Cooking Overnight!

But first, I have to apologize!  It seems the Blogger forwarding was not working correctly!  I’m sorry if you’ve had some troubles getting here, I’ve taken off the forwarding, so make sure you set your bookmarks and links correctly.

Now on to business. 🙂  This past Sunday for Company Dinner I had a hankering for some pork.  It’s been a long while since we’ve had anything resembling BBQ pork or shredded pork, so I decided that’s what I was making.  There’s nothing like a shredded BBQ pork sandwich smothered with plenty of coleslaw.  When I lived in Northern Virginia I was introduced to the anomaly of putting your coleslaw on your sandwich, and at first I was really confused by it.  But over time, I began to love that BBQ sandwich with the coleslaw piled inside, and then I moved back to Wisconsin, where no one had ever heard of using coleslaw as a sandwich filler.   There was not a remedy to be found, and every once in a while that craving gets really intense.  This was one of those instances.

Since it’s been a tad bit too cold to fire up the grills yet, I needed to do my pork inside, and I wasn’t exactly sure how to do this best.  Should I plop it in a slow cooker?  Should I braise the pork?  Should I pop it in the oven?  I didn’t know, but then I opened up one of my cookbooks and found the solution.  Perfect Recipes for Having People Over by Pam Anderson told me about cooking the pork low and slow overnight, and I knew I wanted to do that immediately. So I did.

The only change I made to the recipe was that I used about 10 cloves of freshly sliced garlic instead of the powder she called for.  And boy, did that pork smell good in the middle of the night! Sunday morning I pulled it out of the oven, literally falling apart.  The pork was shredded, copious amounts of barbecue sauce was added, and I had Oven Barbecued Pork for sandwiches.  There was practically no effort involved, and this thing completely cooked itself.  I loved it- and we’ll be making it again the next time the pork craving is calling.

Oven Barbecued Pork 

 

3 tablespoons packed brown sugar

3 tablespoons paprika

1 1/2 teaspoons salt, plus more for sprinkling

1 1/2 tablespoons coarsely ground black pepper

1 1/2 tablespoons garlic powder

1 bone-in pork shoulder butt roast or fresh picnic shoulder (8-9 pounds)

1/2 cup Dijon mustard

Adjust oven rack to lowest position and heat oven to 250 degrees.

Mix brown sugar, paprika, salt, pepper, and garlic powder in a small bowl. Pat roast dry and place on a rack set over a foil lined shallow baking sheet.  Lightly sprinkle top and sides of roast with salt, brush with half the mustard, and sprinkle with half the spice rub.  Carefully turn roast over.  Sprinkle with a little salt, brush with remaining mustard, and sprinkle with remaining spice rub.

Roast until a meat thermometer registers 170º, 9 to 11 hours, depending on the size.   Transfer pork to a platter and let cool enough to handle, about 1 hour.

Meanwhile, if making sandwiches and pork needs a little more moisture, pour off any fat and scrape pan drippings into a small saucepan, add 1 cup water and bring to a simmer. Remove from heat.

Cut roast into 1 to 2-inch chunks and shred meat into a large bowl. Add enough pan drippings to moisten pork and stir to combine.

Serves 12 to 20.