Tender Pork
Today I cooked a big lump of pork on the bone. I have no idea what cut it was but it looked like it was a slice off the leg. There was meat on both sides and rind around the edge. I looked like it would be a good cut to be able to get flavour into.
I was also interested in investigating whether I could get tender pork consistently so I turned to the internet to discover that in America the recommended “cooked” temperture for pork had been lowered. As a child we were told that pork had to be well cooked, as a result I grew up eating stringy, dry meat.
On a few occasions I fluked it and cooked beautiful, juicy, tender meat so this time I used a digital, wirelss meat thermometer to monitor the internal temperature of the meat and set it for 73°C, which on my thermometer was medium Veal. It wouldn’t allow me to set pork for anything less than “well done”.
This meat was perfectly cooked, tender and juicy and totally delicious.
Slow Roasted Pork
Bring meat to room temperature while heating the oven to 150°C
Dry Spice Rub
Grind together the following and rub all over the dried meat, massaging in well:
- 1/2 cinnamon stick
- 1 star anise
- 1 tsp coriander seeds
- 1 tsp five spice
- 1 tspn schezuan pepper mix (I have a ground pepper and salt mix made up), otherwise add 1tsp salt as well
- 1 tsp peppercorns
Cooking
- Line a baking tray with a large sheet of foil, add oil and 1 cup of water or stock, optionally add a chopped onion, some carrot and celery.
- Brown the meat in oil on all sides, in a large frying pan then lay the meat in the baking dish, insert the thermometer into a thick portion of the meat, and wrap the foil to semi seal.
- It takes about 4 hours to reach temperature, basting a couple of times. When the meat reached about 65°C I pulled back the foil to allow it to continue browning and cut off the rind and cooked it seperately as crackling.
- When the meat reaches 73°C, remove and rest for at least 10 minutes.