18–24 Hour Slow Roasted Shoulder of Pork

It’s not often you get to cook a whole shoulder of pork. It is really rather large. But should you have the chance, this will help you turn it into a wonderful feasting dish. And because it takes so long, it’s a recipe that’s very easy to fit into your day — it pretty much takes care of itself. The fat that runs through a shoulder joint keeps it good and moist, so the only things you have to worry about are getting it all started and finishing it off. That, and making sure you have a big enough pan.

To give you an idea of timings, I put this on at 7pm the night before I wanted to serve it, and it came out at 1pm the next day. Had I wanted to serve it for dinner, it would have been perfectly fine in the oven, waiting until I was ready to finish it off.

1 whole shoulder of pork

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon sea salt

1 large fennel bulb

1 bunch rosemary

1 large onion

2 large carrots

3 bay leaves

4–6 garlic cloves, unpeeled

550ml white wine

freshly ground black pepper

25g cold butter

Preheat the oven to 230°C.

Make sure the pork is completely dry. Then take a sharp knife, and score the skin thoroughly, before rubbing the skin all over with the oil and then the salt. Place the shoulder, skin side up, on some rosemary stalks and the bay leaves, and roast in the oven for 30 minutes. Then turn over the meat, turn down the oven to 110°C, pour 175ml of the wine into the pan, and leave the pork to roast, basting occasionally, until bedtime. Before you turn out the lights, baste the joint once again, cover it with foil, and leave it alone until breakfast. You can’t have a lie-in — we’re talking about 7.30 here.

In the morning, roughly chop the fennel, onion and carrot, and bash the garlic cloves with the back of a knife. Toss them together with the herbs. Then take the meat out of the oven, strain all the juices out of the pan into a bowl, turn the pork skin-side-up and place it back in the pan on top of the vegetables and herbs. Baste the joint with some of its fat and juices and return it to the oven.

Now leave it alone until about an hour and a half before you want to serve it. (Though, when you have a moment, pop back into the kitchen and skim the fat of the pan juices — you’ll want them for the gravy).

When you’re ready to finish the pork, turn the oven back up to 230°C, and give it a final blast of heat for about 45 minutes to finish off the crackling. Then remove the pork from the oven. If the crackling’s still not quite there, cut it off the pork and return it to the oven until it’s done. Keep an eye on it, though — it can burn quite fast.

Now leave the pork to rest for at least half an hour while you make the gravy. Skim off any excess fat from roasting pan, then put it on the hob over a medium to high heat and add the roasting juices you strained off earlier, together with the rest of the wine, and the vegetables and herbs that were under the pork. Reduce it by at least half its volume, then add several grinds of black pepper and stir in the butter. Taste for seasoning, strain and serve with the pork. The roasted vegetables are delicious on the side.

(Normally, I put the picture at the top. But I have to say, this was so good we didn’t get around to photographing it until we’d finished. There wasn’t very much left…)