Pork Shoulder Blade Roast (”Boston Butt”) — Sous-vide
I’ve read so much about the ultra-long cooking times for some sous-vide recipes that I was anxious to find a cut of meat where I could experiment with a long, slow cook. So, borrowing a page from my BBQ cookbooks, I bought a pork shoulder blade roast at the local Safeway for the rock bottom price of $1.29/lb. and decided to experiment.
I used some Bone Sucking Rib Rub, garlic, salt, pepper and garlic olive oil as a rub the night before, and then put the vacuum-sealed roast in at 163F. After about 7 hours the roast was moist & worthy of serving as barbeque–without the smokey flavor unfortunately. It made a great main course for dinner.
Then I decided to push a little further and see if I could get some great “pulled pork” by keeping the rest of the roast in the bath. I cranked the temperature up to 202F and after a couple more hours the pork was practically falling apart. Texture-wise it was great. Of course we were still missing the smokey flavor. Smothering the pork in BBQ sauce went a long way to dealing with the lack of smoke, although I’ll be trying some other options for flavoring in future.
–David
j smith replied:
try smoking the meat before cooking and keeping the temp lower for a longer period of time
November 26, 2006 at 3:22 pm. Permalink.
Larry Carlile replied:
Seasoning the meat with smoked salt would possibly work as well.
January 1, 2007 at 8:35 pm. Permalink.
matt replied:
The smoking gun is used to inject smoke into the bag.
http://www.cuisinetechnology.com/thesmokinggun.html
November 6, 2007 at 11:37 am. Permalink.
Heather replied:
I find that a couple drop of liquid smoke goes a really long way to incorporating smoky goodness where it can’t be gained the old-fashioned way.
December 5, 2007 at 10:07 am. Permalink.
Tim H. Royal replied:
Since you all love pork butt, go the extra mile and during the smoking, cooking process baste it with a vinegar based basting solution which you can find on the web under N.C. Barbeque. Then pull the pork and serve with cole slaw on cheap burger buns, don’t get fancy or it won’t be authentic. A side dish of string beans cooked with ham hock till it falls apart is also appropriate. Serve a Bananna Pudding for desert. For fun, have a splash of Southern Comfort while cooking.
This is not a tomatoe based sauce. The recipe is from the Northern near coastal part of N.C.and is unique to that part of the country. For truly real BBQ, go to Ralph’s BBQ. in Roanoke Rapids N.C., (Use only Hickory to smoke the pork.) on the old highway to Weldon The further west you go the heavier the sauces with tomatoe
December 7, 2007 at 3:30 pm. Permalink.
Tim H. Royal replied:
Since you all love pork butt, go the extra mile and during the smoking, cooking process, baste it with a vinegar based basting solution which you can find on the web under N.C. Barbeque. Then pull the pork and serve with cole slaw on cheap burger buns, don’t get fancy or it won’t be authentic. A side dish of string beans cooked with ham hock till it falls apart is also appropriate. Serve a Bananna Pudding for desert. For fun, have a splash of Southern Comfort while cooking.
This is not a tomatoe based sauce. The recipe is from the Northern near coastal part of N.C.and is unique to that part of the country. For truly real BBQ, go to Ralph’s BBQ. in Roanoke Rapids N.C., (Use only Hickory to smoke the pork.) on the old highway to Weldon The further west you go the heavier the sauces with tomatoe
December 7, 2007 at 3:32 pm. Permalink.