[Sca-cooks] Re: [EKCooksGuild] Playing with my food again...

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Jul 11, 2005, at 11:01 PM, Phlip wrote:

> OK, a couple days ago, I tried Adamantius' Pork Shoulder recipe.

Ur, just to avoid further confusion, I don't think I posted the  
recipe to EK Cooks, just to SCA-Cooks. It was a pretty standard, more  
or less generic, sorta pan-Latino recipe for pernil al horno or  
pernil asado, or slow-roasted pork shoulder picnic. Maybe Phlip can  
forward the post to EK-Cooks, or I'll dig it out later, but I got it  
from a website that appears now to be defunct. I posted it because I  
had mentioned it a couple of times previously, and used the recipe  
enough times in succession to determine that it's pretty much  
foolproof and consistently excellent.

> Ant of you
> who like pork, try it- it's absolutely excellent ;-) Only one
> warning/modification- throughout it, he refers to lifting up the  
> "fat" to
> get the rub in- I emailed him about it, because our shoulder came  
> with fat
> and skin- yes, partially remove the fat _AND SKIN_.

All true. I was quoting the original recipe, and while I did do  
things like translating fractions to decimal lest they get eaten in  
transit, I didn't notice that particular source of confusion, or if I  
did, I just assumed it was a cultural thing or a dubious translation.  
But then I've never seen a pork picnic shoulder that came without the  
skin, so I've become quite used to dealing with it without too much  
conscious thought.

> The meat was flavorful and tender, the skin was delightfully crisp,  
> and very
> much a tasty addition to the rest of the shoulder. Rob and Margali
> apparently didn't like the skin,

Huh -- I'm a bit surprised, they being fans of chicharrones and  
all... is it conceivable all did not go according to plan?

> so poor suffering me had to eat it all up-
> Woe is me, woe to my cholesterol, but DAMN, it was good ;-)

Oh, yes, this something that'll almost surely kill you pretty quickly  
if you ate it every day for a prolonged period. Besides, cholesterol  
is just something made up by Evil Scientists in New York City, isn't  
it? [My niece was taught this about dinosaurs and fossils in a public  
elementary school in Valdosta, Georgia.]

> And, those of you who don't think you'll like the skin- don'r  
> remove it,
> other than the loosening you do to get the rub into the meat.  
> Replace it,
> and salt it, even if you think you won't eat it, because the skin  
> is what
> keeps all the juices in, and makes the meat so utterly delectible.

Well, I believe the recipe states you can do the roast without the  
skin -- say, if you wanted to use another cut or some such, but that  
the crispy skin is a selling point for most people. I've even used  
the basic process for loin pork chops, and it makes great pork chops;  
the meat acquires a lovely perfume and tenderness. But it's not  
pernil al horno ;-).

Adamantius



"S'ils n'ont pas de pain, vous fait-on dire, qu'ils  mangent de la  
brioche!" / "If there's no bread to be had, one has to say, let them  
eat cake!"
     -- attributed to an unnamed noblewoman by Jean-Jacques Rousseau,  
"Confessions", 1782

"Why don't they get new jobs if they're unhappy -- or go on Prozac?"
     -- Susan Sheybani, assistant to Bush campaign spokesman Terry  
Holt, 07/29/04