Tag Archives: boston butt

Roasted Pork Shoulder with Winter Spices

Posted on January 8, 2013 by | 11 Comments

Modified from The Splendid Table

Pork Shoulder Roast

The traditional menu for New Year’s Day here in the Southeastern United States is pork, black-eyed peas, and greens.  As the saying goes, “Eat poor on New Year’s and eat fat the rest of the year.”  These foods are supposed to bring you prosperity in the coming year  – the greens symbolize money and the peas symbolize coins.  I have no idea what the pork is supposed to bring – but there is another saying that might be relevant:  “Eating high on the hog.” This expression may have originated due to the belief that the cuts of meat “higher on the hog” were better or more extravagant, but it has come to exemplify that one is successful and living well.

The pork shoulder (aka Boston butt) is not a cut “high on the hog”, but I personally favor the richer tasting, less lean cuts of pork.  A pork loin roast is delicious, if you brine it and watch it carefully to keep it from being overdone, dry, and tough.  The pork shoulder, on the other hand, is nicely marbled with fat and you have to make a real effort to overcook it.

We usually make pulled pork from a pork shoulder – this is the first time I have made a roast with it.  You still need to slow cook it to at least 185F so that the intramuscular fat and collagen have a chance to break down, making the roast tender and moist.  I was going to cook it on the Big Green Egg, but there was a steady rain on New Year’s Day so into the oven it went.  On the plus side, the house smelled fabulous all day!

This roast does not have much hands-on time, but it does take some planning due to the 2-3 day marinade in the spices.  Also, if you can freshly grind your spices, please do so for the best taste.

Ingredients:

Marinade:

  • 3-4 pound boneless pork shoulder (Boston butt)
  • 1 teaspoon ground cloves
  • 1 teaspoon ground allspice
  • 1 teaspoon ground coriander
  • 1 teaspoon black pepper
  • 2-3 inch cinnamon stick, ground (or 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon)
  • 2 teaspoons kosher salt
  • 6 large garlic cloves, chopped
  • 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
  • 2/3 cup orange juice
  • 1/2 cup dry good-tasting red wine

Roasting:

  • 2 tablespoons rosemary, chopped
  • 1 onion, thinly sliced
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 cup orange juice
  • 1 cup red wine

Marinate the meat:  2-3 days before cooking, spread the roast out (untie if it came tied together) and make deep cuts into the thick parts and through the fat cap.  (Do not even think about removing any of the fat.)  Mix the remainder of the marinade ingredients in a medium-sized bowl, then spread it all over the roast, stuffing it into the slits and massaging it into the pork on all sides.  Place the roast and all the marinade in a sealed plastic bag or a shallow glass dish (covered);  refrigerate until ready to roast, turning once or twice a day.

To roast:  Remove the meat and allow to come to room temperature (about an hour).  Preheat the oven to 400F.  Roll up the roast and tie with butcher’s twine.  Rub the roast all over with the rosemary and salt.

Oil a shallow roasting pan and scatter the sliced onions in the bottom.  Place the roast, fat side up, in the pan and scape all the remaining marinade over it.  Roast for 30 minutes at 400F.

Remove the roast and pour in the orange juice and red wine.  Reduce the oven temperature to 300F.  Continue to roast until the internal temperature of the pork reaches 185F.  This will take several hours (4-6 most likely) – check on the roast every hour or so to make sure the pan does not dry out (add water if necessary), check the temperature, and baste the roast with the juices.  If the temperature of the roast seems to plateau, cover the pan partially with foil to help concentrate the heat.

When the roast is done, let it rest on a cutting board, covered, for about 15 minutes.  Skim the fat from the pan juices.  To serve, roll the pork back into the pan juices to moisten, then slice.  Serve hot, with extra pan juices if desired.  Don’t forget the black-eyed peas and greens if it is New Year’s Day!

