Pork Shoulder

Editor's note: Chef, nutritionist, and cooking teacher Lourdes Castro shared this recipe from her cookbook, Latin Grilling. It's a classic Cuban dish and the centerpiece of a festive party menu she created for Epicurious. If you have leftover pork, Castro recommends making Grilled Cuban Sandwiches . Cubans love their pork. It's hard to find a Cuban or Cuban-American who doesn't have a memory of spending hours waiting for a lechon, a whole pig, to finish cooking in someone's backyard, and then sharing it with family and friends (I am certainly no exception). What sets Cuban-style pork apart is the use of mojo criollo, a highly seasoned marinade made up of tangy citrus juice, vast amounts of garlic, cumin, and oregano. And while roasting a whole pig is deliciously fun, smaller cuts are far more manageable and easier to work with.

Editor's note: Chef Roberto Santibañez, the chef/owner of Fonda in Brooklyn, New York shared this recipe as part of a festive taco party menu he created for Epicurious. To make tacos, you'll also need 24 to 32 warm corn tortillas, 2 cups of salsa, chopped white onion, chopped cilantro, and lime wedges. Santibañez recommends serving the tacos with Fresh Tomato Salsa , Roasted Pineapple Salsa , or Taco-Shop Guacamole, a blend of avocado and tomatillos. Picture this: Mounds of juicy, tender, crispy-edged pieces of pork just waiting to be tucked into freshly made tortillas or piled on a plate along with rice and beans. This recipe is the classic way to make them—well, almost. Many restaurants and stalls put a whole butchered pig in a huge copper pot and let it simmer away until any liquid has evaporated. That's when the pork goes from being braised to being fried, browning in its own luscious fat. I do the same thing here, except I suggest using pork shoulder instead of the whole animal. And while the pork is traditionally browned on the stovetop, doing it in the oven is even easier and more effective. Pile the result on tortillas with salsa, chopped onions, and cilantro.

If you can't secure any Big Island wild boar, use some free-range pork instead. If you've got the time, try to order a boar shoulder from Texas-based Broken Arrow Ranch—a favorite of chefs like dean Fearing—or send for a full-flavored heirloom pig breed like Berkshire or Red Wattle from heritage Foods USA (brokenarrowranch.com and heritagefoodsusa.com).

Home turf: New Mexico
Local flavor: Southwestern-style chili is all about the chiles (with an "e"), as in this pillar of regional cooking, chile verde. The chiles are green and mild (New Mexico's famous hatch chiles are perfect), and the meat is pork. Tangy tomatillos balance the chiles and coat the slow-cooked pork. To up the regional cred, serve it "Christmas" style—with a combo of green and red chiles.
Make it a meal: Serve with warm corn tortillas, avocado and spinach salad with honey-lime vinaigrette, and a dark beer like Negra Modelo (Mexico, $8 per six-pack). If you can find it, use dried Mexican oregano in this recipe. It has a smoky flavor that dried Mediterranean oregano doesn't have. Look for it at Latin markets.

The meat for these “shepherd’s” tacos is commonly seen roasting on vertical spits displayed with pride on street stands throughout Mexico. The spits are usually topped with a pineapple, which is thinly sliced and served in the tacos. This method of cooking meat is identical to that used for the spit-roasted lamb (shawarma) brought to Puebla, Mexico, by Lebanese immigrants in the 1930s. The technique was copied by the Mexican taqueros (taco masters), who substituted pork for lamb. The original stand for tacos al pastor still exists in Puebla, with vertical spits of pork still revolving in front of its huge wood-burning hearth. This recipe makes two dozen tacos to serve 8 persons with big appetites, or more as part of a taco party platter. Note that the pork must marinate overnight before cooking.

This Italian spot in the city's Germantown neighborhood is known for its house-made salami and mozzarella. And because this is the South, these folks know their pork. The rich, Italian-inspired pork terrine with the southern-style sweet-tart green tomato sauce is a delicious blending of what this restaurant does best. Timing note: The conserva needs to chill overnight.

Nduja, a spicy spreadable salami, is incredible with the pork.

