt 1 stick of butter and 3 lbs of Macintosh Apples cut in quarters. Cook over medium heat until apples are soft. After that, push them to the side of the pan.

7. Place pork in the hot pan and sear ALL sides (that’s 6 total, the 4 sides and the ends). Make sure each side has a nice BROWWWWN color before turning to next side. This will be a little tricky since the piece of meat is big but show a little commitment and get a little  messy. After you have browned all the sides, place pork in pan, skin side up. This is so the fat will drip down over the meat as it cooks, which will enhance the flavor

8. Fill pan with 1.5 – 2 liters of apple cider until the cider reaches up the side of the pork 1 to 1 1/2 inches.

9. Cover pan and place in 300 degree (aka slow) oven. Be sure to pull from oven every hour and baste (which is just taking the liquid in the pan and pouring it over the top of the meat). Cook low and slowwwwww for 7-8 hours. After that, it’s time to make the DIPPIN’ SAUCE.

DIPPIN’ SAUCE

10. Remove pork from roasting pan and set aside covered in foil to keep warm.

11. Pour contents of roasting pan  into blender and blend until smooth.

12.  Reduce pork liquid on a medium high heat to 1/2 to 1/4 of its original volume. Be sure to adjust for seasoning and try to skim any fat off the surface if the pork liquid looks too oily. You will know when something looks fatty in a good way versus fatty in a bad way.

13. Slice your pork on up, add dipping sauce and ENJOY!