Pork Shoulder Braised in Cider

 

I'm back, continuing my long-standing tradition of posting recipes at wildly irregular intervals. You're welcome. 

This one has no specific “original recipe” to draw upon. My initial impulse was to make the Italian Beef recipe from last year, but with pork shoulder instead of beef. However, as I was going along, I ended up heading in a different direction. So while this was somewhat improvised, there were two recipes that I used as inspiration. One was J. Kenji Lopez-Alt’s Braised Oxtail Sandwiches, which was my starting point for the Italian Beef dish. The second was another Serious Eats recipe, by Jennifer Olvera: Cider-Braised Country-Style Pork Ribs. I first sampled these succulent braised ribs at the home of my friend Kelly, whom I first cooked with decades ago, when we were in grad school together. We once considered pitching a TV cooking show entitled “Don’t Try This at Home,” but that’s a story for another time.

Anyway, my initial idea for creating an Italian Pork recipe was derailed when I came down with a bad cold on the day that I intended to braise the pork. My original plan was to braise the pork for several hours, shred it, and make sandwiches. However, by the time I began the braising process, I was already feeling like crap, and so I went with a lazier approach.

Enough preamble. I cooked a large hunk of pig, and it was good. Here’s the lowdown:

Here is a three-pound (~1.5kg) boneless pork shoulder. I’ve seasoned it liberally with coarse salt (I use kosher salt, but sea salt works, too), pepper, garlic powder and oregano. If I had known how I was going to finish the dish, I probably wouldn’t have used the oregano, but it doesn’t do any harm. 

I browned the pork shoulder on both sides in some olive oil in my trusty Dutch oven, and set it aside. The heat was medium-high, btw.

Into the fat remaining in the pan (add more if it seems dry), I threw a couple of carrots, a couple of stalks of celery, and an onion, all of which I chopped beforehand. 

I gave them a bit of salt and pepper, lowered the heat to medium, and cooked them for several minutes until they were soft and browned, probably 10 – 15 minutes. While you’re doing this, go ahead and preheat your oven to 325 degrees F/160 degrees C.

Once the vegetables were browned, I added some chopped garlic to the pan (2 or 3 cloves, I think) and a tablespoon of tomato paste. These go in relatively late in the game because they would burn if cooked longer than a minute or two. That said, make sure that you stir that tomato paste for a minute or so, letting it brown a bit. You get more flavor that way. 

Next, I poured in about two cups (500 ml) of hard cider and deglazed the pan. In other words, I poured in the liquid and used a wooden spoon to scrape up all the browned bits and whatnot from the bottom of the pan. I think you could use non-alcoholic cider if you wanted, but I might only use a cup or so, since it would be sweeter and less acidic.

Then I added about a quart/liter of chicken broth, a sprig or two of rosemary, and a bay leaf. I cranked up the heat and brought it to a boil.

Then I added the pork, covered it, and put the whole contraption into the oven for 2½ hours. As you may recall from the Italian Beef entry, Kenji has you braising the oxtails (or other cut) more slowly—about 4 hours at 250F. But I was in a bit of a hurry, so I went for a higher temperature. I’ve done other braises and stews at 325, so I tried that.

It looked like this when it emerged. At this point, I probably could have shredded the pork, made sandwiches, and feasted quite happily. However, by the time I removed it from the oven, my sinuses felt like I was about to give birth to Athena. So I let it cool down, put the beast into the fridge—Dutch oven and all—and went to bed for a couple of days.

Once I had begun to feel relatively human again, I degreased the cooking liquid—this was quite easy, since chilling causes the fat to solidify and rise to the top of the pan/dish/bowl, where it can be scraped off and discarded. I then strained the liquid into a pan and brought it to a simmer.

This is where the Italian Pork plan went aft aglay, or whatever. What I hadn’t realized was that trying to shred (or pull) meat is much easier when the meat is warm, or at least at room temperature. When it was cold, all I could really do was slice it (or cut it into chunks). Not a bad thing, of course, but not the texture I had originally wanted. I could have reheated the whole thing and then shredded it, but that seemed a bit of a palaver. So I sliced it cold, and reheated it in the sauce.

The sauce was good, but a bit bland, so I seasoned it with a bit more salt and pepper, and added a little cider vinegar (maybe a tablespoon) to give it a bit more acidity. Lemon juice or other vinegar would work if you didn’t have cider vinegar on hand.

And that was it, really. Instead of sandwiches, I went a bit more formal and served it with mashed potatoes and some broccoli. But obviously, you could use whatever accompaniments you wanted, or make sandwiches, for that matter. Bon appetìt, y’all.

As mentioned above, there’s no original recipe on this one, but I was drawing on Lopez-Alt’s technique for Braised Oxtail Sandwiches, Olvera’s Cider-BraisedCountry-Style Pork Ribs, and my own thoughts on Italian Beef. As best I remember, here are the ingredients I used:

Boned pork shoulder roast, about 3 lbs/1.5kg

Salt

Pepper

Garlic Powder

Dried Oregano (the spices are to taste, obviously)

2 carrots, chopped

2 celery stalks, chopped

1 onion, chopped

2-3 garlic cloves, chopped

1 tablespoon tomato paste

2 cups/500 ml hard cider

4 cups/1 liter chicken broth

1 sprig fresh rosemary

1 bay leaf

1 tablespoon cider vinegar