Sunday Gravy with yeah right: Root Beer Braised Pork Shoulder!

Good morning everyone.

Well, we’re all up in summer’s ass now aren’t we? Shit, it reached 78 degrees here and everything. That’s undignified. Especially when I’ve got a few more “Cook in the oven” menus lined up for y’all.

Welcome back to Sunday Gravy, the place where we teach you some recipes, give some cool cooking techniques while also sharpening up your goddamn vulgarity skills at the same time.

Multi-fucking-tasking!

That photo is an attention getter isn’t it? Kind of made you rethink what you were doing for food later today too, didn’t it?

It’s nice to have a photo do the heavy lifting for you. No badgering, no suggesting, no wrangling you to “Really, really try this! I think you’ll like it.”

Just Bam! Photo. Then you thinking “Mother of God, I need to eat that right now!”

Spoiler alert! Yes, you do.

Today’s recipe was another one that had been on the list of ideas for about 3 years. Kind of want to kick myself for not doing this sooner now that I’ve made it. 

We return once again to my dearest and most favorite protein of all: pig. Glorious, delicious porky goodness.

Before we start the main festivities I feel the need to espouse an opinion. ALL of the recipes I researched for this dish started with the words “Slow cooker” in the title. While I do get the convenience of them and shit, I actually own two goddamn crockpots myself and have used them extensively in the past, I have to go on record and say… Crockpots fucking suck. Again, I get it but the end result always comes out too watery, lacking in flavor and just basically fucking boring.

Give me the option to slow cook in the oven – or even on the stove top – and I am using that option every motherfucking time. Period. You can give your crockpot cooked foods a little more flavor by browning the meat first and that does help but still. Slow braising in the oven intensifies the flavors while slow cooking in a crockpot just leeches the flavors out.

Give me my damn oven already.

Not to pile on but every single recipe, except one, that I researched just chunked up their pig raw, added just a couple of seasonings and poured on the cooking liquid and slow cooked it that way.

[tamps down gag reflex]

That’s fucked up people. FUCKED UP.

psst. hey, wanna know who cooked the one recipe that browed the meat. you do? it was Paula Dean. What? I don’t subscribe to her newsletter! I just researched recipes. 

Let me do this one the right way alright?

Score your ass some pork shoulder.

Yes that is one big mama-jama but it was the only size they had in stock. Hell of a deal on this fucker too.

Think we’re only gonna need half of this slab today and I can freeze the rest for another usage. You will be seeing that usage in a few weeks I promise.

Get to hacking.

Super easy prep today. Anyone can and should make this dish. Our dry rub will be a simple concoction of salt, pepper, hot Hungarian paprika and dried thyme. Say a teaspoon of each. Rub the piggie down evenly with the rub, then we’re going to sear it in a pot with a few tablespoons of cooking oil for about 5-6 minutes per side.

Nothing challenging, nothing too fancy.

Be sure to sear all sides. We’re looking to add a depth of flavor here by applying the aforementioned “Maillard Reaction.” Hearken back to your notes for more info.

Beauty.

The title of our post was a dead giveaway but the primary – and unusual – secret ingredient is this stuff.

If you have a preferred brand – first off why? – use that. If not use the house brand, Shit’s basically going to boil away anyway.

Chop up an onion and some garlic next.

The idea being we’re going to create a lovely onion/garlic tanning bed for our little piggie to bronze on in the oven. Like a fuckin’ spa type of thing but without the cucumber water.

Add in the root beer next. I ended up using the entire 2 litre bottle.

Cover with a lid and cook in a preheated 325 degree oven for 3 hours.

When the 3 hours are up, remove the lid and let the pork cool before attempting to shred. Leave the oven on at it’s established 325 degrees though, this motherfucker ain’t done yet.

Now grab a bottle of your favorite barbecue sauce. If you make your own, good on ya! You’re a culinary and barbecue badass.

I’m sticking with “easy” as the theme today so I chose this one.

Sweet Baby Ray’s original would be my choice. They have a nice line of products but this one is the most balanced. At least on my palate. Again, use what works best for you. There is no right answer on the sauce. A good Memphis style sauce with the molasses would really play off of the sweetness of the root beer.

You will need a full cup of sauce.

Drain the cooking liquid from the pot of pig.

Next we will shred or “pull” the pig slab. Remove the blade bone and discard. I used a couple of forks and shredded the pig by dragging the forks across it in opposite directions.

You’ll figure it out.

Then dump in the cup of barbecue sauce and stir to combine.

Cover with the lid again and get this fucker back in the oven for a final hour of cooking.

You can use this last hour to gather and fuck around with your side dishes.

This is a damn solid barbecue bean choice if you can find it. 

I bought the Pringles because I hadn’t seen this flavor before and you know what? This shit is going to sell. This flavor was “Los Calientes, Rojo.” It really does have a decent amount of heat and it’s a good balance of flavor to heat as well.

Consensus was that they missed a golden fucking marketing opportunity. Why didn’t they have 10 different sauce flavors that escalated in heat? Think about it. Say you try flavor number 5 at a party or something and like it.

Ain’t you gonna want to try the rest of them after that?

That’s 9 lost cans of product you could have sold “Pringles.”

Fix yo marketing!

The pork should finally be done cooking.

Now I can fuck with that.

If you’re going to serve this on buns, do yourself a favor and buy a brioche type bun or a bun with some quality. You buy those shitty store brand hamburger buns, they’re just going to fall apart on you and make a goddamn mess. That shit ain’t nothin’ but a wad of processed white flour. Do better!

Also, do yourself another favor with these buns.

Toast them in butter first. I used Kerrygold butter too because that’s the type of shit I do.

Get the bun nice and golden and toasty.

Scoop a generous portion of Porky on there.

Add some more sauce if you like, slap a lid on that bad boy and maybe grab a scoop of some beans.

Want a bite?

Oh this fucker is a LOT tastier than I expected. It’s damn good pig. Of course you get the sweetness from the root beer and the sauce but the dry rub comes through really well and you also get the onion and garlic getting all savory in there.

This is rock solid “barbecue” pork with about 1% of the hassle of trying to smoke your own. It’s rich, decadent, smoky, porky and fatty.

I swear to you that if you tried the recipe without the browning of the meat and then slow cooking in the Crockpot? it would have had very different – and inferior – results.

All of you can make this but please do take my suggestion and slow braise in the oven won’t you?

Don’t you deserve the very tastiest and succulent pork possible?

I think you do, dammit.

I am happy to be part of the 10 year Door Flies Open anniversary celebration right here.

Dear penthouse letters: I never thought this would happen to me.

Ten years is insane and I ain’t done by a damn site. 

My very first episode of Sunday Gravy ran on June 11th 2015, [link] 

Today I wanted to bring back one of the “Old Ones” to re-share with you. This one is from Season 2, April 24th 2016. It’s for carne guisada and I still think it was one of my better early episodes.

It is a fucking exceptional dish and one I still make a few times each year. One of my favorite beef recipes period. Read if you like but do peruse the recipe. It’s bitchin’.

This week’s “fun” holidays courtesy of A Bit of Good News: “June 22 is World Rainforest Day, National Chocolate Eclair Day, National Kissing Day, National Limoncello Day, National Onion Ring Day and Take Your Cat to Work Day.”

Shit, you can almost make a meal out of onion rings, a chocolate eclair and Limoncello.

Get some rest this week, stay hydrated and we’ll meet up again next Sunday?

Cool?

Cool.