Saturday, September 28, 2013

Slow Roasted Bone-in Pork Butt with CRISPY SKIN Fat Cap


"A PICTURE SAYS A THOUSAND WORDS"
but i'll add a few more...

slow roasted, unctuous fall-off-the-bone tender, pull apart pork butt-shoulder-picnic roast.

COMPLETELY COVERED IN CRISPY SKIN

it might take all day, but it is so worth the wait.  there's not much work to it and it will surely be a big hit at your next gathering.

put this baby in the middle of the table...
say, "ready-set-GO"



I CAN'T PASS UP THE $6.00 - 6 LB. PORK BUTT
i'm a big fan of the 8 hour pork roast while you sleep...
BUT...i found a very interesting and informative post about crispy skin roasted pork shoulder.  same concept with one very important extra step...CRISPY SKIN!  
many thanks to Kenji Lopez at Serious Eats for breaking down the science of "the crispy skin" in a way that most of us can understand.
below is a direct quote and just a snippet of information from   J. Kenji Lopez-Alt.  he is the Chief Creative Officer at SERIOUS EATS.

"When roasting at 375°F, because the dehydrating and protein-setting is taking place at the same time that the connective tissue is breaking down, there's never really a stage when the skin is relatively structure-free. It goes from being firm through connective tissue directly to being firm through dehydration.
On the other hand, after 8 hours in a 250°F oven, the pig skin has very little structural integrity—there's really very little holding it together and it closely resembles a bundle of tiny balloons just waiting to be filled.
How do you fill those balloons? Let heat do the work for you."


SLOW ROASTED BONE-IN PORK BUTT WITH CRISPY SKIN FAT CAP
this slightly adapted recipe is from J. Kenji Lopez-Alt at SERIOUS EATS

5 to 6 lb pork shoulder BUTT 
kosher salt
fresh ground pepper
cumin
chili powder
2 onions, sliced thick
8-10 cloves garlic

preheat oven to 250F.  prepare a baking dish/roasting pan with extra thick aluminum foil.  lightly oil the aluminum.  i have had one stick to the foil, so now i oil.  lay the onion slices and garlic cloves out for the roast to rest on. 
start with a pork butt bone-in, skin-on...butt should have a "fat-cap".  rinse the meat and dry well with paper towels.  


to score the skin...or not to score the skin...

i chose to score the skin.  as you can see, i did not do a beautiful job, butt i was not going for the "show case shoulder".
there are no exact measurements for the seasoning...just season the whole piece.  i suggest you do this over the sink and rub the seasoning all over.
place the butt on the prepared onion/garlic roasting pan.
put in oven for 7-8 hours.  pork should be done when fork tender.  OR...as the original recipe states...insert a knife.  if you can easily turn the knife around in the meat, you are ready.
remove pork from the oven.
tent and let rest for 20 minutes.

above is what it looks like after 7 1/2 hours at 250F
before crispy skin stage.

CRISPY SKIN STAGE...
crank the oven up to 500F.  you might want to move the cooked butt onto a rack or a clean piece of oiled aluminum foil pan. so as not to burn the onions, garlic and drippings.  put pork in HOT oven and watch for the skin to crisp up.  you might want to rotate the pan a few times for an all over crisp.  watch carefully.  it can go from crisp to burnt in a matter of minutes. 
remove from oven when it is good and bubbly crispy looking.  let rest for 15 minutes and...

DIVE IN!

NOTE...my "butt" was tender, but meaty.  it fell off the bone, but was not oozing-ly juicy.  i was wondering if the super slow roasting renders out more fat than a higher temp.?...or was it that i got a lean butt.  not to worry...
this is FABULOUS...beyond.
sorry to say, i did not have a party of people to serve, but what a show stopper!  i ate my fill of crispy skin and pulled pork... i bet i could have devoured the whole thing, but i put a few large pieces in the fridge wrapped in parchment in a large tupperware.
the next morning i was able to re-crisp the skin and get some lovely slices off the larger chunks.

