How do you make yours? I mean besides bacon! For New Year, I made kalua pork as one of my meats. Was good. But little monkey likes it different. Which was a surprise to me since she normally loves kalua pig. So today, I picked up a large pork butt to make pork adobo, an iconic Filipino dish. First up was to cube it up to marinate. Marinate was just minced garlic, chopped onions, some seasoning mix (salt & pepper will do), a bunch of peppercorns, a handful of dry bay leaves and soy sauce. I just filled a large ziplock and mixed it by squishing it around. I did cute out a steak to make my lunch. No one else wanted, so it was all mine. Just lightly seasoned and pan fried. Didn't want to fire up just for my lunch. It was cooked perfectly. And was tender, juicy and tasty. Wifee ended up eating some. I little monkey hadn't already eaten, I would have been out of luck. Lunch So after marinating for several hours and mixed once or twice, it was time to start dinner. Really easy. I just heated a large pot, dumped it all in and lightly browned the pork, and added some vinegar. Didn't know where the white vinegar was, so used rice vinegar. Just a note, rice vinegar is much mellower. Stirred and added water to cover the meat. Stirred again and let it simmer for an hour, hour and a half. I suppose I could have used fish sauce (an @Bear favorite ;p) instead of soy sauce. While it was simmering, made wild rice. Little monkey loved it. She had thirds! And was happy when I told her I would make it on an upcoming camping trip. It was very tender and flavorful. And the milder vinegar made it, well, milder. I like it stronger. But I think the kids at camp will like it milder, like monkey. I had two servings. Wifee liked it too. Big monkey is really particular with her food. But at least she tried it. So how do you pork?
Family likes it cooked in the oven. 425F, On a pan that has salt and rosemary on it, fat up, drizzle with olive oil, add more salt and rosemary to taste. I like to cut mine up into chops, salt and pepper, fry some bacon, and then fry the pork in the bacon grease with chopped up bacon... I have problems. Haha.
We love pork in the electric smoker. Get a big Boston butt or two or three. Put each in pan, sprinkle with salt and what ever other seasonings you want. Put in smoker set to 250 degF and smoke with apple wood chips a couple hours. Add apple juice to pan, cover and seal with aluminum foil, reduce smoker temp to 210 degF and cook for another 10-14 hours until meat reaches 205 degrees inside. Remove from smoker, grab shoulder blade, give it a litte shake and pull it free. Remove larger remains of the fat (the oil will have separated and flowed into meat and pan). Couple pulls with bear claws and it shreds instantly. Truly fall off the bone tender, very moist and flavorful. The long low temps and sealing the moisture in the pan are the trick -- most of the time is below the boiling temp of water to avoid drying and the are just high enough and long enough to break down the fat into crackling and lard also contributing to the moisture and flavor. Enjoy either as is or with favorite BBQ sauce. AT
@Hanzo...Sir, you have outdone yourself again. I am sitting here thinking about pork now. This looks absolutely wonderful.
Mahalo for the kind words, @pearlselby. Can't say I've outdone anything. I like pork in many varieties. Call me weird, but I like my baby back ribs and pork chops with a citrus marinade and/or baste. I think it really brings the flavor out. When I do pork chops, I grill em and smoke em. But not overly long. When they are about medium well, I cut the medallions out and throw the bones back over the hot coals and will sear them up. The medallions are tender and juicy. The inside is just barely blushing, as I have heard described across the pond. The bones are well done and my favorite. I am happy to just chow down on all the bones. The citrus and salt is intense when it is seared like that. Oh, and I made a loin when I had a colleague over to do some work. We worked into lunch time. So I used the citrus (fresh lemon, lime and orange juice) again. Seared the outside to keep the juice in, then smoked it. Brought it in. While it rested, I toasted some French bread and rubbed it with raw garlic. Then made a citrus aioli to spread on the bread. Sliced the pork paper thin. When I sliced it, juice was squirting everywhere. A big pile of slices of pork in between the bread. And he said, "That's the best sandwich I have had in my life!" I have to admit, it was freaking awesome.
The family only likes bacon, sausage and pork loin only if it is made into pulled pork sandwiches, otherwise they won't eat it. They seem to be beef eaters- all things beef.
Some of my family is the same way. My theory is they were driven away from pork because of people grossly over cooking it out of fear of trichinosis from undercooked meat. However, swine raised in confined feeding buildings are feed grain based diets and are not feed meat products nor can they root around in the dirt and mud picking up the cysts. The risk is just not significant anymore with confined swine (so much for free range being better, yada, yada, yada). Anyway, if you use a good fast response thermocouple food thermometer and watch the temps very closely to avoid over cooking, your family can experience very good and moist pork that they will quite likely enjoy, the trick is getting them to try it again. Current USDA guidelines for pork chops has been greatly reduced in temps and times. Follow these and they will be safe, moist and good. (first table in USDA title 9 section 318.10) https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CFR-2012-title9-vol2/xml/CFR-2012-title9-vol2-sec318-10.xml To measure the temps accurately, I have two of these and use one for darn near every thing we cook, smoke, grill or bake. I get perfect medium rare steaks, perfect chops, chicken, etc. every time. My wife gets perfectly baked bread. We didn't pay $179 for ours: the last one we bought was a maybe a year ago and it was about $80. There are some cheapo versions but don't know how well those work. We love our Thermapens. Shop around. Amazon.com: ThermoWorks Super-Fast Thermapen (Red) Professional Thermocouple Cooking Thermometer: Kitchen & Dining AT
Classic southwestern/mexican dish called Chili Verde or Green Chili pork. Using roasted Hatch Green Chilis, pork, tomatillos, onions and lots of cumin.
Here is a basic recipe for it. I never use flour due to the gluten but arrow root power is an option depending on whether you want broth or gravy base. I will see if I can dig up mine. Most of the time I wing it freestyle. Chile Verde Con Cerdo Green Chili With Pork) Recipe - Food.com