Pork shoulder roast (wide)

harlemWell, I felt high on the hog eating this! Yummy! Some yummy music this time too. Generally sons of famous artists are a pale copy of their fathers, but in the case of Steve Earle’s son Justin Townes Earle, there’s no fear of that. Justin is his own man indeed, as on Harlem River Blues. He’s taken folk, country and blues influences together and created something new and fresh, as on the title cut or “Working for the MTA”. Stellar stuff!

His second album, The Good Life, is more jukebox country, and Earle’s vocals goodliferemind you of classic country singers such as George Jones or Lefty Frizzell. Hard to believe a kid this young could be so assured and good, but the truth is in the grooves.

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Pulled Pork (Smoked Pork Butt)

Posted on May 6, 2012 by | 2 Comments

This may well be my laziest, virtually no-effort attempt at smoked Boston Butt yet….and I think it was one of the best.  Sometimes the less you do, the better things turn out.  No brine, no overnight rub, not much tinkering with the cooking…just a generous application of Dizzy Pig “Dizzy Dust” and onto the Big Green Egg.

When you are not working with many ingredients, it is especially important that those ingredients are of high quality.  When buying pork, support farms with pastured animals that are compassionately and sustainably raised.  Look for Heritage breeds of pork, like Berkshire, which unlike “factory farm” animals that are raised indoors for maximum size in the minimum time, are traditionally bred and raised in a natural environment for the best tasting meat.  Use fresh spices when making your own rub, or buy spice blends that have all natural ingredients and no preservatives.  I like the the assortment of rubs offered by Dizzy Pig Barbeque Company, which are also gluten-free and have no MSG.

Here’s how our lazy day went…

About an hour before cooking, I took the boneless pork butt (around 3.5 pounds) out of the refrigerator.  It got a nice rub down with olive oil, then I liberally applied the Dizzy Dust all over the butt.  (No snickering…)  The butt was then tied up with kitchen twine.  We let it sit there on the counter to come to room temperature while the spice rub melded on the surface of the meat.

In the meantime, Mr. “He Cleans” got the Big Green Egg set up for smoking, with plenty of charcoal since we anticipated this would need to cook for 7-8 hours (roughly 2 hours per pound).  When the Egg was showing a stable temperature around 225F, we threw in several handfuls of Jack Daniel’s Barrel Wood Chips for smoke, put in the inverted plate setter and grill for indirect cooking, and set that pork butt in there right on the grill.  To really notch up the effort, we also had a slab of pork belly there with the butt.   We closed up the Egg and watched the smoke pour out, hoping that our annoying, loudmouth neighbors were getting a good whiff of it and burning with jealousy.

The weather was really pleasant, so we sat on the screened-in porch…reading, playing Sudoku, browsing the interwebs.  We peeked in the Egg after 2 hours had passed; the little rush of ventilation gave the woods chips a boost and picked the smoke up again.  Then back to porch sitting, occasionally wiping drool off our chins.  After 4 or 5 hours (what is time, really?), we pulled the pork belly out of the smoker and had a little snack.  More time passed – jalapeno slaw and bbq sauce were made, more Suduku, Words with Friends, checking on what people were up to on Facebook.  Next thing you know, it’s about drinking time!

After about 6 hours, the temperature of the butt seemed to be stuck in the 160F range.  This, I found from reading blogs about meat smoking, is known as the “Stall”.  We want the meat to get above 170F, because that’s where the magic happens.  Around 170F is when the collagen in the meat begin to melt and turn gelatinous, and the meat becomes more tender and juicy and scrumptious.  One way to get around the “Stall” is to cover that butt to keep the juices from evaporating, and thereby cooling the meat.  I plopped it in a cast iron pot with a little apple juice, sealed it up with foil, and put it back on the grill.  If you don’t have a pot handy that you want to stick in a grill, you can also wrap it securely with foil.

