Roasted Pork shoulder

Good Day everyone. I’m sorry I teased everyone about this post but my week had turned out a lot busier than I planned. Let’s jump straight into it. Last week was a family member’s seventieth birthday and I was asked to cook something for it. Sat down and thought about what to make, I figured a Lamb leg would be fun but when I found out that it was for 25 people I instantly knew that I would need two legs. We all know that lamb isn’t the cheapest meat around so I just went with a pork shoulder.

I decided to go a little Italian/Spanish with this. The day of the party I woke up early to get started, I felt like my dad. He would wake up early and do that while having a cup of coffee. So I cranked the oven at 275⁰F, got my foil paper, grabbed two head of garlic and carefully cut off the root, then seasoned it with black pepper and drizzled some oil, wrapped it up twice then out them in the oven to roast. After about two and a half hours the house smelled amazing. With the garlic finished it was now time to get busy. You thought I would tell you more of the story behind the prep? Sorry I have to give you the recipe first.

Pork Shoulder

1 Pork Shoulder (boneless)*

2 Spicy/Honey garlic Sausage (raw)

1 Lemon zest

½ tsp of Olivaca Catalana D’Arbequina **

2 heads/bulbs of Roasted Garlic

1 Cup Parsley (chopped)

1 Bunch scallions (chopped)

3 Bay Leaf

½ bunch Rosemary (chopped)

Salt + Pepper

Equipment

Blender/ Food Processor

Boning Knife

Cutting Board

Baking Pans

Butcher's Twine

That lovely piece of pork that you have in your fridge along with all of your ingredients, take them out. If you’re like me and you have the skill to debone a pork shoulder then kudos to you. For everyone else, you can buy your shoulder bone out. After I deboned the pork I poked it all over with a paring knife so that the seasoning got absorbed a little easier throughout the meat. I heavily seasoned it with salt and pepper and just let the pork sit while I started to get my other ingredients together.

Chop your parsley, Scallions, Rosemary, Lemon zest, and keep it in a small bowl. Take your roasted garlic, the cloves will fall apart don’t worry. What you do is take a spoon and press it from the tip to the end and just watch the garlic come out of the skin, add it to your blender. Take your sausage and remove them out of the casings and drop them into the blender/processor with your garlic, add a tiny amount of olive oil so the blender/processor doesn’t seize up and overheat.

Puree, once it’s a smooth consistency add it to your bowl of chopped herbs. Add the Olivaca to the mix with a little bit of cracked pepper.

Now that you have your paste we are going to spread it all over the inside of the pork, making sure we get it in every section.

We’ve got our spread all over the pork, now we have to roll it. This may or may not go down very well, you with either be able to tie this pork shoulder or just get frustrated with me and bake it flat. I mean, either way works fine. But having this skill is always a plus. I think I might have to make a tying video now. 

Anyways! If you know how to tie the shoulder do it and sprinkle the skin with salt pepper and a little sugar for caramelizing.I baked mine for 2 ½ hours at 350⁰F, the pork spent the first hour and a half covered then I took the foil off for the rest of the time to allow the fat to render a bit. You should constantly baste the pork. Now if you have more time like maybe four or five hours then I suggest baking it at a lower temperature like 275⁰ or 300⁰F, this will allow more fat to render.

*Okay, so the people that can’t debone a shoulder of pork what you do is peel the layer of skin off three quarters of the way and keep it peeled back, now stab the pork constantly to allow seasonings and rub to get absorbed. Maybe even make and incision through the front so it’s even more inside the pork, so it looks stuffed. 

Once you’ve rubbed/stuff the meat, place the skin back on and take your string/twine and just run it under the pork and make a knot over the skin to secure it from moving.

** I know not everyone will have a glass jar of Olivaca, so what you can do is fine an olive tapenade. This is just a puree of olives, garlic, sardines and seasonings.

I am very sorry everyone but I totally forgot to take a picture of the end product, we were rushing to leave the house to go the party.