January 23, 2007
Coupon Clipper: Pork Shoulder
Pork Shoulder is and will be a relative bargain compared to almost every other cut of meat. It's tough, requires long cooking times, and is huge and hard to manage. But this week at C-Town it’s approaching a whole new realm of cheapness. At $.79 a pound, you'll run out of people to feed before you'll come any where near the $10 mark. You’ll have to fight for it though. Sure it’s cheap, but it certainly doesn’t come neatly in fillets, or even semi-manageable hunks. The smallest one we could find at C-Town was an ounce over 10 pounds. And because it's wrapped in plastic, the butcher is not going to be of much use.
Now, before you start calculating how many pork sandwiches you’ll have to plow through to finish it, notice that the price is actually better than advertised. $.69 a pound. At at $6.91 for 10 odd pounds of meat, you’ll be hard pressed to find a cheaper meal. Oh, except for at the Met. As we were carrying home the 10 pound behemoth from the C-Town 20 minutes away, we noticed that the Met across the street had the exact same deal. So there is no reason not to jump in. But what to do with such a beast?
During the summer, this isn't really a problem. If you've got a grill, some beer, a few friends, and a hot day, smoking that sucker for 8 hours is about as fine an event as you can imagine. But it's best now to rely on the oven, and roasting is a perfectly acceptable alternative. While the meat isn't going to have the smoky goodness of your backyard dream, the oven will definitely suffice, especially if you tweak the cooking. You can do lots of things with the meat. We always think of pulled pork sandwiches, but this time we just had Chipotle on our mind, and their carnitas.
I can't claim the same kind of meat quality that Chipotle can. I bought this hunk at C-Town, and for $.69 a pound. I'm guessing this wasn't the most humanely raised pig in the lot. But that's not my battle. What I had to worry about was making this taste like that Mexican grill, which required a little research. Some called for braising, but I decided to go with roasting. This isn’t the exact same recipe, but it is relatively easy.
Cut off as much of the fat as you can; unfortunately there will be a great deal. Then rub minced onion and garlic all over it, and sprinkle on a tablespoon or so of salt and pepper. Place in a preheated oven at 300 degrees and roast for 4 to 5 hours or until the interior temperature is 160 degrees. Let it rest for 15 minutes before tearing it apart.
For pulled pork sandwiches you’d just shred it with two forks, add your favorite barbecue sauce, and be done with it. For carnitas, crank the oven up to 500, shred the pork into smaller chunks and place back in the roasting pan. Put in oven for 20-30 minutes, or until the meat develops a crispy exterior. Remove when done and now it’s up to you and whatever you love in your burrito the most. We made a little corn salsa, black beans, and some sour cream.
Got a better method of dealing with pork shoulder? Let us know. We’re always looking for new ways.
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My dad uses the same method with equal parts ketchup and Coke... it's absolutely delicious.
I think this post should win an award for the most irrelevant Gothamist post ever.
New Yorker's don't have four or five hours to roast a ten pound pork shoulder. If they did, they probably wouldn't want to.
Steve's comment is patently untrue, as the post proves that at least some NYers do.
My mom makes this super salty and delicious pork & bamboo shoot soup with it. I dream of it in the winter sometimes.
umm..Did someone hack your site? How is this remotely relevant to anything relating to NYC or anything you write about at all? What are you, pimpin' Ctown and meat now? I'm a vegetarian and really don't need to see this kinda crap when I don't have to. I come here for news about NYC not about dead flesh.
it's related to nyc because it's a special offered at stores in nyc. do you complain when they talk about movies or plays or concerts? and you could have just skipped this article.
oh my god, dead animals! oh noooooo!
From Paula Wolfert's Slow Med, it's the unbelieeevably delicious: Pork Shoulder Coddled in Olive Oil with Tuscan Beans and Arugula. This dish hails from Arezzo, where people have at times been so poor as to have to kill piggies for lack of pig food. Also, a recipe akin to Sicily's olive-oil poached tuna. Remember though, Berkshire Kurubota pork shoulder, at Lobels will run you about $30 a pound.
Wolfert coyly recommends "Trim away all the fat, sinew and membrane from the pork. Cut the meat into 2-inch chunks." That itself could take two hours, but after that it's a joy ride.
Set the chunks up in a fennel seed & thyme rub with s&p of course, overnight. The next day, lightly bubble the chunks, single-layered in 2 cups of evoo, on the stovetop, covered, for about 30 minutes. Then 'coddle' the chunks in the oven at 250 for 2.5 hours having added a small head of garlic, halved. Discard the garlic and leave the rest in the fridge for up to five days before you serve it.
Day of Feast:
Cook up a mess of white beans - cannellini I'd suggest and cool to room temp.
Paper-thin slice a red onion and soak in 1 T red wine vinegar a half hour.
Slowly reheat the pork in the oil, drain that; scoop off the oil and add the reserved meat juice to the beans. Serve on a big colorful ceramic plate from Tuscany: pile high the beans, sprinkle with red wine vineager-marinated red onion, top with the meat and surround with arugula.
That's some mighty fine Grade D looking meat ya got there.
I love these posts with grocery store tie-ins!
