The Perfect Succulent Slow-Roasted Pork Shoulder
By: Sheri Wetherell
Published: June 25, 2013

We love the flavors and textures of a succulent slow-roasted pork shoulder crusted in a delicious homemade dry rub! In this video, Jordan Winery executive chef Todd Knoll demonstrates techniques for getting the perfect tenderness and moistness in your cut of meat, as well as the key ingredients necessary for creating your own dry rub recipe.
For more inspiration, click here for Chef Knoll's how-to video for creating a dry rub base that can quickly and easily be be adapted into Asian, Mediterranean or Indian dry rubs.


Summer Dry Rub on Slow Roasted Pork Shoulder
 This dry rub can be easily adjusted to your family’s tastes and is sure to be handed down from generation to generation. Executive Chef Todd Knoll adds ancho chili to complement the fruit flavors in the 2008 Jordan Cabernet Sauvignon.
	¾ cup kosher salt
	¾ cup demerara sugar (Turbinado or Sugar in the Raw may be substituted)
	½ cup Chinese dried mustard (Coleman’s may be substituted)
	¼ cup smoked paprika
	4 Tbsp dehydrated garlic (garlic powder may be substituted)
	6 Tbsp dehydrated onion (onion powder may be substituted)
	6 Tbsp ancho chili powder
	2 Tbsp ground cumin
	2 Tbsp ground black pepper
	2 Tbsp cayenne pepper
	4 Tbsp coriander
Click here for full instructions and more tips.
Video transcription provided below.
 Be sure to check out these great tips and recipes, too! 
 4 Must-Try Summer Dry Rubs for Baking and Grilling 
Easy Entertaining: A Garden Fresh Edible Centerpiece 
The Perfect Cabernet Sauvignon and Steak Pairing 
How To Make Amazing Infused Oils at Home
Get recipes, cooking tips and more from Jordan Winery Blog and here:










How to Make Dry Rubs, Slow Roasted Pork Shoulder Recipe 
So today we’re going to be talking about dry rub, it’s summer, it’s dry rub season. They’re very easy. They’re very versatile, something you can get done well in advance and look like the superstars you see on TV, very simple. I’m going to show you my favorite cut of meat to use, what temperature to cook it at, when to let it rest, the basis for any dry rub. Before I even start playing with all the other ingredients here, is a sugar and salt base. I would say three-quarters of a cup of salt, three-quarters of a cup of sugar and then move into your spices and your chili. What that sugar and salt’s going to do is the salt will draw the juice out of the meat then it’s going to pull the flavors of your rub back into it. I prefer using demerara sugar, which is not completely refined, neither is it a dark one which will burn. This is sel gris so you have the taste and the minerality of the salt, this is skimmed off the marsh, very good flavor, a great crunch to it, even over a long cooking time, this is fleur de sel, but many for a dry rub, plain old kosher salt works wonderfully. As long as you have a really good sugar, a really good salt and play with your different salts, a good mustard base, some fresh paprika and you’re off to go.
This is a bone end for the butt, the shoulder piece of pig. I always try to do my long slow cooking on the bone, I want to keep as much … I didn’t turn this myself but as much of this fat cap as possible you want left on for slow cooking. And when you cook it you want to leave this fat side up as it will begin to baste the meat. This meat’s going to be very, very tender over a long period of time. If you are in a bit of a hurry and want it cooked you can lightly score through the fat part. So for a piece this large, I would give it a good hour even before I start it at low heat, because we’re cooking at such a low heat over a long period of time, say 210/225 degrees over a 12 to 15 hour period, you’re going to get that happening in the oven itself, but to keep an eye on it for your first time and to see it I would rub it, watch the liquid come out and then draw it through. It’s almost like self-brining within the meat’s own juices, grinding your own spices just as they have for thousands of years, taking what you have at hand and doing this by hand really makes for a special rub, looking at tablespoons, teaspoons, depending how strong, some people don’t like too much cumin, some people are sensitive to cilantro. Coriander has a lovely orange to it that I like using with pork in particular. I am looking for a uniform grain to it all. I don’t want any large pieces.
So your rub’s done, you’ve done at least one type of recipe, hopefully two, and again a good base of recipes could be found on our website, there are also fantastic books out there. You want to find one that just has the core ingredients and then from there you’re going to move out and keep writing them down, changing things, sometimes there’ll be a half teaspoon of something that might change the whole vibe of your rub. I use this very liberally. You want to just give it a really healthy dusting of it. And again once this melts and as the liquid begins to pull from the meat and then pulled back in, sometimes I will do a second application, again the shoulder cut, great cheap cuts of meat that tend to take best to this type of cooking. Now even fancy sous vide cooking, slowly cook it at 100, I could cook it at 170 degrees which is our target temperature for three days, but I’m not going to get that bark, I’m not going to get that smoke. So ancho chilies is a chili I reach for when … I’m going to be drawing on our current vintages. Here we have a 2008 Jordan Cabernet Sauvignon with black fruit, cherry, and you’re also getting a lot of fruit out of the ancho.
Then into a perforated pan, it’s affordable, just your turkey pan, you can buy at the grocery store, works excellent for this. I do it uncovered then we go into a 225 degree oven. So that goes in the oven at 200 to 225 degrees for about an hour and a half per pound. So we’re looking at 15 hours. Now, as it comes out, the longer you let it wait and let those juices redistribute the better. For a piece this large we’re looking at between two and three hours if you can wait, in a warm area tented, and leave it directly in a liquid and it will draw that back into the meat then you won’t have dry, because no way can you have a dry piece of pork. It can be whatever you want, make it your rub, make it your family’s rub, you can pass it down, someone else is going to change it a bit themselves, it allows us to enjoy our company and then to share the strength with our guests and then change it again and maybe do it the Sunday following.