Pork shoulder is a rather confusing piece of meat. Here in Virginia, it’s called boston butt, picnic, or shoulder depending on how the primal is cut up. Boston butt is inappropriately named in more ways than one, since it comes from higher up on the shoulder primal. The picnic roast comes from lower on the shoulder primal, and tends towards being less tender. For the sake of simplicity, I choose to have the roasts cut to include both the butt and picnic portions of the primal, resulting in our bone-in pork shoulder roasts. It can be used in recipes similarly to either butt or picnic – low and slow!
This simple recipe begins with a quick sear to hold in the juices and then a slow, covered roast.
Dry the roast well by patting it well with a paper towel. The drier the roast, the better the sear, and the better the juices will be held in during roasting.
Season roast; A good blend is 1/2 t. dried mustard, 1/2 t. cracked black pepper, 1 t. smoked paprika, and 1 1/2 t. sea salt. Let the roast come to room temperature, giving the dry rub time to permeate a bit.
Pre-heat oven to 250 degrees Fahrenheit.
Sear in a very hot skillet, three minutes on each side.
Add the roast and vegetables (if desired) to a dutch oven or another easily covered baking dish.
Pour 1 cup wine, beer, or stock over the roast.
Cover and roast for roughly 1 hour per pound of meat. For a large roast, be sure to baste the roast after a few hours. Also if you’re looking at a very long roast time, you may want to wait to add vegetables until closer to the end, lest it all become vegetable mush.
Once the roast reaches an internal temperature of 200 degrees Fahrenheit, the roast is finished. This is a flexible recipe, however – it’s technically fully cooked once it reaches 145 (though it would be quite tough then!) and it’s also happy to be kept warm and just hang out long after it is “done”.
Enjoy!