Now that it was drinking time, the wait became a little easier.  We cooked the butt for another hour, and checked the temperature.  It was just under 180F – but more importantly, the butt passed the “fork test”.  Basically, if you can stick a fork in it and twist it easily, it’s done!  At this point, the butt should rest for about 30 minutes.  I think we made it for 15 before deciding that surely that was enough.  We put the butt in a lasagna-sized pan to make sure we got all the juices, and pulled it apart with these nifty “Bear Paws“.  The Bear Paws make easy work of picking up hot meat off the grill or out of a roasting pan, as well as shredding it.  If you don’t have Bear Paws, you can also shred the meat with forks.  When the meat had cooled down a little, I also picked through it to remove any gristly or extra-fatty parts (and only ate a little of the delicious bark while doing so).

We ate our pulled pork with hot tortillas, spicy jalapeno slaw, and smoky barbeque sauce.  Pork with guacamole and pineapple-mango salsa was also a hit.  Delicious!  What a nice ending for a lazy day!

We said goodbye on April 19 to one of America’s greatest artists, Levon Helm of The Band. His wonderful voice and unerring ear for music will never be forgotten. Eerily a week before his passing I picked up Ramble at the Ryman, and it’s a great evening of music, Levon with special guests such as John Hiatt, Sam Bush and Buddy Miller raising the roof at the legendary Ryman Auditorium.

And speaking of legendary, you can’t go wrong with Rock of Ages. The Band at the height of their formidable powers, with horn arrangements by Allen Toussaint. A must have for fans of one of America’s most beloved bands.

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New Mexico Carne Adovada

Posted on October 14, 2011 by | 6 Comments

Modified from The Border Cookbook : Authentic Home Cooking of the American Southwest and Northern Mexico (Cheryl A. Jamison and Bill Jamison)

Red chile sauce

One of our favorite places to eat in Santa Fe is Maria’s New Mexican Kitchen.  Maria’s is primarily noted for their VAST selection of margaritas crafted for every tequila out there.  In fact there is a book devoted to the margarita recipes, which naturally, we had to have a copy of.  The food to accompany those margaritas is authentic New Mexican fare and is equally delicious.  We love the carne adovada, as well as the spicy-sweet short ribs, garlic-butter steak, chile rellenos – or if you’re really hungry, the combination plate.

So, with that inspiration, here is our version of carne adovada.  It’s a little messy, with preparing the chile sauce…it takes some time, with an overnight marinade of the meat and a slow cook on the next day.  However the end result is tender chunks of pork enveloped in a spicy red chile sauce, which despite the heat, has many layers of flavor.  The amount of heat will depend on what type of chiles you use.  I like to use a combination – ancho chiles are pretty mild, and New Mexico chiles are fairly hot, but aren’t going to take the skin off your lips.  Beyond that, you’re on your own! Here is a good source for chiles: http://www.thespicehouse.com/spices-by-category/chiles.  You can also make the chile hotter, if you’re that brave, by using some of the seeds from the chile pods in the sauce.

Serve this dish with a cooling salad, sliced tomatoes, avocado, some cornbread or tortillas – and even a bit of sour cream and grated cheese if you’d like.

Ingredients:

  • 3 pounds pork shoulder (aka Boston butt), cut into 1 inch cubes and trimmed of most fat
  • 6 -8 ounces dried New Mexican chiles, rinsed (or mix of dried chile peppers:  ancho, New Mexican (Chimayo), guajillo, etc.)
  • 2 cups chicken or beef stock
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 6 cloves garlic, chopped
  • 2 teaspoons dried Mexican oregano
  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1 teaspoon ground coriander
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt, or to taste
  • 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar

De-stem and de-seed chile peppers, and break them into small pieces.  (Note:  If chile peppers aren’t dry enough to break up, you can roast them first in the oven on a baking sheet at 300F for 5-10 minutes, watching them carefully so they do not burn.)  Place the chile pepper pieces in a large pot with the remaining ingredients (except the pork), and simmer, covered, over low heat for 30 minutes to an hour.

Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.  Puree with a hand blender, or process in a blender or food processor in batches.  At this point, you can strain the red chile sauce through a wire sieve for a smooth sauce, or use “as is” for a chunkier sauce.  Add additional broth or water, if needed, to get the desired sauce consistency.  (The sauce in the photo above is not strained.)

