ISO cooking pork shoulder/pulled pork w/crock-pot

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fried_green_tomatoes

Assistant Cook
Joined
Apr 23, 2017
Messages
6
Location
Johnson City
I have a pork shoulder to cook in the crockpot and I've never made it before, I have seen a million ideas on Pinterest, and I have no idea what to do, whether to do a dry rub, add water, add a can of soda...so lost??? I need tips/hints...help pleaassseee.
 
Would you like to try it Pilipino style?
LECHON​

Ingredients:

5 to 7 boneless pound pork shoulder

Rub​

1-tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
2 tsp ground ginger
½ tsp ground cumin
¼ tsp crushed red pepper
3 Tbs peanut oil
3 Tbs soy sauce

Sauce​

4oz can liver pâté
⅓ cup vinegar
1 cup water
⅓ cup sugar
⅓ cup bread crumbs
2 Tbs cooking oil
2 Tbs finely chopped onion
1 Tbs minced garlic
1 tsp salt
½ tsp black pepper

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 500F.

Mix all the rub ingredients together and rub it all over the pork shoulder. Place the pork shoulder in a roasting pan on a rack. Roast the pork shoulder in a 500F oven for 30 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 350F and continue to roast the pork shoulder until the internal temperature reaches 145F. Allow the roast to rest, covered with aluminum foil, while you make the lechon sauce.

In a small bowl, mix the liver pâté, vinegar, water, sugar, bread crumbs, salt and pepper together. In a small saucepan, heat the oil and sauté the onion until transparent. Add the garlic and sauté until fragrant. Add the pâté mixture, bring it to a boil, reduce the heat to low and simmer it until the sauce thickens. Use the sauce as a dipping sauce or as gravy.

To cook the pork shoulder in a crock pot, put the roast in the crock pot and cook it on low for 8 hours or on high for 4 hours. Check the internal temperature before removing the roast from the crock pot.
 
Is it a smoked shoulder, or untreated? What kind of meal did you want to have it for? An outdoor BBQ? Or a meal at the family table? Are you wanting to serve it tonight?

We have cooks here who have recipes and advice galore. I am sure one will be along shortly. Me, not so much. I am a New Englander through and through. So I only as a rule make a smoke shoulder boiled dinner. And I know that is not what you are looking for.
 
I've used this recipe the last couple of times. I always have the ingredients on hand...almost always, that is. :ermm: The last time my limes didn't give me enough juice so I added enough lemon juice to measure. The flavor really isn't as important as the acidity. Besides, I squeeze fresh lime juice over my taco as a topping.

Mexican Slow Cooker Pork Carnitas
 
Slow cooker pulled pork. :ohmy: If you say so.:ermm::LOL: I know, I know.:angel:
 
Craig, my choices are based on time and authenticity. Sometimes "time" comes out the winner. Eh, if I want authentic I'll roll over to B.T.'s Smokehouse and get something from their low-and-slow. Whatever works for you, and since Himself does NO cooking, NO prep work, NO cleaning up...I personally am OK with slow cooker fall-apart pork. ;)
 
I have a pork shoulder to cook in the crockpot and I've never made it before, I have seen a million ideas on Pinterest, and I have no idea what to do, whether to do a dry rub, add water, add a can of soda...so lost??? I need tips/hints...help pleaassseee.

Pork shoulder is very versatile, and almost impossible to mess up.

I am making a Cuban roast pork this weekend. I've smoked dozens of them. I make carnitas on a regular basis.

The key is to cook a shoulder low and slow, so the fat renders, and you have some moist and tender meat. I've never used a crock pot for pork shoulder, but I'm not a crock pot fan. But, it is a good cut of meat for what a crock pot does best -- low and slow.

Try a search on "Crock-pot Cuban roast pork." Another good search would be "Crock-pot Carnitas." Carnitas make great tacos.

CD
 
I've smoked a bunch of pork shoulders (butts) and to be honest, the smoke only penetrates about a half inch into that dense cut of meat. The bigger the butt, the less smoke flavor you get in your pulled pork.

One of the things I like about pork butt is how many ways you can cook it, and still have it taste great.

CD
 
No matter how many times "we've been through this before", It does not mean I can't express my opinion. I wasn't being rude and who appointed you the "post police"?:rolleyes::ROFLMAO:

Craig I read it exactly as intended. Tongue in cheek. I saw nothing offensive about it at all. But then I don't go looking for arguments with other people. I try to find some laughter every day in life.
 
