so this is when omurice bae becomes a thing?

If you move to Hokkaido please get me an autograph of Mr Sparkle.

So I tried Kenji's pulled pork recipe that El D and others posted. Did 22h SV at 165 and then 90 min in 300 deg oven. It was tasty but not nearly as tender/moist as I envisioned. I bought something labeled pork shoulder spontaneously before the snow storm on Monday night. It had a large layer of fat on one end but not that much marbling. I did some googling and it seems I should be getting Boston butt for pulled pork, would that explain the meat being a bit dry or did I possibly do something wrong here? Only have finished product pics unfortunately

Boston butt and pork shoulder are the same thing. It has a lot of fat in it.

If you want a more moist result, I recommend saving a lot of the fat (and the juices in the bag) and putting them back in the finished result or mixing them into the sauce. Would also recommend going lower and longer. 36 hours at 145 for me is always perfect results.

Yeah, I reduced/skimmed the bag juices a bit and whisked them into BBQ sauce with some extra rub, it was very tasty sauced, just not like fall apart tender right out of the SV/oven as described ITT. In Kenji's description he described 145 as sliceable and 165 as shreddable assuming 18-24h SV, would 36h at 145 make it more shreddable texture?

Yes.

Mullen,

I'm guessing you just happened to get an unusually lean cut.

Could've been pork picnic shoulder which is slightly different from the butt, a little leaner.

Mullen,

I have great results by simply cutting the pork butt into chunks, add salt and pepper to all sides, then searing all sides in a hot pan:



Set aside the seared proteins and then saute chopped onions, celery, carrots in the same pan (add oil and salt & pepper), cook until veges are tender, then add some tomato paste, garlic cloves (caramelize a bit), add white wine if pork (& red wine if beef) and reduce wine:



then add stock or water (several quarts so the seared proteins are well covered in the oven pan). Put the chunks of pre seared pork in a 4+ inch deep oven pan, pour in all the veges and liquid above, throw in some fresh thyme on top, cover tightly with foil and then throw it in the oven for 4-6 hours at 350F (check the meat until its at desired tenderness and you're done).

Strain the juices (toss vege) and reduce with butter to make a sauce or add cider vinegar, tomato paste, brown sugar, mustard, etc to create a BBQ sauce.

This works like a champ for me with pork butt, beef short ribs, chuck roast, pork cheeks then any of the above can be used for sandwiches or a protein on top of pureed cauliflower (or potato or parsnips or celery root or you can combine all 4).

Here's pork cheeks with the sauced reduced with butter on top of celery root puree:



Here's short rib sliders with arugula, goat cheese, sauce reduction and pickled shallots:



Here's the pork used for tacos:



The proteins cooked this way (& sauces) can be used for a variety of dishes, lot of bang for your time buck

Yeah, probably too lean. How big was it? It's also possible you were underweight so went too long in the oven?

If i move to hokkaido, this is probably first thing i eat.

Ate this for breakfast in Hokkaido a few years ago:

Yeah, thats pretty sweet. I bet it was only $20 too.

I think it was more like $12-15. Want to go back.

Potato,

I def need to get back to Japan for breakfast!



amoeba: omgomgomg

Not sure if it was unusually lean.

I did the serious eats pork carnitas recipe. And it was pretty dry after sous vide and broiling. I think there is a chance that average pork shoulder may be a little bit more lean. Or maybe I removed otoo much fat pre-sous vide and pre-broil.

114 vs 118 yes, 116 idk.

But this!:



Just about the worst thing I've ever attempted to eat.

what is that?

Natto, japanese fermented soy beans

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natt%C5%8D

impulse bought a kamikoto santoku. sorry, not sorry.

go on....

Deep fried mashed potatoes and deep fried sriracha soaked potatoe peels