by ENunn
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6-8 pounds
bone-in, skin on pork shoulder
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3 tablespoons
fennel seeds, toasted, crushed
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14 pieces
garlic cloves, crushed
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3 tablespoons
kosher salt
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1/2 cup
olive oil
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1 teaspoon
cayenne pepper
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1 teaspoon
black pepper
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3/4 cups
grade b maple syrup
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1
big bottle of Matilda, or another malty fruity ale
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2 teaspoons
malt vinegar
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After allowing the meat to come to room temperature, use a sharp knife to score the skin, making 1/2 inch stripes over entire surface. Preheat oven to 450. Toast fennel seeds in a skillet over medium heat, until fragrant (3 minutes); crush using mortar and pestle, set aside. Place garlic and salt in empty mortar mortar and grind together to make a paste. Slowly add olive oil, then sprinkle in cayenne, black pepper, fennel.
Ask the hotline about this step!Rub about 1/3 of the paste over the skinless side of the meat, then place skin side down on a roasting pan in lower third of oven. Cook for 30 minutes. Meanwhile stir the syrup and vinegar into the remaining paste.
Ask the hotline about this step!Turn the oven down to 225. Carefully flip the shoulder (use a clean towel), then use a rubber spatula to spread the remaining paste over the shoulder, pushing it into the scored skin.
Ask the hotline about this step!Return to oven and cook for 18 hours or longer (you can put it in the oven at bedtime and leave it in until you serve it as an early supper the next day, which is what I did; I just turned it all the way down to 150 for a couple of hours late in the afternoon), pouring 1/3 of the bottle of beer over it at several intervals, and basting with the drippings 2-3 times. Seriously. Before serving, turn up the heat to 450 for ten minutes if the skin is not crispy enough. Put it on a platter, and let people pull off pieces, like wild animals. They will fight over the skin.
Ask the hotline about this step!Serve with my Fresh Fennel and Red Pepper Chow-Chow (under "condiments"), and mashed sweet potatoes with apples. Leftover pork, Chow-Chow, and spicy mayo sandwich on ciabatta: very good idea.
Ask the hotline about this step!I had to go to 3 stores to find rind on.I also love the idea of eating this with your chow-chow! Perfect to cut the richness.
Monkeymom, I love the idea of your P.S. recipe too. It looks fabulous. The chow-chow turned mine into a whole different ballgame, too. Nice tonic. Believe it or not, this dish actually looks WORSE than the horrible picture I took (I couldn't get my camera to work at all!), but it tastes amazing. So the people I served it to were surprised when they tasted it, I think.
They always seem to have skin on pork shoulder on hand at Tony's in Chicago. I think there are several locations.
Tony's! I didn't even think of Tony's. Thank you. I have to start going there. I think I'm shopping too prissily.
Sounds phenomenal. You can bet an AGA oven was used for the long slow overnight cooking when the recipe inspiration was created - mmmmmmm.
Thank you, TasteFood. I wonder. I have a great stove, but I can't imagine that you couldn't do this with a crummy one. Once the pretty crusty part starts to form (even on the rindless part) you're pretty much home free, and you can always turn on the broiler at the end. So easy.
You can't write up this recipe, entice us with these clever techniques, and expect us to wait to try it. I'm getting on a plane -- there had better be some leftovers.
MrsW, you are welcome to come any time. We had sandwiches for a couple of days, even after serving it for a small dinner party. It's a lot more meat than you might imagine. And, you know: very porky so very addictive.
I learnd something about my oven making this. It shuts off after 12 hours! It must have thought I forgot it was on. The other very, very important thing for cooks to know about this is that you can pick at it while it's cooking and cover your tracks by basting a few extra times!!