Pork Shoulder

This is an excellent season for roasts. They keep the house warm and fragrant during these cool days. They can be done quickly or slowly depending on your schedule. They are delicious!

This pork shoulder is best with the bone in, but I have done it boneless as well, just decrease the roasting time by an hour. This is the first roast I’m sharing because it creates a fragrant lake of fat, which I use for cooking all week long. The benefits of healthy, free range, organic pork fat are innumerable:  it has antiviral properties, antioxidant properties superior to vitamin E, it is high in monounsaturated like olive oil, and is rich in vitamin D (be gone depression!).

Portland is an amazing place to get good pork. Until I moved here I hardly ever ate pork because good pork is so hard to find. These days we enjoy it almost every week.

The dipping sauces can take you in any flavor direction you’d like to go. I’ll add two to this recipe: an Argentine chimichurri and Thai green sauce.

Simple Slow Roast Pork shoulder

1/2 cup sea salt

pork shoulder bone in or out skin on or off what ever you have found from your local pig farmer

1: Rub sea salt into the roast. I like to let my shoulder cure in plain sea salt in a plastic bag with all the air pressed out for a couple of days before rinsing and roasting for the best flavor. No other seasoning need be added. One day is enough if you forget to get an early start.

2: Set the oven to 250 degrees

3: Rinse the roast & place on a roasting rack in the roasting pan skin or fat side up.

4: Roast for 9 to 10 hours if bone in & 7-8 hours if boneless. The internal temperature should read 190 to 195. the meat should shred easily with a fork.

5: Remove from the oven and let sit for 20 mins.

6: Serve and enjoy with dipping sauces or pan sauce after you drain and collect the fat. The fat will keep for a week in the fridge or indefinitely in the freezer.

There are many more wonderful sauces but these two are easy favorites of mine.

Chimichurri Sauce

1 cup  fresh parsley leaves, washed and dried

5 medium cloves garlic, peeled

2 tablespoons oregano leaves (fresh if possible)

1/2 cup of olive oil

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

1 teaspoon Kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (if you’d like it spicy)

1: Place parsley, garlic, and oregano a food processor. Pulse until finely chopped, but not a paste.

2: Transfer to a bowl and stir in oil, vinegar, salt, and red pepper flakes. Can be stored refrigerator for up to 2 days or eaten right away.

Thai Green Chili Sauce

3 fresh green chili- stem and seed discarded (for a very spicy sauce leave in the seeds)

5 stems of cilantro

2 cloves garlic

1/2 cup apple cider vinegar

1 tsp salt

2 tbs red boast fish sauce

Preparation

1: Coarsely chop the chilis, cilantro and garlic by hand or in a food processor

2:Add vinegar, salt and fish sauce. 

3: Stir together well and serve!