The whole hog roast. It is a fairly rare and slightly inaccessible treat. Sure, if you live in Hawai’i you can always go to a luau, but often times they’re relegated to county fairs and special catering occasions. Which is a shame, because there’s something about them that’s WAY better than just smoking a pork shoulder. I’ll let Chef John Explain
So, Y’all have seen my crock pot pulled pork recipe. I decided to try this, because it looked So. Damn. Good. Anyway, here’s what I did.
I went to my local mercado, which is the closest place to me with a full service butcher. I got my 2 pound rack of ribs, then went to the counter. I asked for pork belly, and they had it. (note to self. If you have a hankering, always shop there). BUT—they only sold it in 3lb pieces, with the skin on. No problem. I asked for a couple pounds of pork butt, but the smallest they could cut me was a 4lb bone in shoulder roast. So I wound up with 9lbs of meat in three different cuts.
When it was time to cook, I made my rub, which consisted of my usual salt, brown sugar, garlic powder, onion powder, and smoked paprika. I added some smoked salt and poultry seasoning (dried powdered herbs. I didn’t use any of my Bell’s), both white and black pepper, and celery seed. Among other things. I also used a bunch of smoked salt as well. My rub changes every time I make it, although the basis is the same. I rubbed it all over, and placed it in my crock pot and put it in the fridge to cure throughout the day. (I did this REALLY early in the morning). Sometime between 11pm and 2am, I pulled the meat out of the fridge and put it on the low setting in my crock pot. After close to 16 hours, it was ready. The pork skin (yes, I left the skin on) was nice and soft and flavorful. The meat was SO tender. I let it cool a bit then drained all the fat in my usual procedure. After as much fat as I could get out, I added my WESTERN Carolina vinegar BBQ sauce, What’s the difference between Eastern and Western? Western Carolina sauce has a tomato product in it, usually ketchup. Chef John did an Eastern Carolina sauce, actually it was his interpretation of Rodney Scott’s sauce.
My original intent was to serve this with some low carb tortillas, with some raw onion, spicy bread and butter pickles, and kewpie mayo and make burritos. But the meat and sauce were so wet, the tortilla basically collapsed. So I skipped the tortilla and put it in my meal containers like so
Clik here to view.
Let me tell you, Chef John is RIGHT. Use his method. The different cuts DO have different tastes and textures. And it’s GLORIOUS. This is how I’m going to do crock pot pulled pork from now on, now that I know I can get pork belly pretty readily from a good butcher.
Oh, speaking of pork belly. I KNOW some of you were like “Hey zen, what about that pork belly skin? did you shred that in the pork, or what?”
Well, in an actual smoked hog, the skin is served in the meat, and it’s oh so crispy and good. You really can’t get that in a slow cooker.
HOWEVER, the sequel, or “what I did with all that pork skin” is coming up in my next diary.
As for WFD, I’m not sure, because today was the first Bears pre season game of the year, at noon CT so there will be some wine, but I’m thinking karaage with furikake sushi rice sometime this weekend. How about you all?