To pulled pork purists, you can't make pulled pork in a crock pot. Traditional, Memphis style pulled pork uses a pork shoulder, or usually a Boston Butt that is slowly barbecued with lots of smoke to flavor it. A mop (flavored brine solution applied by a clean mop) is used to baste the meat and add flavor. When the meat reaches about 190 degrees F., the meat is removed from the pit and pulled. It is served with three sauce options, which are not stirred into the meat.

Ok, now that we have that out of the way, the way I make pulled pork involves no recipe, simply good technique, and yes I use a slow cooker and get the same texture and flavors that the pit-masters in Memphis get. Here's how it's done, if you want a traditional pulled pork.

Get the largest Boston Butt that will fit your slow cooker. Roupghly chop a large yellow onion. Season the outside of the meat with salt. Place the onions and meat into the slow cooker, set to medium temp. setting, and cook until a thermometer reads 190 degrees. Remove the meat to a large, seasoned cast iron pan, or the heaviest pan you have, and pull it into chunks.

This next part is what makes it taste so much like pit-barbecued pulled pork. I make a solid bed of coals in my Webber Charcoal grill. When the coals are hot, I place sticks and rounds of apple-wood on top. You can purchase smokeing woods, and use a steel smoker box, made for use with gas babrecues. Anyways, take that pan full of meat and place it into that hot, smokey barbecue for ten minutes. Now stir everything and smoke for ten minutes more. Becasude you are exposing so much of the meat surface to the smoke, it only takes twenty minutes to achieve what takes houts when smoking the whole roast. Now serve that pulled porl with a good slaw, and a honey mustard sauce, a tomato/brown sugar sauce, and a vinegar based sauce, all with good kaiser rolls. Enjoy.

Seeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North
 
To pulled pork purists, you can't make pulled pork in a crock pot. Traditional, Memphis style pulled pork uses a pork shoulder, or usually a Boston Butt that is slowly barbecued with lots of smoke to flavor it. A mop (flavored brine solution applied by a clean mop) is used to baste the meat and add flavor. When the meat reaches about 190 degrees F., the meat is removed from the pit and pulled. It is served with three sauce options, which are not stirred into the meat.

Funny thing is, Memphis style is not the only method of making pulled pork. Pulled pork, again, is simply seasoned pork that is cooked to 190 or so, so it can be easily shredded with a couple of forks. In Virginia and North Carolina, there is no mop, just a rub. And no choice of sauce - just cider vinegar and hot pepper flakes.

None of that means people can't use modern methods to make pulled pork.
 
Your Longwindness, I am a BBQ purist, but can't really argue with you -- much. Big, dense cuts of meat only soak up so much smoke. Beyond that, you are just cooking the meat. I'm not sure ten to twenty minutes is long enough to max out smoke penetration, but I have no evidence that it isn't. I would go longer with the smoke, myself, and would probably do the smoking first, then move to the crock pot. It is my understanding that raw meat absorbs smoke better.

As for temperature, I go well above 190 -- although I actually don't pay a lot of attention to temperature. I use two tried and tested doneness tests. First, the shoulder bone pulls out with zero resistance. Second, my thermometer probe goes into the meat like a hot knife through room temperature butter -- basically no resistance.

Again, the best thing about pork shoulder/butt is that it is so forgiving, and so versatile.

CD
 
I cannot count the times that a guest has risen from my table, threw down his napkin, yelled, "This is not authentic!!!" and left my house...

oh wait.... yes I can... zero... :ROFLMAO:

Ross
 
I do use a crockpot for my pulled pork. I use a rub generally from McCormick but I do have a recipe for a rub that I've used before. Rub the meat all over, plop it in the crock, add a bottle of liquid smoke, set it and wait. My son has learned how to do it and will set it cooking before he goes to bed at night. He likes to take it to work for their potlucks so he cooks it all night and can then shred it in the morning before going in. No one complains and we rarely have leftovers.
 
I cannot count the times that a guest has risen from my table, threw down his napkin, yelled, "This is not authentic!!!" and left my house...

oh wait.... yes I can... zero... :ROFLMAO:

Ross
[emoji38] +1. The first time I made ribs in the oven using smoked paprika in the rub, DH asked how I got that smoky flavor without a smoker. (That was several years ago. I gave him a smoker for Christmas a couple years ago.)
 
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