Roast beast mixup: can thus recipe be saved?

February 16, 2013 5:14 AM

My husband accidentally bought a pork shoulder instead of a loin for this recipe. It's now been marinated. Can we proceed anyway (I'm assuming with longer cooking time), or do we need to go back to the store for a loin? If the latter, what do I so with this mustardy shoulder?
posted by snickerdoodle to food & drink (8 answers total)

Totally. The texture will be different (it probably won't slice). You should lower the oven heat (250-275) and you'll probably have to cook for about an hour per pound. You will most definitely want to use a thermometer to check doneness- shoulder needs to go to at least 160 F -- 180 is better -- but there is no danger of drying out the meat because of the fattiness. (That's why shoulder >> loin for BBQ.)

After it comes to temp I'd crank the oven to 400 F for about five minutes to crisp up the outside. Let rest for 15 minutes and you're good to go. It will probably come apart in chunks, but it may slice ok (depending on bone-in, bone-out, picnic vs butt, various things).
posted by supercres at 5:30 AM on February 16 [2 favorites]

Also, you might want to either tent the roast with foil, or cook it in a Dutch oven with a lid, while it's doing the main cook. Take the lid/foil off for the 400-deg part. While the bulk of the meat won't dry out, the outer layers might do, just a bit. You could also mist it with some delicious liquid (I like a mix of apple juice and apple cider vinegar) about once an hour.

Even easier: use a slow cooker.
posted by supercres at 5:35 AM on February 16

For future reference, here's a chart of pork cuts with cooking method suggestions. supercres has given you pretty sound advice, but to elaborate a bit more, your results may differ from those anticipated by the receipt not only because of the extra fat and bone that the average pork shoulder cut has, but also because the marinade simply doesn't penetrate the fatty tissue as well as it does leaner muscle tissue more often exposed in loin cuts. Your results are still likely to be tasty, but they'll taste more of roast pork and fat, than of the spices and mustard of your marinade, particularly if your shoulder cut has big bones, and a lot of fat. Accordingly, you may want to salt the finished product a bit more than usual, at table.
posted by paulsc at 5:44 AM on February 16 [2 favorites]

Prepare as directed and throw into a crockpot/slow cooker. It'll taste similar but it'll come out in a 'pulled pork' style rather than discrete slices.

FWIW, I prefer the shoulder to the loin anyways - loin can be dry and tough.
posted by unixrat at 6:00 AM on February 16

Thanks, all! We will proceed as directed. Although we don't have a crockpot, so we will use the Dutch oven instead.
posted by snickerdoodle at 6:09 AM on February 16

This might help you:


Bittman Pernil

Pernil Video.
posted by mockpuppet at 6:36 AM on February 16

I asked a similar question last year.
posted by Wordwoman at 8:51 AM on February 16

Yep, a slow cooker is the way to go with this.
posted by Guy_Inamonkeysuit at 3:14 PM on February 16