Recently, I had the opportunity learn a bit about butchering a pig – how to take it apart and turn it into the various cuts you see in the market (or at the farmer’s market). A friend who has excellent knife skills and some butchering experience led the workshop, and was really great about explaining what the different cuts were.
We lucked out and had half a local pastured pig for the workshop, and I was also fortunate to be able to take home a piece of the shoulder cut, a boneless blade roast. This roast had quite the fat layer on it.
Make that a delicious fat layer. Over the many hours it cooked, the fat basted the meat – and some dripped into the pan, leaving me some wonderful lard for future cooking. Then there was the disintegration of any connective tissue during the long roasting process, making for meat that really just fell apart. It was a truly tasty transformation.
But first, I created a marinade for the meat.
In it was garlic, oregano, salt, ground grains of paradise, citrus juice, apple cider vinegar, and a little bit of bacon fat (for viscosity). I used grains of paradise – a species in the ginger family with a peppery flavor – because I ran out of regular black pepper.
After I created the marinade, I put it on the meat and let it sit for an hour in a glass pan, covered in plastic wrap, in the fridge, and then 30 minutes on the counter, warming up a bit.
Then I roasted it for many hours. Partway through, I added some beer to the liquid in the pan. It came out looking like this:
Not the prettiest thing, but I chalk that up to having picked at it during the cooking process to, um, test the flavor (it was fantastic!). And then I pulled it apart into this:
Like I said above, the flavor was fantastic. I loved the savoriness of it and how easy it was to pull it apart. It was delightfully porky. That night I just ate it by itself. The following day I ate it warmed up with some homemade salsa verde I made over the summer. Now roast pork with salsa verde is an epic combination – I loved it!
I also found that this pork was fairly filling – such is the beauty of real food.
This recipe was inspired by Tyler Florence’s recipe for roast pork shoulder.
Ingredients
1 boneless pastured pork shoulder (about 4 pounds), skin and fat on
4 garlic cloves
2 tbs dried oregano
4 tsp kosher salt (I used 2 tsp of kosher salt and 2 tsp of Gardenfreude paprika salt)
1 tbs coarsely ground black pepper (or grains of paradise)
3 tbs melted pastured lard or bacon fat
Juice of 1 lemon
Juice of 1 lime
Juice of 2 oranges
1 tbs apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup light colored beer (I used Corona)
Directions
Place the pork, fat-side up in a glass pan, and using a sharp knife, score the surface of the meat with small slits.
Mash up the garlic, oregano, salt, and pepper into a paste on a cutting board with the flat side of a knife; place this mixture in a bowl and stir in the melted fat, lemon juice, lime juice, juice from 1 and a half oranges, and cider vinegar.
Pour the marinade over the pork, and rub it into the meat, making sure to get some of solids into the slits in the meat. Cover the pork with plastic wrap and marinate in the refrigerator for an hour.
Allow the meat to sit at room temperature for 30 minutes before cooking. Preheat the oven to 350F. Create a tent with parchment paper or tinfoil to cover the meat. A tent is basically a piece of parchment or foil folded in half the long way.
Roast the pork, covered with the foil or parchment tent, as follows:
-350 for 1 hour
-300 for 3 hours
-325 for 1 hour
-350 for 1 hour
After the first hour, add the 1/2 cup of beer and juice from the remaining half an orange. The meat will be cooked when it flakes apart easily.
Let it sit for 10 minutes and pull the pork apart. This is easily done with tongs – just pull the meat away from itself.
Wow, looks fantastic and so tender! I love the spice mix, too.
I’ve never butchered a pig (just dissected for my degree), but I’d be really interested to learn. Great opportunity!
It was really interesting to learn about taking a pig apart – I’m glad I had the opportunity. Looking forward to sending you cookies in the new year!
I’d really love some suggestions about how to hook up with similar groups in my neck of the woods! That looks amazing and I’d love to learn more about different cuts of meat and find good source for my meats.
hennifer, I’d suggest searching Meetup and Facebook groups or pages to see what’s going on. You also might contact the Weston A Price Foundation (WAPF) chapter in Salem – here’s more info: http://livingcultureonline.blogspot.com/2011/09/salem-chapter-of-weston-price.html
No doubt, they would be in the know for this sort of thing. Or they could lead you to people who do know more. Also, see if there are any resources near you via the realmilk.com site: http://realmilk.com/where4.html#or
A lot of people interested in raw milk are also interested in pastured/grass-fed meats, as well as nose-to-tail eating, and have sources.
Good luck and let me know what you find out!
I LOVE that you learned about butchering! I’ve been thinking about doing this for ages. And that pulled pork looks just stunning.
Thanks, Lexi! I really want to know more about the meat I consume. Workshops like this are really helpful. Hope you are well!