It seems that 'pulled pork' is everywhere these days, this is my very simple version that tastes great when assembled into a massive sandwich!
The only 'cheffy' twists here are making separate crackling and the long, slow cooking technique. I thinks it's fine to bypass the first, but the second twist is essential to get anything that resembles pulled pork. This takes 12-24 hours to cook, so it does require a little forward planning, but scale the recipe up to a full shoulder (the cooking time remains the same) and it'll happily feed 10.
Ingredients (for 5-6 sandwiches)
Half shoulder of pork, ideally bone-in
1 tblsp smoked paprika
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried sage
1 tsp cayenne pepper
Salt and pepper
Cider vinegar
Splash of beer
And to complete the sandwich;
Sourdough loaf http://flavoursomefeast.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/sourdough-part-1.html
Tomato salad http://flavoursomefeast.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/tomato-mint-and-caper-salad.html
A few lettuce leaves
Mayonnaise and / or mustard
Method
1) Carefully cut the skin from the top of the pork, if the joint's been boned by your butcher then you may have to remove some string to this, that's fine it's all going to be pulled apart at the end anyway! Try not to take too much fat with the skin or it won't crackle. Spread out on a plate skin side up, ensure that it's completely dry and put in the 'fridge.
2) Preheat an oven to 220C whilst you combine all of the pork ingredients except the beer and cider vinegar and smear them lovingly all over the joint.
3) Place the pork inside a heavy casserole, leave the lid off and put it at the top of the oven for around 30 minutes until it's browning nicely.
4) Turn the oven down to 80-100C, add a splash of beer to the casserole, place foil under the lid to create a seal and return to the bottom of the oven for anywhere from 12-24 hours, it just gets better with time...
5) When you can bare the delicious smell no longer take the pork from the oven, it should look quite dark.
6) Tip off the excess fat and shred the pork adding the cider vinegar and salt and to taste.
7) Place the pork back in the warm oven whilst you prepare the crackling. Heat a grill to as hot as it'll go and smear the pork skin with vegetable oil and salt, place under the grill and leave until crisp.
8) Construct your monster sandwich and serve with the crispy crackling.
I love this dish, maximum flavour, minimum effort and great for sharing.
