Tag Archives: brown sugar

Pull My Pork

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Occasionally, while I am between steps in cooking, I will jot down a note or two, sometimes in free verse. So it was this past evening:

Pull My Pork

From an oven low and slow,
Barely more than candle flames,
Pork perfume pervades.
Garbed in Marco Polo’s to-do list
Basting like a Russian on the Barcelona coast,
One large butt.
Actually a shoulder, an innocent misnomer
From people who deceived you
Into thinking thymus glands
were sweetbreads.

Necessity being the mother of invention, I stumbled upon an article that gave me a workaround for cooking my soon-to-reach-its-sell-by-date port butt in the oven, rather than trying to smoke it in my electric pellet smoker during a rainstorm.

It couldn’t be more simple; rub the pork “butt” (actually the shoulder, but hey, this isn’t a physiology blog) with a spice blend of your choice. Then pop it in a Dutch oven overnight at a very low temp, maybe mop it (that is, squirt or daub a little liquid on it) a time or two if you feel like it, and pull it out the next day. I set mine on the insert from my Instant Pot®, just to keep the meat from sitting in its own rendered juice and also to develop some crust (or bark) on the bottom.

My rub was as simple as 1-2-3: one part sea salt (or Kosher salt) to two parts Penzeys Singapore seasoning to three parts brown sugar.

The “mop” followed a similar formula: one part Dijon mustard to two parts apple cider vinegar to three parts dark molasses. I put it in a squirt bottle and splashed some on once during the night when I woke up and again early in the AM before it was ready to come out.

The boneless pork shoulder weighed about 7.5 lbs / 3.5 kg, and it took about 12 hours at 225°F / 107°C to reach an internal temperature of 205 °F / 96°C , at which point I pulled it out of the oven, let it stand for 30 minutes or so, and pulled it apart with forks and (clean) fingers.

The “bark” was as good as its bite.

INGREDIENTS
1 large pork butt, preferably boneless, about 7.5 lbs / 3.5 kg
For The 1-2-3 Rub
sea salt or kosher salt
Penzeys Singapore Seasoning
brown sugar
For The 1-2-3 Mop
Dijon mustard
apple cider vinegar
dark molasses

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 225°F / 107°C.
If you have time, remove meat from refrigerator for about an hour.
Rub spice blend thoroughly onto meat, coating all sides.
Put pork in roasting pan or Dutch oven, preferably on a small wire rack/riser.
Cook for about 12 hours, mopping occasionally (or not), until its internal temperature reaches approximately 205 °F / 96°C. [Anything over 202 °F / 94.5°C should be fine, you just want it to be falling apart without much stress.]
Allow to cool for 1/2 hour to 45 minutes, them pull apart with forks.
Refrigerate or freeze the unused portion(s).

Banana Bread with Chocolate Toffee Bits

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Mmmmm, crunchy! At least when they go in.

Here’s a little something sweet for Valentine’s Day. Or any day.

I love visiting the closeout rack at my local market. It’s often filled with super bargains, plus things I would never think of buying (especially not at their original price!). The other night it turned out to be Heath® Milk Chocolate Toffee Bits. At their original $3.99 for 8 oz. / 226 g, they seemed extravagant, but at half off, I was fished in.

A few days earlier, the produce closeout rack offered eight bananas for 99 cents, so I bought $1.98 worth and let them go soft. The ones I can’t use immediately will be peeled, Ziplocked in groups of four, and deposited in the freezer so I always have pre-saddened, bread-ready bananas. [I could have used pre-frozen fruit this evening, but the newbies were crying out for use… and already at room temp.]

By and large, this is a pretty standard banana bread recipe, with the exception of the toffee bits and two other things: I subbed sour cream for my usual buttermilk, since I had the former and not the latter; and I added a couple of tablespoons of Guittard Cocoa Rouge, because I wanted to counteract the sweetness of the toffee and milk chocolate a smidgen. Feel free to employ your favourite existing banana bread recipe, substituting the toffee bits for nuts as an add-in; this was just another opportunity to help clean out the pantry. After baking, the chocolate toffee bits melt and recede into the background somewhat, which wasn’t what I had expected; they do, however, leave behind a subtle but distinct sweetness that meshes well with the bread.

This recipe was adapted from the Food Network’s “Classic Banana Bread” recipe.

Batter up.

Banana Bread with Chocolate Toffee Bits
Makes one 9″ x 5″ loaf

INGREDIENTS
1¾ cups / 220 g all-purpose flour
1 8 oz. / 226 g package Heath® Milk Chocolate Toffee Bits
1 teaspoon / 4 g baking soda
1 teaspoon / 2.3 g ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons / 5 g unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon / 6 g salt
½ cup / 115 g melted unsalted butter
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
¼ cup / 60 g sour cream
½ cup / 100 g light brown sugar, lightly packed
1 tbsp. / 15 ml pure vanilla extract
4 soft, overripe medium bananas, mashed (about 1½ cups / 450 g)

DIRECTIONS
Whisk dry ingredients (1-6, from the flour to the salt) together in a large bowl. In a separate bowl (I actually used a 4-cup Pyrex measuring cup), melt butter, whisk in eggs (making sure the butter has cooled enough so it doesn’t cook the eggs), stir in the sour cream, brown sugar, and vanilla, then add the bananas (you can mash them in the measuring cup). Fold the banana mix into the dry ingredients, but don’t overmix; you just want to moisten the flour. A few lumps are okay! Bake in a 350°F / 175°C oven for 45 minutes or until a toothpick or knife inserted in the center comes out clean. As the bride says, “There’s so much moisture in banana bread, it always takes longer than you think.”

Loafing around.