Yesterday while I was shopping for groceries at the local Giant Eagle - wretched place that it is - I saw Pork Butt was on sale. Now, I have never cooked a pork butt, and I have reservations about cooking pork in the first place: it is fatty and yet tends to dry out during cooking, too. Despite my reservations, I bought a nice-looking cut of pork butt. Fast forward to today...
How does one cook a pork butt? Well, pork butt needs to be cooked slowly - roasting it is! But - as I mention above - pork tends to dry out easily (in my experience), so instead of dry roasting the pork butt, a wet roast is the logical decision. What is wet roasting? Essentially, wet roasting is just like any other style of roasting except that you add liquid to the bottom of your roaster. I chose to use white wine, but you could use a fruit juice (apple or grape), stock, or even water. This liquid will help keep the meat moist, but it will also add flavor to the meat and the vegetables/roots that you add.
For this roast, I decided to use potatoes, carrots, celery, mushrooms, onions, and garlic. Potatoes and carrots are typical for most roasts because they will absorb flavor as they cook. Celery adds a nice flavor to roasts, and mushrooms have a nice, earthy flavor that compliments the sweeter flavor of the carrots and onions. And the garlic, well, you need garlic in almost everything because it is delicious.
Here is a list of ingredients with approximate amounts:
- 1 2-3 pound Pork Butt (preferably with bone intact)
- 1 bottle of Riesling white wine
- 1 pound of carrots (approx. 4 carrots)
- 1 heart of celery (approx. 6 celery stalks)
- 2 medium onions
- 1 8 oz. package of white button mushrooms
- 4 medium potatoes (yukon gold or similar variety)
- 1 bulb of garlic
- kosher salt
- coarsely ground black pepper
- about 1 Tbsp. dried rosemary leaves
Rub the pork butt with the salt and black pepper. Allow it to sit in the roasting pan while you prepare the other ingredients. Wash the vegetables. Cut the potatoes into small-medium chunks (you may choose to peel them first or to leave the skin intact). Peel the carrots and cut into thirds or quarters depending on length and preference. Cut the celery into thirds or quarters as well. Place these vegetables around the pork butt in the pan. Peel the onions and cut each onion into quarters. Line these quarters along the sides of the pork butt. Then, peel the garlic. Cut each clove in half and place directly on the pork butt, covering as much of it as possible. (Place the extra cloves in the pan with the other vegetables.) If you use miniature button mushrooms, put them directly into the pan, but if you use larger button mushrooms, cut them in halves before adding to the pan. Press the rosemary into the pork butt/sprinkle it on top of the pork butt. After you have added all of the vegetables/roots, pour half of the bottle of wine into the pan. Cover the pan with aluminum foil or a lid. Put into the oven and allow to cook, covered, for one and a half to two hours. Then, uncover and allow to cook for another thirty minutes.
Remove the pan from the oven and allow to sit for about five minutes. Cut the pork butt into slices/pieces (cutting around the bone of course). Serve.
The other half of the bottle of Riesling is a great pairing with this dish, too.
Here is a picture of the dish, pre-cooking:
Another adventure in cooking comes to a close. (And, being single, it seems I will be eating pork butt and vegetables all week long.) Now, I return to my day job - pretending to be a scholarly English-type. Off to finish The English Patient. Bon appétit!