SO...this saves and serves well for the next few days.  the skin WILL re-crisp (with care) in the toaster oven.



22 comments:

Sandra Lee said...

This is a thing of beauty!

Jules and Ruby said...

hi Sandra lee...happy to hear from you. YES, this was a beautiful crispy hunk o'pork heaven

Stacey Snacks said...

Invite us over!!!! Wow!

Jules and Ruby said...

hey Stacey Snacks! dang...i would love to have you for dinner...that would mean i could buy that big 7 pounder i just saw at the market and cook this crispy cracklin' pork butt AGAIN!

Unknown said...

Wow, this looks fantastic. Your posts are always so inspiring, thanks.

Jules and Ruby said...

hey BIBS!...thanks so much. hope you give this beauty a try some time

Joanna said...

making this now and i cant wait to taste it!! it is resting and getting ready to go in the 500 F oven. it is actually pretty crispy right now so i can't even imagine how much crispier it will get. it's like a giant piece of bacon!

Jules and Ruby said...

hi Joanna...oh, i'm so happy happy happy. i can hear the cracklin' skin from here. i reeeeeally hope yours come out fabulous. let me know if you had a good belly full o' crispy skin pork

Joanna said...

jules, i think this is the only pork recipe i will EVER need. seriously. did you have a foodasm when you ate this??

the crispy skin was like a mixture of bacon and chicken skin. if i could, i'd make a sweater out of it and wear/eat it every day!!!

thanks for posting and trying this out for us. i was nervous about the low cooking temp without searing first, but i had no reason to worry. this was awesome!

Mike said...

I'm making one of your Pork Belly recipes right now, and stumbled across this when reacquainting myself with your blog. Had I spotted this earlier today - it would be in my oven now. Oh well, there is always next week.

Jules and Ruby said...

hi Mike...sorry i didn't catch your comment...
i hope i get a report on your belly...does that sound a bit odd ?

Unknown said...

I like these all sweety food guides.Thanks for hosting this post.

chris said...

Making this right now! Thanks.

Unknown said...

This looks delicious, but I can't find skin on Shoulder anywhere in Minnesota. Any ideas?

Jules and Ruby said...

hey Ted...sorry your my comments were blocked by a whole mess of spam...just deleted and saw this from you.....do you have a butcher near? i bet somewhere, oh somewhere there has to be one....OR why don"t you try a pork belly like the one i have for crispy skin tacos? it's much more fatty, but you sure will get that crispy skin...Xj

Unknown said...

This may sound silly, butt I've never made on of these roasts before. Do you cover with foil the whole cooking time or just to tent at the end?

Ray said...

Gorgeous.

Unknown said...

I have a bone in, skin on picnic butt. I want to braise it for the juices to pour over meat. Any Suggestions?
Beezer

TioTEO said...

Bless you!
This is now my favorite way to slow cook a butt!
But...
I use brown sugar n mustard in my rub, so everything CARAMELIZED! :(
Thought we had lost it, but, no!
Yes, we got crispy skin, but I also took my stick blender to the caramelized onions, garlic n fond (sans fat) n got this mole like FOOD OF THE GODS!
Stirred that back into the pulled pork.....
Home made slaw, toasted Kings Hawaiian buns, a dab of sauce.....
Excuse me, I need some alone time, now.

jerseypaulie said...

I've made this twice now, and have to say, it's the best way to do a shoulder. When scoring the shoulder I do a cross hatch and the little squares of puffy crispy skin are fought over at the table.
First time, I actually made pulled pork, which was fine, but a lot of work. Second time we just made slices and it was even better. The key is to make sure you wedge the onion slices underneath to keep it standing up, and to make sure it cooks long enough. It's a tough piece of meat that needs to cook a long time. For my 10.5 lb. shoulder it took over 8 hours.
Thanks for a great method to make a "showstopper".

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Joanna said...

I made this again today and it is still amazing! I have been using your recipes for almost ten years now. It is perfect!

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