Pulled Pork

I have wanted to write a post about Pulled Pork Sandwiches for a goodly while.

I wanted to try eating one for even longer. But as Derbyshire is not quite the food centre of the universe we had to make our own.

Here’s the glorious shoulder of pork when it came out of the oven.

It truly is a sight to behold with its super crispy crackling and umami coated loveliness.

Then we let the meat fall apart, and stirred it through with a ‘special sauce’ to make it juicy, tangy and delicious.

If you look hard you can also see that crackling and Deb’s black pepper roasties.

Only I could order a huge hunk of pork shoulder on the hottest Weekend of the year. We have had the kind of weather that induces this ‘oh my, this paddling pool is cold’ face.

Honestly, like I really wanted the oven on all day in this heat.

So to counteract the wintery joint of meat we picked our first bunch of radishes from the garden

Sorry Sarah, it’s the obligatory hand holding ingredients shot.

I picked lots of salad leaves (Lovin’ the leaves at the moment) and found other summery salad stuff.

It was kind of a barbecue-without-the-hassle-of-a-barbecue.

We must do it again sometime soon.

You’re all invited.

We have enough pork to feed the 5000.

If you have some left you can make it into this: Thai Pork Curry.

Recipe (of sorts)

• Ask your butcher in advance for 1/2 a boned shoulder of pork.
• It must be shoulder, don’t try this with your namby pamby loin. It will be dry.
• Ask him to score the skin, or do it yourself with a sharp blade, slash lines every centimetre.
• In the morning sit it in the sink and pour a whole kettle of boiling water over the skin.
• Dry it off then rub it with plenty of table salt and some pepper.
• Place it in a big roasting tin with 2 cups of water in the bottom.
• Cook it on full wack (200 degrees) for 30 minutes.
• then turn it down to 100-150 degrees  depending your oven, until nearly all the fat renders out.
• Leave it in the oven FOR THE REST OF THE DAY! Yes really, 7-9 hours.
• I turn it on its side for a bit in the middle of the day to brown up the bottom and I baste it a bit.
• It needs to be a really slow cook with only a slight bubble to the water/fat.
• Don’t let the water boil dry, it will make THE best gravy when you skim the fat off it if you choose to eat this ‘Roast Pork’ style rather than with the spicy marinade in a bun.
• Take it out an hour before you want to eat it and tent with foil.
• I pull the crackling (skin) off the meat and put it back in the oven on high for 10-15 minutes to crisp it.
• It will fall apart, you won’t need to slice it.

Pulled Pork Marinade/Sauce (optional and very approximate)

• A good squirt of: Ketchup, Cider Vinegar, Mustard, Tomato Paste & Worcestershire Sauce.
• A good sprinkle of Smoked Paprika, Salt, Pepper and 2 tablespoons of soft brown sugar.
• Some chopped chillies or chilli sauce.
• If it’s too thick add some hot water or the gravy from the bottom of the pan.
• Heat all this up in a small saucepan and stir into the shredded meat.
• You can put this all back in the oven for 20 minutes, covered in foil, to heat through if eating later.
• Serve with buns, toasted on the inside.
• Leftover pork can be sliced and re-heated with some of the sauce or gravy over it for days to come.

NB The water that the meat sits in is really just to keep it moist and stop the pan juices burning. I sit the joint in a 2″ deep roasting tin and pour a couple of cups in.

The marinade is really a sauce that I stir through the shredded meat AFTER it has been cooked. You can pour the liquor over and stir it in to the meat straight away, or as we have done eat the pork Sunday Dinner style with gravy and vegetables for day 1 then make the marinade/sauce pour it over and heat through in the oven to have the pulled pork sandwiches on day 2 or 3…or 4!

Printable version of recipe.