There are many of us New Yorkers who do cook (people who work from home or stay-at-home moms especially) and appreciate the tips. In fact, when I'm not busy running over pedestrians with my stroller or forcing restaurant goers to appreciate my adorable child, I am home slow cooking something.
Spice rub
1/3 cup kosher salt
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon ancho chile powder
1 tablespoon chipotle chile powder
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
3 tablespoons garlic powder
2 tablespoons ground coriander
1 tablespoon fresh thyme, finely chopped
Still the best way to cook a pork shoulder is slow, low indirect heat in a covered grill for 6 hours..
If you don't have a grill just use the oven 250 degrees for 6-8 hours
Some people wait on line in the park for a few hours for a burger and a shake, and others prefer to chill out in the comfort of your own home for some slow cooked goodness. *shrug*
I prefer the latter. Lazy Sunday afternoons are made for these sort of meals! :)
Spice rub
1/3 cup kosher salt
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon ancho chile powder
1 tablespoon chipotle chile powder
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
3 tablespoons garlic powder
2 tablespoons ground coriander
1 tablespoon fresh thyme, finely chopped
For best results cover the shoulder with this spice rub and leave it in the fridge overnight before cooking..
Still the best way to cook a pork shoulder is slow, low indirect heat in a covered grill for 6 hours..
If you don't have a grill just use the oven 250 degrees for 6-8 hours
Totally relevant. Give me a break with the "dead flesh" shit. You're a vegitarian? Great. No one cares.
Especially when sour cream is soooooo much nastier...
too many pictures of dead animal. the article may be relevant, but it's a bit obnoxious.
the story is, you know, about meat. no one complained that there were too many pictures of wesley autrey in all the stories about him ... get over it.
Though that which best recommends pork shoulder is that it's also known as butt.
Man, I love it. Ten pounds of pork shoulder for $7? What a great deal! I've never bought pork shoulder in my life but your article makes me want to go out and learn how to cook that stuff.
A strange post but a fun and practical one.
...oh yeah C-Town is the place to buy meat. What's with that nasty fork in the photo?
I make a wet rub using sour oranges (Seville oranges), garlic, oregano, salt & pepper. Use is to baste the meat while it's roasting. Save some to use as a sauce with the cooked pork.
If it's smaller than me, slower than me & dumber than me, it's called lunch.
I lost a few pork shoulders I smoked for 12 hours as a result of the Queens blackout this summer. Maybe this is the incentive I need to make em over again (even if it means my crazy neighbor continually coming over to complain that the smoke smells like her house is burning down).
Veggie-heads please remember: If G-d didn't want us to eat animals, he wouldn't have made them out of meat.
How'd they make it so cheap? Massive industrial feedlots where pigs have their tails cut off so other pigs won't chew tham off and where sows spend their entire lives in a crate so small that they can't turn around.
I eat meat, I love pork, but I'd rather spend my money on a provider who will treat the pigs with something less than sadism, like Flying Pigs Farm. Yes, they all end up dead, but they don't spend their lives literally in shit, pumped full of antibiotics. If no0thing else, it sure tastes a lot better.
As they say in Brooklyn "Meat is moidah"!
We should eat vegetarians
wonder if smithfield discounted their pork to lure eaters back:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/12840743/porks_dirty_secret_the_nations_top_hog_producer_is_also_one_of_americas_worst_polluters/1
You can do it Puerto Rican style. Get some sofrito if you cannot get it fresh purchase goyas frozen sofrito (frozen kind is best). I usually add some extra garlic and red pepper. Cut slits throughout the pork and shove the mixture in. I then take adobo and sasson and rub it all over the pork. Marinate it overnight with a little vinegar, set oven to 250 and place pork, skin side down in oven and cover with foil for 2 hours. Turn pork over and remove foil and cook for another hour.
Wow, you won't find this on BrooklynVegan!
I'm with you on Flying Pigs Farm. We have pictures that will freak out vegetarians much more than this one, for the record.
I know the point of this article is the amazing price for such a cut of pork, so it probably does come from a mass production facility.
If you can, try to find a good independent butcher who will tell you where they buy their meat from.. You may end up paying a little more, but you’re not supporting animal concentration camps like Smithfield Foods.
Most of the best butchers get their meats from smaller farms. They probably aren't the ideal Ma & Pa farmer either, but at least they aren't the type of facility like Smithfield.
Stupid person.
Movies, plays and concerts are events in NYC. A sale at C-town isn't. There's thousands of sales going on every day in stores all over town. I couldn't skip the post because it was top of the page and the first story of the day.
$kins
Learn to spell before you make a weak attempt at a rebuttal. And honestly, no one cares about ignorant, uneducated carnivores.
and finally, to stupid people DONT eat meat
Try reading your "B-ble" front to back so you can find out your "G-d"'s real belief on meat eating. Maybe Google "meat eating and the bible" and see what come up in the first 100 or so results.
I love stupid people eat dead animals... Totally right. G-d wants you to murder soy beans so you can enjoy milkshakes made of crap tasting crap. If you hurt something that looks cute or screams, you're an R-TARD LOL! Good thing G-man cut out the vocal chords of plants so we couldn't hear their curtling cries for help while we eviscerated them! Long live vegans/vegetarians.