Britta's Krustenbraten
In my grocery store, I always saw those pork shoulders. What to do with this? It usually has some skin on, which reminds me of real German speck (salt cured and smoked port belly), where the fat part was used for dishes and the skin was added for flavor to other dishes e.g. Lentil stew. I of course did love to eat the cooked down skin from the lentil stew.
I asked on Facebook how to do best a pork shoulder. I got many replies and merged several of them to this.
8 lbs pork shoulder, rinsed down with cold water and dried with a paper towel.
0.5 liter of Pilsner beer
0.25 liter of Guinness
5+ cloves of garlic very coarsely shopped (more if you like garlic)
Put the shoulder in the freezer for 30 min, we want to cut the skin into diamond patterns. The knife has to be really sharp. Don't be afraid to sharpen again and again. Also do not cut the meat. Only cut the skin. Use Salt, pepper and ground cumin and some thyme on the outside. There are more spices to come, don't overdo this.
In a bowl add the pork shoulder, add the Pilsner and the garlic. Into the fridge it goes for 3 hours.
Shortly before the 3h are up, turn on the oven and preheat to 400F.
After the 3 hours, remove the shoulder from the board onto a cutting board. Transfer all the braising liquid into a turkey pan. Add some Old Bay Seasoning to the Shoulder. Put the shoulder onto the rost in the turkey pan. You don't really want the meat on sitting on the bottom of the pan.
Add 6 cups of water and cover it. Into the oven the shoulder goes
Per lbs count 30 min. So my 8 pounder will need about 4h or there about.
I put an alarm clock to check every 30 min. After the first hour was over, I took some of the liquid in the pan and purred it over the shoulder, continuing this for 2 more hours every 30 min.
For the first 3h the pan was covered.
After 3 hours I removed the cover.
On the stove top I dissolved a cube of Knorr Bratensosse in 1/2 cup of water and added that to the liquid in the pan. This intensifies the taste, but I am sure it will be just fine without this step.
Check every 15 min on the crust.
This is what you want.
Total cooking time ended up about 3h 45min. After 3h I inserted a meat thermometer to see where I am in the cooking process. (inner temp was passed 200F, that is where my thermometer stops).
Remove the shoulder from the pan. It turned out to be a bit of a challenge, as I was already in the stage of 'fall off the bone' ....lol... Scrape the brown things on the rim of the pan (this is where a lot of flavor is) and move all the liquid to a pot.
Thicken with Mondamin or a cornstarch/water mix. I added some non-fat heavy cream. Season if you think it needs more salt and pepper. For me it was enough.
-Mahlzeit-
I asked on Facebook how to do best a pork shoulder. I got many replies and merged several of them to this.
8 lbs pork shoulder, rinsed down with cold water and dried with a paper towel.
0.5 liter of Pilsner beer
0.25 liter of Guinness
5+ cloves of garlic very coarsely shopped (more if you like garlic)
Put the shoulder in the freezer for 30 min, we want to cut the skin into diamond patterns. The knife has to be really sharp. Don't be afraid to sharpen again and again. Also do not cut the meat. Only cut the skin. Use Salt, pepper and ground cumin and some thyme on the outside. There are more spices to come, don't overdo this.
In a bowl add the pork shoulder, add the Pilsner and the garlic. Into the fridge it goes for 3 hours.
Shortly before the 3h are up, turn on the oven and preheat to 400F.
After the 3 hours, remove the shoulder from the board onto a cutting board. Transfer all the braising liquid into a turkey pan. Add some Old Bay Seasoning to the Shoulder. Put the shoulder onto the rost in the turkey pan. You don't really want the meat on sitting on the bottom of the pan.
Add 6 cups of water and cover it. Into the oven the shoulder goes
I put an alarm clock to check every 30 min. After the first hour was over, I took some of the liquid in the pan and purred it over the shoulder, continuing this for 2 more hours every 30 min.
For the first 3h the pan was covered.
After 3 hours I removed the cover.
On the stove top I dissolved a cube of Knorr Bratensosse in 1/2 cup of water and added that to the liquid in the pan. This intensifies the taste, but I am sure it will be just fine without this step.
Check every 15 min on the crust.
Total cooking time ended up about 3h 45min. After 3h I inserted a meat thermometer to see where I am in the cooking process. (inner temp was passed 200F, that is where my thermometer stops).
Remove the shoulder from the pan. It turned out to be a bit of a challenge, as I was already in the stage of 'fall off the bone' ....lol... Scrape the brown things on the rim of the pan (this is where a lot of flavor is) and move all the liquid to a pot.
Thicken with Mondamin or a cornstarch/water mix. I added some non-fat heavy cream. Season if you think it needs more salt and pepper. For me it was enough.
