cooking tips #1

Cooking Tips

(Cheap and Easy)

Number 1

Slow Roast Pork Shoulder

 Try this and say goodbye to tough pork forever.

Introduction

This is an occasional blog post to hopefully give you readers, simple, tested cooking ideas. I am not trying to teach you to suck eggs. Most of these posts will not be full recipes but just to show you how to do the basics right. I have tried different techniques by TV and Book Chefs that promised the perfect so and so, sadly most of them do not work. Below I will show the ones that worked. All these tips have been used a minimum of 10 times with constant results. I hope you find these useful. So here goes........

Ingredients and hints on buying.

• Rolled Pork Shoulder (2 to 3kg) its a cheap cut, we pay £5 from local butchers for a 2kg one and that feeds 4 or two meals (cold pork and chips with leftovers). Check when buying and ask the butcher to score the skin. You can do it yourself but you need a very sharp knife, most are pre-scored anyway. If frozen then defrost fully before cooking. Slow roasting works great for cheap cuts of meat. If buying from a Supermarket please ignore the cooking instructions on the supermarket packet it came in. Try this and say goodbye to tough pork forever.

Equipment

• Roasting Tin big enough for pork and water.
• Baking Foil (Wilkinsons is quite cheap and good quality)
• Meat Thermometer (optional, but good to have) see below

Prepare and Cooking time

• Four and half hours tops

Lets cook.

Pre-heat the oven at 150C, 300F, Gas 2. Place joint in roasting tin. Now measure out 600ml (just over a pint) of tap water. Pour in the base of roasting tin. Cover joint with baking foil (shiny side up). Place in centre of oven and cook for three, yes three hours. Now after that remove from oven and take off foil. Check with meat thermometer that the temperature inside is 77C or 170F. If you don't have one then get a sharp knife, like a steak knife and push through the side of the joint and if there is little resistance then it is nearly done. Now pour out the remaining water in to a heat proof bowl. If you have a separator the non fat part can be used as a base for gravy. Anyway now turn up the oven to 200C, 400F, Gas 6 and put back in for another hour and a half or until it is very tender (no resistance to the knife test) and the skin is very crisp, yes that's your crackling.. At this point you could sort out the other parts for your dinner, its up to you how you want to serve it with. When its cooked take out and like all meats let it rest for a minimum 15 minutes before carving.

That is it, simple. Trust me it is. A little note, did you notice there is no salt used on the skin. With this you don't need it. The crackling is crisp and tastes salt free, lovely.

Written by Gerry, version 1.0. Photos soon when I cook it next.