| Recipe: |
From Kenji Lopez-Alt of ATK/The Food Lab.
Do not be fooled by the simplicity of this dish. It is amazing! The pork shoulder I bought didn't have the skin on (it's hard to tell through the vacu-bag), so I skipped from the "increase oven temperature to 500 F" forward steps. Even so, the fat layer was decently crisp after 8 hours at 250 F. A much shorter spell at 500 F would probably have crisped it up a bit more.
Serve alone or with chimichurri, barbecue, or other sauce.
1 whole bone-in, skin-on pork shoulder*, 8-12 lbs.
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat oven to 250 F.
Line a heavy rimmed baking sheet with heavy-duty aluminum foil and set a wire rack in it. Lay a piece of parchment paper on top of the rack. Season the pork on all sides with salt and pepper and place on the parchment paper, skin (or fatty) side up. Roast until a knife or fork inserted in the side and twisted shows very little resistance, about 8 hours.
Remove pork from oven, tent with aluminum foil, and let rest at room temperature for at least 15 minutes and up to 2 hours.
Meanwhile, increase oven temperature to 500 F and allow to preheat. Return pork to the oven and roast, rotating every five minutes, until the skin is blistered and puffed, about 20 minutes. Remove, tent again, and allow to rest 15 minutes before serving.
*In grocery stores pork shoulder=pork shoulder butt=pork butt. Kenji explains the reality (it is the shoulder of a pig) and the history of the term: "Butt" was the size of a packing barrel (126 gallons) that was typically used to pack the pork shoulders that early 19th century New England typically didn't buy so that they could be shipped out to the rest of the country. If they'd been packed in 84 gallon barrels we'd probably have pork firkin (Kenji gave many more amusing name options :-). |