2010 Cooking Club Week 48: Pulled Pork

ElleEm

Dizzyblonde wrote: »

@ Gloomtastic - pulled pork freezes really well

Would you freeze it in sauce or dry? I have a 3kg shoulder in the oven since 8am and although I could put a fairly large dent in it myself, my boyfriend gets bored of it after the second day, so I should probably freeze some!

Gloomtastic!

ElleEm wrote: »

Would you freeze it in sauce or dry? I have a 3kg shoulder in the oven since 8am and although I could put a fairly large dent in it myself, my boyfriend gets bored of it after the second day, so I should probably freeze some!

I froze it in sauce no problem but I did add more sauce when it thawed!

ElleEm

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

I froze it in sauce no problem but I did add more sauce when it thawed!

Thanks for that.

Dizzyblonde

I freeze it in the sauce.

Edit: I found a new sauce last week - we were having dinner guests and I wanted to do a second sauce option.
This one is delicious. I had no fennel seeds but I added a pinch of 5 spice powder, and now it's my new favourite

youngblood

Making this in the large Aldi slow cooker tomorrow (6L),
Just wondering, what size pork shoulder should I get?
If I get larger than recipe should I just double all ingredients?

Cheers

unkel

I do a 2.5kg shoulder with the bone in. Yeah double the ingredients. The recipe is very forgiving, you really can't go wrong. Cook on low for a very long time. Enjoy!

youngblood

Thanks for that, v excited now.
Hope the actual sauce for the shredding part works, can i adjust according to taste as I'm making it??
I'm not hugely into barbecue (if that makes sense for someone making barbecue pulled pork)

unkel

Of course! I use less vinegar myself in both the cooking liquid and the serving sauce.

Sparks

You can definitely double the ingredients - in fact for the rub you can make it up in bulk and store it, it'll keep for about as long as any spice will keep in the pantry. For the liquid, the critical thing is to have enough to keep the meat mostly submerged during the cooking. If you have to double or triple the recipe, do it. If you find the liquid is evaporating off during the cook (which seems to happen with some of the larger slow cookers), top it off. Doesn't have to be the full recipe liquid for the top-offs, just add some more coke (or apple juice or even water).

The nice thing about this recipe is that the pork is technically very overcooked when it's done; but all the gelatine from the collagen breaking down coats the meat fibres so it tastes wonderfully soft and perfect. So the recipe doesn't have to be finicky - you're already pushing the meat way past where any fast recipe would stop, if you follow me.

And no, you don't have to sauce with barbecue sauce (but before you give up on barbecue sauce completely, remember that there are lots and lots of different barbecue sauces, based on completely different things with utterly different textures, viscosities, appearances and tastes; the stuff we get in squeezy bottles in Tesco here labelled "Barbecue sauce" is generally a pale imitation at best.

But if it really ain't your thing, never mind - you'll have a lot of pulled unsauced pork for a dozen different kinds of meals. (Hint: try mexican stuff, because you've basically made carnitas...)

Gloomtastic!

Another hunk of pork in the fridge smothered in spices and cling film. Roll on Friday night!!!!!

Sparks

2kg sitting in my fridge wrapped in spices, salt and cling film, and a new bottle of liquid smoke (and probably I'll have to get a new larger slow cooker too) waiting for it on friday...

belle1234

I have two questions in relation to this recipe and would appreciate some advice. First off I'd like to make this as one of two options for a family gathering of 25 adults - should I double or triple the recipe? Secondly, I don't have a slow cooker so what temp/how long would you recommend doing this in the oven for? Thanks a million!

bigronnie9

belle1234 wrote: »

I have two questions in relation to this recipe and would appreciate some advice. First off I'd like to make this as one of two options for a family gathering of 25 adults - should I double or triple the recipe? Secondly, I don't have a slow cooker so what temp/how long would you recommend doing this in the oven for? Thanks a million!

No expert here but I know Sparks was asked about cooking in the oven before:

Sparks wrote: »

I wouldn't leave it overnight in the oven Stheno, because it won't be at 100, it'll cycle from 80 to 120 continually, if not over a wider range. You could hike the temperature to 160C and roast for about 5-6 hours until it was falling apart, but it's going to be a lot drier and you'll need a lot more sauce at the end.

Honestly? I'd spend the €15 and get a slow cooker (btw, Tesco are selling a 2 litre model for €21 so they're around if you look).

As for feeding 25, the ingredients double up very well, and id say if you doubled the meat it should do..and if you are doing some thing else with it this should be loads! But it depends how much people will eat... For example people could be happy with one bap/burger bun per person.....Or would you be feeding hounds like me who would eat a handful of them all to myself (especially after a few drinks, its very moreish!)

belle1234

That's great. Yeah I'm doing a lasagna as well but I just wanted to make sure I'd have enough pork! Judging by the response to the recipe it looks like you could never have enough of it!
Now to source a slow cooker . . .

