Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Slow Roasted Pork Shoulder with Peach Sauce- Cheap and Good!

Last night we had an amazing dinner, thanks to my Cook's Illustrated Cookbook.

Bone in pork butt roast was on sale at Whole Foods for $1.49 a pound so when I saw that I immediately got out my cooking bible to see if I could find a great recipe to utilize the "cheap" meat. I found a recipe for Slow Roasted Pork Shoulder with Peach Sauce and thought it sounded delicious so off to the store I went to buy the roast.

It came out delicious- the roast had a bacon taste to it and my kids devoured it. The peach sauce was pretty good too but I think next time I will reduce the sauce a little more so it tastes a little more rich.

This recipe is a great example showing that knowing how to cook cheaper cuts of meat is imperative in saving money at the grocery store- inexpensive meat can taste just as delicious as more costly cuts but you just have to know how to prepare them.

Recipe is from the The Cook's Illustrated Cookbook: 2,000 Recipes from 20 Years of America's Most Trusted Cooking Magazine.

Ingredients

Pork Roast

6-8 lb bone in pork butt roast
1/3 cup kosher salt
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
pepper

Peach Sauce

10 ounces frozen peaches cut into 1 inch chunks (you can use fresh if they are available- use 2 peaches and cut into 1/2 inch wedges)
2 cups dry white wine
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup plus one tablespoon unseasoned rice vinegar
2 sprigs fresh thyme (I use dried thyme- I forgot to buy fresh)
1 tablespoon whole grain mustard


Place roast fat side up. Cut a crosshatch pattern of slits in the fat about one inch from each other, making sure not to cut too deep into the actual meat. Combine the kosher salt and light brown sugar into a bowl and then take the mixture and rub it onto the entire roast, paying special attention to the area that you cut the slits in. Wrap the roast tightly with two layers of plastic wrap and place in the fridge (on a rimmed cookie sheet so that the meat juice doesn't get all over your fridge) for 12 to 24 hours. I left mine in the fridge for the full 24 hours.


Once "fridge time" is done, adjust our oven rack to the lowest position and preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Unwrap the roast and brush off any excess salt/sugar mixture and then season the entire roast with pepper. For this recipe you need to use a large roasting pan with a v-rack. Spray the v-rack with cooking spray and place the roast on it. Then add at least four cups of water to the pan- I actually should have added more water because the four cups was not enough (my roasting pan is huge).


Place the roast in the preheated oven and cook for 5 to 6 hours making sure to baste twice during the cooking process. I don't have a baster so I just used a good old spoon to pour the drippings over it. You want to cook your roast until the meat is very tender and a meat thermometer reads 190 degrees near (but not touching) the bone. Once done cooking, transfer the roast to a carving board and loosely tent it with aluminum foil; let the roast rest for one hour (I had to let mine rest for 1.5 hours because my husband was late getting home from work- it came out super tender and was still nice and warm).

Transfer liquid from roasting pan into a fat separator and let stand for five minutes. I do not own a fat separator so I let the liquid stand for a lot longer and did my best to spoon off as much fat as I could- not the best way but it worked well enough. Keep 1/4 cup of the de-fatted liquid (jus) and discard the rest or save for some other purpose.


To make the sauce- bring the peaches, wine, sugar, 1/4 cup of rice vinegar, 1/4 cup of jus and thyme sprigs to a simmer in a small saucepan. As you can see, I did not have thyme sprigs so I rested a small strainer in the pan and poured some dried thyme in it. Simmer mixture, making sure to stir occasionally, for about 30 minutes until it has reduced to about 2 cups. Remove the thyme and add the 1 tablespoon of mustard and 1 tablespoon of vinegar.


To debone the roast, cut around the bone with a paring knife until it can be pulled free from the roast- as you can tell I did not do this very neatly but in the end, it still tasted good! Use a serrated knife to slice your roast. Pass the sauce separately.


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