Cooking pork a new way

[waaytoomuchintothis]

I have a lung and heart bother that makes it impossible for me to tend to my cooking for long term stuff like my favorite, whole pork shoulder in the humid hot summertime. For years, I have tried to cook a whole shoulder the way I am accustomed to doing, only to have the weather screw it up and make it miserable, even for a small shoulder, with all the running in and out of filtered cool air.

This year, for the 4th of July, I am trying something new. It has not been without complications. First, you cannot buy a whole shoulder here. The majority in the legislature (Virginia), is rented by anyone with big bucks, so there are all kinds of laws to prevent people from doing things for themselves that corporations get paid to do, like fixing up cars and selling them, speciality cooking or catering, making beer or wines, brandy, etc, all kinds of stuff. What that means to me is that I can't buy a proper pork shoulder here.

So, I'm trying something new. The last shoulder I cooked here was one I personally bought in Memphis and brought here myself. I don't have any reason to drive there anymore, so I am trying a 2/3rds shoulder, which is called a "blade" (except here, where they call it a Boston Butt which is ridiculous because it comes from the shoulder, not the butt), which is just the upper 2/3rds of a shoulder without the shank where the knuckle is. A normal good shoulder for BBQ is between 17 and 26 pounds, and this blade is 9.5 pounds, so there's a lot of fat, skin and shank missing. I'm guessing this was an 18 pounder when it was cut. The other new part is that I'm doing it inside.

I have one of those remote transmitter thermometers, and a very good oven, so I have wrapped the meat in a bag on a rack over a roasting pan half full of water, and set the oven to 250 degrees, with the remote transmitter set at 190 degrees for a max alarm temp. The meat itself has been injected with my sauce, especially near the bone, and rubbed generously with my own rub. After six to ten hours, it should be done, but I am flying blind here. I'm making this up as I go along. I'll post the results and maybe some pictures when it is done. If this works, I'll be able to add this to our growing HRW cookbook. Fingers crossed. This is our 4th of July meal, so if it doesn't work, I'm going to have to go out and find several pounds of BBQ on the morning of the 4th of July!!!

[HomeRacingWorld]

Sometimes flying blind leads you to success :)

I bet it comes out great. We expect a full report.

[ddyke]

I don't want a report, it will only make me hungry.

[bookie]

I sent the wife out the other day to get a boston butt, she called me and said all they had was a shoulder. She went to Food Lion and found a butt. I had it sliced in 1 inch slices for Pork Steaks, I got hooked on 'em in Missouri.
I just got one of these, but haven't had a chance to use it
http://pitbarrelcooker.com/

Anyhow Rob, I'm sure yours will turn out great

[waaytoomuchintothis]

bookie, that is a really interesting idea. I've never seen that. I can foresee making a pair of racks and two stainless steel rods to hang chickens from for my grill. Chicken cooks fast, so I could probably do that. Also, I was thinking that the cut of meat looked like what pork steaks were cut from.

Dan, if it works, I'll make one of these blades for you and bring it when I see you again.

Yeah, Harry, it does seem to have promise. We'll see.

Johnny, when my mother was a young girl, folks slaughtered their own beef and pork, and there was no massive refrigeration available, my grandfather sugar cured the hams, smoked the shoulders and bacon, and had a huge dinner and meat giveaway for all the neighbors (some of whom rode half a day to get there) for everything else (except that my grandfather was very partial to head cheese- ugh). Since everybody was in about the same shape, everybody else did that, too. It was the only way to have beef and pork in those days. Nobody slaughtered at the same time, either. It was an ongoing process all year. When the Depression came, it became even more important to keep it going. When there was no sugar, they grew sorghum for molasses and sugar cane for syrup and kept going. When there was no money for clothes, they made dresses from flour sacks and pants from old sheets and bedspreads and kept going. Mules were their tractors, sweat was their ownership of the land, and cleverness was their innovative labor-savers. From that family, there was a senior air traffic controller, a specialist Air Force cryptographer, a school headmistress, a banker, a career teacher, and a defense logistics specialist. The headmistress had a son who went to Baylor for a PhD, the air traffic controller had an air traffic controller, a cop, and a businessman, the banker had a senior post office manager. Poor farm folks did allright, eh? I'm very proud of my mother's family, and as the first grandchild, they loved me unmercifully.

[waaytoomuchintothis]

Well, it came out of the oven at 10.5 hours (that's when the internal temperature reached 190 degrees- the collagen that makes connective tissue in the shoulder melts at 185), and when I opened the oven bag to peek, the bone fell out on the pan. That's tender. I drained the juice (probably a quart or more), slathered it in sauce and closed it up tight. It sat all night and was still pretty warm this morning. We picked it with no trouble at all, and the only difference was that the fat layer and skin were soft instead of crispy. From a 9.5 pound blade there is about 7.5 pounds of stripped, cleared meat ready to eat.

The only thing is that there is no smoke taste at all. I really miss it. Next time I try this, I'll put Wright's liquid smoke (the only one to use), in the pan water, float some hickory in the pan water and forget the oven bag unless there's one big enough to swallow the roasting pan, roast, and all. I'll wrap the whole shebang in tin foil and see if that holds the moisture in some, but that bag saved all the juices and prevented the blade from breathing, so its more wet than I wanted. I'll say this- what saved the flavor was the excellent rub I experimented with. Its Paul Prudhomme's Magic Barbeque Seasoning right from the can. It is a sweet rub, which is what I usually make anyway. For beef I use a hot rub, but pork needs the sweet.

[Slotmanmoss]

We do ours similarly, but wrap in aluminin Foil.

[waaytoomuchintothis]

Well, I just came home from the big feed. Woof. Before I collapse in a gluttonous coma, let me just say that after it sat for a while with some BBQ sauce on it (not that sugary storebought junk- my own recipe), it came out great. I'm very happy with it, but I will still make the changes I mentioned above next time. The whole project turned out very well, and everybody is just as stuffed as if I did a whole shoulder.

[HomeRacingWorld]

"gluttonous coma"

I resemble that remark! :)