Gloomtastic!

belle1234 wrote: »

That's great. Yeah I'm doing a lasagna as well but I just wanted to make sure I'd have enough pork! Judging by the response to the recipe it looks like you could never have enough of it!
Now to source a slow cooker . . .

I've done this a couple of times in the oven at 140c. I've used a covered roasting tin to keep the moisture in, and left it cooking for up to seven hours.

belle1234

Thank you Gloomtastic. Any idea on how long you'd cook it for it doubling the meat?

Gloomtastic!

belle1234 wrote: »

Thank you Gloomtastic. Any idea on how long you'd cook it for it doubling the meat?

At least five hours. The longer you leave it the better. Good luck!

belle1234

Thanks! Will let you know how I get on - fingers crossed!

belle1234

Any recommendations for the BBQ sauce?

belle1234

Thanks for a great recipe! Did a 3kg collar of pork in a casserole dish in the oven for 10hrs and it worked out great - everyone was raving about it. Will definitely make it again

Dial Hard

belle1234 wrote: »

Any recommendations for the BBQ sauce?

I strain the cooking liquid and reduce it to a nice saucy consistency, then stir in about a dessertspoon of HP barbecue sauce. A) it's such a waste to just ditch all that lovely, aromatic liquid and I find BBQ sauce on its own far too sweet.

Sparks

I always thought the liquid itself had too much fat for my taste (I prefer the vinegar-based BBQ sauces which are anything but sweet), but it really is just personal taste and mine's a bit funny

dibkins

Time for round 2 with this. Is belly ok to use in the slow cooker?

Sparks

Honestly, I think it'd be a waste. And possibly not very good. Belly's got a lot of fat but not a lot of connective tissue. Makes great bacon, is great when cooked on its own, but if you pulled it I think you'd get very little meat, not much gelatine and lots of fat. Doesn't sound nice to me.

youngblood

This recipe is amazing by the way and works a treat, you'll kinda know by the end what sorta sauce you'll enjoy,
I used pork shoulder but never thought to remember the weight, is there a standard weight for pork shoulder?

Reason being I want to make even more the next time I do so will need to order more, bigger weight, 2 shoulders etc?
, totally worth all the effort (isnt really much effort just waiting time)

Sparks

Don't think there's a standard weight, but a whole pork shoulder is *big*. I've never bought more than two kilos at once and that wasn't even a particularly large bit of the shoulder. When you see them loading shoulders into BBQ pits in the US, they're massive - easily twenty to thirty pounds of meat.

dibkins

Sparks wrote: »

Honestly, I think it'd be a waste. And possibly not very good. Belly's got a lot of fat but not a lot of connective tissue. Makes great bacon, is great when cooked on its own, but if you pulled it I think you'd get very little meat, not much gelatine and lots of fat. Doesn't sound nice to me.

Well, i ignored your advice (sorry^^) and proceeded (belly in the freezer to be used up!). Turned out pretty good in my opinion! A little on the dry side maybe. What really helps it along is that i also had the ribs from the belly (i had totally forgotten) so i bunged them in too. The meat just fell off the bone, so i shredded that up and added it to the pulled belly. Nom.

Here is one of the pieces of belly mid pulling.

vicwatson

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

I've done this a couple of times in the oven at 140c. I've used a covered roasting tin to keep the moisture in, and left it cooking for up to seven hours.

Do you mean covered in foil?

I bought a 3kg pork shoulder today and wanted to slow cook it in a fan oven (don't have slow cooker)

Should I cook it at 140c or less for longer, I've no prob cooking it low and slow.

Should I take the fat off it or leave it until cooked? I imagine leave it on.

Tia

Gloomtastic!

vicwatson wrote: »

Do you mean covered in foil?

I bought a 3kg pork shoulder today and wanted to slow cook it in a fan oven (don't have slow cooker)

Should I cook it at 140c or less for longer, I've no prob cooking it low and slow.

Should I take the fat off it or leave it until cooked? I imagine leave it on.

Tia

I've used tin foil (double layers) but also a roasting tin. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Krüger-Roasting-Drip-38-Black/dp/B00008WVSD

What you're doing with the pork is giving it a hot bath over a long period of time to help relax the muscle (meat). You need to keep it covered so the bath doesn't run dry.

Take the skin off and any fat between the skin and the meat, you can turn the skin into crackling, see my recipe a few pages earlier.

vicwatson

^^

So I should put some water in the bottom of the baking tray before "sealing" the top with foil?