Place the pork in a non-reactive bowl or deep baking dish.  Cover with the red chile sauce and refrigerate overnight, or up to 48 hours, stirring occasionally.

Bring the mixture back to room temperature before cooking.  The carne adovada can be cooking in a crockpot/slow cooker on low (4-6 hours), or in a 350F oven, covered, for 3-4 hours.  If cooking in oven:  Preheat oven to 350F.  Transfer to a Dutch oven or heavy pot with a cover.  Bring to a simmer on the stove-top, then transfer to the oven.  Stir occasionally, until meat is fork tender and the sauce has cooked down.  Serve hot.

Two of my favorites guitarists for today’s soundtrack. First, my absolute favorite jazz guitarist, Kenny Burrell with Midnight Blue, a “soul jazz” classic. Burrell has a gift of tone and phrasing that makes him unmistakable, and this is one of his best.

Next, the late, great Stevie Ray Vaughan on a collection called The Sky Is Crying featuring his take on Lonnie Mack’s “Wham”, Jimi Hendrix’s “Little Wing, and a cut from Midnight Blue “Chitlins Con Carne”. Hey, you try and come up with music for Carne Adovada!

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Smoked Pork Butt

Posted on April 3, 2011 by | 5 Comments

BBQ!  There’s not too much I can say about making pulled pork – there’s a little bit of preparation time, some variation in ingredients, and the rest is up to the quality of the pork shoulder roast (Boston butt) and how good your smoker is.  Food and Fire has a variety of instructions for pulled pork and I’m sure they are all good.  I used this one, which incorporated a molasses brine modified from Alton Brown’s recipe.  One thing that I find wonderful about food blogs is the endless adaptations of recipes and ideas, how one recipe sparks the imagination and leads to certainly a similar dish, but one that is still your own for what your hands added to it.

Brined and rubbed…ready for the cooker

For once, I did not make many changes to the recipe.  I used a smaller butt portion (4 1/2 pounds), added a little less salt to the brine (9 ounces), and combined a couple of different rubs. We used chunks of cherry for the smoke.  After 4 hours of cooking time, I started spraying the butt every hour with a 1:1 mixture of apple cider vinegar and water, plus about 1 tablespoon of honey, to help keep it moist and to enhance the bark on the outside of the roast.  (I would have used apple juice or cider instead of water, but we forgot to get any at the grocery.)

Since it was a smaller butt roast, it only needed 9 hours of cooking time, the last 45 minutes covered with foil to bring the temperature up in the meat.  When it was done, we let it rest for an hour (covered), then pulled it apart by hand and finished it with a light application of  Lexington style BBQ sauce, recipe also by Dave at Food and Fire.

After 3 1/2 hours…

The butt turned out really moist with a good texture, and plenty of bark that was neither too fatty or too chewy.  In other words, pretty much perfect!  We served it with 3 different sauces: The Lexington BBQ sauce, a thicker, sweeter Texas-style sauce by Fox Bros BBQ, and a mustard-based sauce by Dreamland.

It was all good, as they say…

Nah, it was more than all good…it was MEAT CANDY! Yum.

Ok, something about bbq brings out the country boy in me, and thus the soundtrack to pork butt starts off with an early favorite, the International Submarine Band’s only album, Safe at Home. Now, you’re not to be faulted if you’ve never heard of ISB, except this was Gram Parson’s first recorded band, and this record gives an early glimpse of his wonderful voice, great songwriting (“Luxury Liner” and “Blue Eyes”) as well as his spot-on takes on Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard and more. A great, great record that only hints at the magic to follow.

isb

Country music doesn’t get much better than the Bakersfield Boy, Buck Owens. Now, you might recall him as the red, white and blue guitar playing guy from Hee Haw with Roy Clark, pickin’ in a corn field, but Buck is more than just that. His work in the ’60s with guitarist Don Rich is legendary, great songwriting and Telecaster twang. He was a hit machine in those days, and one of his biggest, “Sam’s Place” is featured on Tender Loving Care, and it’s almost as tasty as this smoked pork butt.

Almost!

buck

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