Hey, hey, hey! Hope the new year is treating you well so far. I think we are all holding our breaths wondering what will 2021 bring. One thing is for certain, we cannot worry about it and be paralyzed by our fears. Worrying about things that may or may not happen is not a great way to spend your time. Am I right? Of course I am!
You need to start focusing on the things you can control. Your health, connecting with family and friends, starting a garden, learning how to can/dehydrate food, get a food saver so you can keep freezer foods longer, without freezer burn, and maybe starting a new hobby.
One thing we’ve been doing for a little while now is buying a nice sized pork shoulder, cutting it up into dinner sized portions for our family, and then slow roasting it. We vacuum seal those delicious pieces and feel so good that we have done something to help our family have what it needs.
Before roasting it, we mix up a rub and marinate the pork overnight. Then while the pork is roasting, we baste it with an orange juice, apple cider vinegar and olive oil mixture. Saying it’s delicious is an understatement! We usually end up eating one portion standing with our hands when they are done. It’s that GOOD!
The rub mix we use is very simple, and you may have all of the spices in your pantry already. How great is that?! The rub is made of paprika, black pepper, salt, ground garlic, ground onion, cayenne, and brown sugar. Simple, right? Mix it up well so there are no clumps, and massage your pork! Put a lot of love into that massage! Place the coated pieces in glass bowls overnight in the fridge. If you don’t have enough room in the fridge for all of these pieces of deliciousness (we never have enough room), you can use a cooler with adequate ice to keep these overnight. Then the next day, you can either use your grill or oven to slow roast these. We have so much that we usually use both. We put the flame on the lowest setting on the grill and about 200 degrees F in the oven. Then the waiting begins. We baste these about every 30 minutes, so do this when you know you’re going to be hanging around the house.
I must warn you though. The smell will drive you ponkers! You will want to dig in every time you baste the pork, but don’t! Wait until it’s fully cooked. It’s usually 30 minutes per pound total, or until the internal temp of the meat reaches 160 degrees F. It usually takes 8-9 hours to cook these bad boys. Yes, it’s an all day affair, but you won’t be sorry!
Here’s a pic of what they look like before you cook them. We rubbed the pork with the mix this morning, and they are now in the cooler. We’ll post another pic once these are done. Boy, I can’t wait!
