Cast Iron Roasted Pork Shoulder with Peach Sauce
By Lawman JohnsonPublished on July 13, 2017
Time
6¼ hours, plus 12 hours brining
Yield
Serves 8 to 12
Ingredients
Before You Begin
Pork butt roast is often labeled Boston shoulder, Boston butt, or pork butt in the supermarket. Add more water to the roasting pan as necessary during the last hours of cooking to prevent the fond from burning. This recipe requires refrigerating the salted meat for at least 12 hours before cooking.
Instructions
- Using sharp knife, cut slits in surface of fat layer of roast, spaced 1 inch apart, in crosshatch pattern, being careful to cut down to but not into meat. Combine ⅓ cup salt and brown sugar in bowl, then rub mixture evenly over roast. Wrap roast tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 12 hours or up to 24 hours.
- Adjust oven rack to lowest position and heat oven to 325 degrees. Brush any excess salt mixture from surface of roast and season with pepper. Arrange onion rounds in single layer on bottom of 12-inch cast-iron skillet and place roast fat side up on top. Add 2 cups water to skillet.
- Transfer skillet to oven and roast, basting twice during cooking, until pork is extremely tender and meat near (but not touching) bone registers 190 degrees, 4 to 5 hours.
- Using potholders, remove skillet from oven. Transfer roast to carving board, tent with aluminum foil, and let rest while making peach sauce.
- Being careful of hot skillet handle, discard onion rounds and transfer remaining juices to fat separator. Let liquid settle for 5 minutes, then measure out and reserve ¼ cup jus; discard fat and remaining jus. (If necessary, add water as needed to equal ¼ cup.)
- Bring reserved jus, peaches, wine, granulated sugar, ¼ cup vinegar, and thyme sprigs to simmer in now-empty skillet over medium-low heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until reduced to 2 cups, about 30 minutes. Stir in any accumulated meat juices. Off heat, discard thyme sprigs. Using potato masher, mash portion of peaches to thicken sauce as desired. Stir in mustard and remaining 1 tablespoon vinegar and season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Using sharp paring knife, cut around inverted T-shaped bone until it can be pulled free from roast (use clean dish towel to grasp bone). Using serrated knife, slice roast thin. Serve with sauce.
Time
6¼ hours, plus 12 hours briningYield
Serves 8 to 12Ingredients
Ingredients
Ingredients
Why This Recipe Works
Pork shoulder is loaded with flavorful fat, making it a natural choice for roasting. But cooking it in a roasting pan can take upward of 6 hours. To shorten the cooking time without compromising taste or texture, we turned to our cast-iron skillet. Cast iron's excellent heat retention makes it ideal for long-cooking applications. We got great results from our pork shoulder in as little as 4 hours in the oven. Rubbing the meat with brown sugar and salt and letting it sit overnight dried out the exterior and boosted browning, and elevating the pork shoulder with onion slices and adding water to the skillet during roasting kept the drippings from burning and also created a flavorful jus in the pan. While the meat rested, we combined the jus with peaches, white wine, sugar, vinegar, thyme, and mustard to create a sweet-and-sour sauce to cut the richness of the roasted pork.
Before You Begin
Pork butt roast is often labeled Boston shoulder, Boston butt, or pork butt in the supermarket. Add more water to the roasting pan as necessary during the last hours of cooking to prevent the fond from burning. This recipe requires refrigerating the salted meat for at least 12 hours before cooking.
Instructions
- Using sharp knife, cut slits in surface of fat layer of roast, spaced 1 inch apart, in crosshatch pattern, being careful to cut down to but not into meat. Combine ⅓ cup salt and brown sugar in bowl, then rub mixture evenly over roast. Wrap roast tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 12 hours or up to 24 hours.
- Adjust oven rack to lowest position and heat oven to 325 degrees. Brush any excess salt mixture from surface of roast and season with pepper. Arrange onion rounds in single layer on bottom of 12-inch cast-iron skillet and place roast fat side up on top. Add 2 cups water to skillet.
- Transfer skillet to oven and roast, basting twice during cooking, until pork is extremely tender and meat near (but not touching) bone registers 190 degrees, 4 to 5 hours.
- Using potholders, remove skillet from oven. Transfer roast to carving board, tent with aluminum foil, and let rest while making peach sauce.
- Being careful of hot skillet handle, discard onion rounds and transfer remaining juices to fat separator. Let liquid settle for 5 minutes, then measure out and reserve ¼ cup jus; discard fat and remaining jus. (If necessary, add water as needed to equal ¼ cup.)
- Bring reserved jus, peaches, wine, granulated sugar, ¼ cup vinegar, and thyme sprigs to simmer in now-empty skillet over medium-low heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until reduced to 2 cups, about 30 minutes. Stir in any accumulated meat juices. Off heat, discard thyme sprigs. Using potato masher, mash portion of peaches to thicken sauce as desired. Stir in mustard and remaining 1 tablespoon vinegar and season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Using sharp paring knife, cut around inverted T-shaped bone until it can be pulled free from roast (use clean dish towel to grasp bone). Using serrated knife, slice roast thin. Serve with sauce.
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