Pig Picking
Cheap meat just takes time and technique
It’s easy to make expensive food look and taste great. Instagram is chock full of pretty food: bright smoothie bowls made with pricy tropical fruit, spendy cuts of meat with filter-enhanced smoke rings, salads with colourful edible flowers, and glitter-dusted cupcakes with unicornerific (c’mon Sarah, that’s not a word!) rainbow frosting.
Anyone can make something pretty when they have pretty things to work with. But the real skill of a chef is take the ordinary and even the unlovely and make them both delicious and impressive.
Enter the pork shoulder. It’s not pretty, but nor is it expensive. It is, however, absolutely delicious.
The pork shoulders I find in my local grocery store look a lot like this.
And out of its plastic wrappings it looks like this. There is nothing fancy about the butchery. It looks like what it is: a giant chunk of pig.
These are not the pretty skinless and boneless pork shoulders that are the darlings of food media. These are slightly intimidating hunks of skin (occasionally some hair), bone, and more than a little fat that sell for about 1.50 or less a pound. This monster of a thing cost less than $13 for just less than 10 pounds. You can’t buy much of anything for that price these days, let alone a massive piece of meat.
I assure you, this is easy, not scary, and totally manageable for the average home cook. And contrary to the packaging pictured above there is no slow cooker involved.
Serious Eats has an excellent explanation of the culinary science required to turn tough meat tender and leathery skin shatteringly crisp. If you’re interested in details like slow-twitch muscle fibres and discussions about surface area, please do read it, but I’m going to give you the TL;DR version right here.
In short, you want to cook it low and slow, then very hot for a few minutes at the end. This is going to take all day in the the oven, but it’s very hands off until the last few minutes.
You’ll need: an 8-12 pound pork shoulder (out of the fridge an hour or so), salt and pepper, a baking tray, an oven-safe rack that fits in your baking tray, some foil, and some parchment paper.
Preheat your oven to 250F. This will not seem very hot at all, but trust me.
While your oven is pre-heating, remove the pork from its wrappings and season all sides with salt and pepper. This is its only seasoning so don’t be cheap about it. If you happen to notice a few stray hairs you can singe them off with a lighter or bbq starter, or grab a disposable razor and get to work (yes, I just told you to shave your dinner).
Line the baking tray with foil and place rack on top. Place a square of parchment on top of the rack and centre the pork. The foil will catch the drippings and save you a great deal of cleanup, and the parchment will save you a lot of scrubbing work on the rack.
Slide your pork into the oven and set a timer for about 8 hours. I told you it was going to take all day.
Clean the house, read a book, go about your business. In a few hours you’ll smell delicious piggy - this is a good sign and will make you feel happy. Just try not to open the oven too often - it doesn’t need touching, basting, or any other fussing. And as your father would say, “Close the damn door, you’re letting the heat out!”
At about the 7 and a half hour mark, stick a fork in it (!) and if it twists easily, it’s done. If it’s really big it may need a little more time. Just relax.
When it’s done, CAREFULLY remove the pork from the oven and avoid spilling drippings all over yourself. I say this from some experience and have a scar to prove it.
Remove the rack and pour off any drippings. If you let them settle you can pour off the fat (not down the drain please!) and keep the good stuff. Replace the foil on the tray with a new piece. This step is very important. The drippings will smoke and could even catch fire when you go to crisp the skin. Best case scenario would be a lot of awful acrid smoke, worst case your neighbours call 911, so conduct yourself accordingly.
Tent the meat with foil and let it rest for at least 15 minutes. If you have guests coming for dinner this would be a good time for them to arrive.
Let your oven pre-heat to 500F. I strongly recommend turning on your exhaust, opening a window, and having a dishtowel at the ready to fan your smoke detector because it’s about to get a little hazy.
Place your pork back in the oven to let the skin crisp. Keep an eye on it and turn the tray every 4-5 minutes to crisp it evenly on all sides. There will be a lot of crackling noise and possibly a bit of smoke.
When the pork skin is puffed and crispy it’s done! Look at that!
How to serve this magnificent piggy? Pull the skin off (it will come off in big chunks) and shred the meat. Pour the pan drippings over it if you are so inclined. Try to avoid eating all the skin before it gets to the table or you will get terrible heartburn (another thing I know from experience).
And because the seasoning is so neutral, you can go any direction at all with sides and sauces. Bibimbap sauce for a Korean take? Chimichurri? Or maybe some really good mustard? Totally up to you.
One thing for sure though - this dish encourages, nay, demands picking. Picking at the table, picking at the leftovers while you tidy the kitchen, picking by the fridge light late into the night. People will fight over the skin, particularly if you were generous with your salt. It is SO good!
When I have leftovers and I’m weary of picking I shred what’s left (including skin), add onions, garlic, tomato paste, taco seasoning, and some chicken stock and give it all a short simmer. Tacos or messy sandwiches anyone?
You’ll also be left with a pretty decent bone. While you might be suffering a bit of pork overload at this point the bone can hide in the freezer until you’re in the mood for soup. It may not have the smokiness of a ham bone but it can certainly add some piggy goodness to anything you make.
As the price of everything continues to rise there will be still be some deals at the grocery store but they will be fewer and further between and perhaps for ingredients that are less familiar. So when you can find something that can be inexpensive yet impressive and versatile with little to no waste, you’d be wise to give it a try. And why not right? Almost anything can be delicious with just a little time and know-how.
What grocery do you pick up those pork shoulders? I've never seen them around, at least not here in Windsor. I usually get mine from a small independent here, MR Meats. Usually the best price, but they run around 20 to 25. Pour the fat out? Heaven forbid! I use it all for making a BBQ sauce when I do a pulled pork. Nothing but flavour. ;)