Pulled Pork – Oven Version

A lot of times, it is thanks to “accidents” that we learn something new. In my case, I was making banana bread (sorry, no post on that one, it was something that I thought on doing on the spot) and, at the end, by mistake, I did not turn off the oven completely. (I did not realize this until the following night). In a way, I am ashamed as one of the first lessons I learned from my mother was to NEVER walk away from a heat source… Sure, it was barely “on” and the heating element of the oven was just warm but a mistake is a mistake. Of course, that also taught me I could use it to slow roast something…

I have mentioned previously my love of pork so it was almost no brainer, out of all meats, I would use pork in first try. Yes, first time doing this, not to mention there is almost no recipe in the straight sense of the word! So, first the ingredients…

• A pork butt (I used ~1.1Kg piece, shank side)
• Sugar
• Salt
• Paprika and other spices

Despite it is called “butt”, it is actually a shoulder…

First, I prepared a brine by heating some water to dissolve the salt and sugar. I did not really bring it to a boil, just warm enough to dissolve them. Notice I did not listed exactly how much – when it comes to cooking, sometimes, I don’t really measure things. If I have to guess, I would say about 2/3 cup of sugar and 1/3 cup of salt. Once it has been dissolved, I let the solution cool (we are not trying to poach the pork here), in my case, by adding ice water/ice cubes. Once it is cool, place the butt, cover and brine for a couple of hours in the fridge (I did that for about 6 hours).

When you “ready”, pre-heat the oven at 250F (no typo here, that’s 250F). Take the butt out and pat it dry. Mix your spices together and rub the butt. In my case, I only used paprika (again, I was testing) but I should have used also cumin among other spices. Oh, well, I have an excuse for “next” time! Once done, wrap the butt in foil. In my case, I used an aluminum pouch.

Oh, in the case you did not notice, it was bone-in and skin-on

The wrap/pouch was then placed in a roasting pan. This is important, as fat/juices might drip out of the warp/bag during cooking… Anyway, put it inside the oven and drop the temperature around 200F~210F. Yes, 200F! And for how long? Well, as long as you want! In my case, I cooked it overnight (from ~10:00 p.m. to ~8:00 a.m.). Considering it is winter and I live in a one bedroom apartment, it also kept that area “warm”! Hehehehe.

After I took it out, I let it rest for a moment. Though I was sure steam was not a problem, I wanted to play safe anyway. You could easily see from the picture above the bone was slightly “burned”. Oh, since there was some liquid inside the pouch, that meant no crackling (not that I was expecting it, considering it was cooked at a low temperature).

It was almost impossible to remove it as a single piece so I took them out by sections. I took the skin out also; however, it was not cut into pieces or “pulled”. And, that’s what I ended up with!

As for the liquid in the pouch…

I saved it and let it cool. Then, I put it in the fridge so the fat could be separated from the rest (which turns into a jelly-like consistency). I scrapped the fat and use the rest as sauce. Having said that, what is some pulled pork good with? How about a sandwich?

Using focaccia ($2) from La Grotta Del Formaggio

Hmmmmmm….!!!! Now, there is something that MUST be mentioned: I will NOT compare this to BBQ. After all, it was just slow cooked and not even smoked (among a lot of other things). But, for me, it was a reasonable compromise. Next time, I might try adding some liquid smoke, hehehehe.

Technical note: other than the second picture, other pictures were taken using the 50mm f/1.8D AF. As you can see, I still have a lot to learn…

Tagged under: Home Cooking • Pork • Slow Roast