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Roasted pork shoulder

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Position a rack about 1/3 from the bottom of your oven and preheat to 350ºF
  2. Salt, pepper, and oil the shoulder all over and place skin-up in a large casserole dish – ideally, one that’s around 2in deep and twice the area of the pork shoulder
  3. Peel and quarter the onions, and peel and crush all the cloves from the head of garlic. Scatter around the pork shoulder in the casserole dish.
  4. Add the wine, star anise, and bay leaf to the casserole dish.
  5. Cut a piece of parchment paper the size of the top of the shoulder, and place it on top of the shoulder.
  6. Very tightly cover the entire casserole dish with aluminum foil
  7. Cook until a probe thermometer in the thickest part of the roast reads more than 190ºF – this will take several hours, but it’s impossible to tell how long up front. Cook this when you have nothing to do all day and no deadline. Ideally you’ll let the temperature get up to 200ºF; a pork shoulder has tons of fat and isn’t likely to dry out.
  8. Remove the aluminum foil and parchment and raise the oven temperature to 450ºF – ideally, you’ll want to turn on the broiler and use convection. You’re looking to crisp up the skin, now that the connective tissue and fat has rendered.
  9. Let the roast rest on the stovetop for 15-30min, then remove the star anise and bay leaf. Remove the crispy skin to a plate, then remove the roast’s bones (they should slide out easily). Shred the meat. Stash those bones in your freezer for later.
  10. Now is probably the right time to eat that crispy pork skin. It cannot get crispier. You’ve earned it.
  11. Store the casserole full of shredded pork, onions and garlic in the fridge. You’ve essentially got pork confit on your hands. It can be reheated to make tacos, cabbage, fried rice – anything where you’d use pork.

See also