Editor's note: The recipe and introductory text below are from The Barbecue! Bible 10th Anniversary Edition, by Steven Raichlen. To read more about Raichlen and barbecue, go to our feature The Best Barbecue in the U.S.A. Barbecue means different things to different people in different parts of the country. In North Carolina it means pork, or more precisely smoked pork shoulder, that has been grilled using the indirect method until it's fall-off-the-bone tender, then pulled into meaty shreds with fingers or a fork. Doused with vinegar sauce and eaten with coleslaw on a hamburger bun, it's one of the most delicious things on the planet, and it requires only one special ingredient: patience. My friend and barbecue buddy Elizabeth Karmel makes some of the best pork shoulder I've ever tasted. Elizabeth comes from Greensboro, North Carolina, where she grew up on pulled pork. Her secret is to cook the pork to an internal temperature of 195°F—higher than is recommended by most books. But this is the temperature needed for the pork to separate easily into the fine, moist, tender shreds characteristic of true Carolina barbecue. Elizabeth doesn't use a rub, although many of her compatriots do. (I personally like a rub, but I've made it optional in the recipe.) A true pork shoulder includes both the Boston butt (the upper part of the leg with the shoulder blade) and the picnic ham (the actual foreleg), a cut of meat that weighs fourteen to eighteen pounds in its entirety and is used chiefly at professional barbecue competitions. The recipe here calls for Boston butt alone (five to six pounds), which, thanks to its generous marbling, gives you superb barbecue. The appropriate beverage for all this? Cold beer or Cheerwine (a sweet red soda pop).

Many years ago, I worked with a cook who introduced me to this method of roasting pork with milk and fresh orange. Jose has long since retired to his little pueblo in Michoacan, but his recipe lives on in my kitchen simply because it so delicious. Pork cooked this way is moist and succulent, sweet from the natural caramelization of the milk, with the slightest hint of orange and black pepper. For an over-the-top garnish, crumble chicharrón (fried pork skin) on the soft roast meat for a porky, crunchy textural contrast. Serve the carnitas with warm corn tortillas, avocado, a crisp raw tomatillo salsa, and plenty of onions and cilantro. If you have access to heirloom pork such as Kurobuta or Berkshire, it's exceptionally delicious—pork the way pork was meant to taste.

Because the roast needs to marinate overnight, be sure to start this impressive entrée one day ahead.

Be sure to pick up a few extra bottles of hard apple cider to serve along with the stew.

Smothering—that is, braising—both tenderizes the pork shoulder chops and concentrates the flavor of the sauce.

Total cost: $9.86

Infusing pork butt with pink peppercorns and garlic enhances its superb flavor. The vermouth in the pan sauce has a masterful synchronicity with the juniper-like aroma of pink peppercorns and gives you enormous complexity from just one ingredient.

Timing note: You'll need to start this recipe two days ahead.

This variation on the traditional method has never failed me. I learned it at the Memphis in May World Championship Barbecue event more than two decades ago from an Arkansas cook. It's simple. Place a partially smoked pork butt in a paper grocery bag and finish cooking by slow smoking it. The paper absorbs some of the grease and keeps the meat from drying out. People ask me, "Won't the bag catch on fire?" The bag will be saturated with pork fat, but a bag fire hasn't happened to me yet. For true Southern pork butt, go with hickory wood. However, I like to use fruitwood—maybe even peach or cherry—mixed with pecan. Because pork butt slow smokes for 6 hours, this is not a recipe to try on a gas grill. Suggested wood: Hickory or a combination of apple, peach, or cherry and pecan

Tinga de Puerco Pork shoulder is a humble cut of meat, but it packs a lot of flavor. Here it is simmered with a chipotle-spiked tomato sauce to make a smoky-spicy topping for crisp little tortilla chips. They can be served on a plate as a first course or passed on a tray as a nibble with cocktails or beer. Tinga is also very good as a filling for warm corn smoked Spanish sausage.

Fennel pollen, a relatively new spice here in America, is very popular in Italy. It is more subtle and delicate than fennel seeds, and it marries particularly well with pork. If you can't find fennel pollen, substitute freshly ground fennel seeds.

The Abruzzese of Italy love hot peppers and delight in food that has a bit of a kick. In this rich pork stew, called spezzantino dimaiale alla'abruzzese, red bell peppers add sweetness and balance the heat. Some versions of this recipe use chopped rosemary instead of fennel seed.

Incorporating tender slow-roasted pork into a sugo (sauce) brings out its fullest potential.