Pork Shoulder

This bottomless bowl of meat sauce is the stuff of dreams—the American Dream, in particular. In Italy, ragù would have been flavored with a small piece of pork, but because meat was so readily available in the United States, immigrants included beef braciole, meatballs, sweet and hot sausage, and pork shoulder and ribs. This dish requires hours on the stovetop to make the meat tender and juicy and the sauce thick and intense, but it's well worth waiting for.

Few can resist this soup-stew of tender cannellini beans, silken pork shoulder, tomatoes, and herbs. We give the cherry tomatoes a little extra love in the oven to boost their flavor before we stir them into the beans. Rosemary is a natural in this dish, but it’s the generous amount of parsley added at the end that’s the real revelation. The herb adds a zesty top note to the beans. Simple side dishes—garlic bread, a green salad—complete the picture.

The pork needs time to cook and chill, so be sure to begin this recipe at least one day ahead. Put out a platter of cornbread (homemade or purchased) along with the posole.

This classic Mandarin Chinese recipe can be made with either ground beef or pork.

Editor's note: The recipe and introductory text below are reprinted with permission from Gameday Gourmet by Pableaux Johnson.

Quince—hard and astringent when raw—becomes tender and slightly sweet as it cooks, making it a nice pairing for the Middle Eastern-spiced pork. This dish needs to be started at least two days ahead.

A popular taco filling in Mexico, pork al pastor is usually cooked in a huge slab on a vertical rotisserie (like Middle Eastern shawarma) and sliced off to order, so that the outside bits are crisp and golden and the inside is juicy and tender. Cooks often stick an onion or a pineapple on top of the rotisserie so that its juices drip down over the well-seasoned meat. Pineapple takes a more central role in this grilled version: The puréed fruit sweetens the basting sauce, while chunks of it join the pork and onion on the skewers. A homemade salsa and an array of accompaniments invite guests to get in on the action.

This classic pulled pork is the ultimate holiday weekend grilling project.

If using dried shrimp, grind to a powder in an electric coffee/spice grinder or use mortar and pestle. Seasoning paste can be made ahead and chilled, covered, up to 1 week or frozen 1 month.

Editor's note: The recipe and introductory text below are adapted from Elizabeth Karmel's Web site, girlsatthegrill.com. This is the dish that started my love affair with grilling and barbecue. Growing up a stone's throw from Lexington, North Carolina—the World barbecue headquarters—I always visited a barbecue joint to get my pork fix. We'd either eat it there or take it home in quart containers to reheat in a silver chafing dish. After college, I said good-bye to the barbecue joints and moved north. If I was going to enjoy pulled pork more than once or twice a year when I went home, I just had to teach myself how to make it. Here is my tried-and-true version made most often on a gas grill, no less!

Tradition calls for achiote-scented cochinita pibil to be roasted underground in a pit called a pib. Indirect grilling produces a terrific pibil, and because Yucatecans don't prize the flavor of wood smoke for this dish, a gas grill is ideal. The meat needs to marinate four hours.

Simmering a pork roast with milk and a generous handful of herbs results in very tender meat with rich, silky juices. Many Italians will leave the milk curds that form alongside the meat where they are, but Ferrigno strains them out for a more refined sauce.

You'll need a slow cooker for this recipe (a necessity for any busy cook).

Surf-and-turf like you've never had before—whole fried trout topped with crisp pieces of sweet and spicy pork. For a traditional Thai dinner, serve the mains and sides family-style with a large bowl of steamed jasmine rice.

Smoked pork shoulder usually isn't available at supermarkets, so you will need to order it in advance from your butcher. If you use ham shanks instead, try to find the kind without artificial flavors like liquid smoke. And don't throw out the cooking liquid; it's great for making soup.

Roasting the meat for almost seven hours makes it tender and succulent. The bright, fresh salsa verde is the perfect accent for the rich meat.

This braised pork, absolutely falling apart from its lengthy cooking, would be a hit at any time of day. "Spoon it over creamy stone-ground grits or a hot, split spoon-bread muffin," Peacock suggests.

Though traditionalists may insist that making cassoulet is an all-day affair, this hearty version-cooked with country-style spareribs, the meaty ones located closest to the pork shoulder-can be made in under 3 hours.

This needs a long, lazy roasting, so enjoy the aromas as you get ready for the party.

We love it whenever an inexpensive cut of meat is coaxed into a glorious showstopper, and this pork masterpiece is perhaps the best example we can think of. Even the sight of it is delightful, as it glazes over with a sheen in shades of rose and amber. The garlicky adobo—that's the marinade, not the commercial powder—is pushed into slits in the meat to penetrate to the deepest layers; the outer layer, rubbed on the roast, forms a sticky crust of irresistible caramelization; and the skin becomes a rich, crunchy chicharrón, the last pieces of which everyone will surely fight over.