Garlic-Stuffed Pork Shoulder (Modified)

This is a cut of meat that I REALLY enjoy. This is a pork shoulder (about 3 lbs) of tasty eating when properly cooked. There are several ways to cook this meat. There really isn't much to this. People tend to shred pork shoulder (e.g., shredded or pulled pork) but I don't. Don't get me wrong. I like pulled pork but keeping it in roast form is how I prefer cooking and eating it if I had my choice. You'll find good pork shoulder at your local supermarket or butcher. Above you'll see the shoulder and a head of garlic. You can put as much as you want in it (I did the entire head since I was the only one eating it).

Simply put, I slit around the fat or bone and stuffed the cloves inside them. There is enough fat on this cut where I made the slits in the fat (left) or around the bone (right). Both are ready made to do this. When you stuff along the bone, I took a utility knife and created the slit around the bone.

As it relates to seasoning, you can pretty much add what you would like. On this day, I kept things simple. You can do that with this cut of meat- kosher salt, ground black pepper, cayenne pepper, paprika, onion powered, oregano (not pictured) and olive oil. I took enough of each spice to cover the entire cut of meat on all side. You noticed that I placed olive oil on the list (on the left).

Then I wrapped the pork shoulder and let it sit in the fridge. I would suggest at least 3-4 hours but overnight or a day would be ideal. I placed enough olive oil to cover the meat but gentle rubbing into the meat. I tried this years back and I liked the flavor. I had first mentioned that I placed the olive oil on before I wrapped it. I was actually distracted (someone sent a reply about this being a no-no). I only placed the spices on first. For whatever reason, I was distracted when I put this together (and finding the right pictures was an adventure in itself. I did roast some garlic the same time I did this. You might notice in the picture above, the olive oil is not in the picutre (it is in the picture the photo before). Sorry for any confusion and thanks to whoever tipped me off because I know better. 

If this picture looks familar, this is the one I used in a different post. I did them the same day. The catch is cooking this slowly. When starting the fire, I like to use auto-light charcoal in a chimney (as you can see above and yes, I'm about to get a new one). The normal charcoals (non-self starter) make the bed (as seen on the bottom left on the picture. The zone to cook on is on the right. I used indirect heat. The trick is getting the temperature in the right zone (somewhere between 225-240 degrees). Once the fire has been built, I added a mix of soaked wood chips and dry wood chips. Some say only used soaked chips and some day use dry only. That's a debate for another day but I know where I stand. The rule I follow is cook the shoulder about 60-70 minutes per pound.

I made on mistake. I started the fire too hot initially (about 300 degrees for about 20 minutes and 275 degrees for about 15 minutes. You may notice at some BBQ places or TV specials, you may notice that the cook has a garden hose and they will spray the fire (BRIEFLY, for about a second). This is one way to control the temperature. I also readjusted the position of the coals (moving more of them towards the end away from the meat). Still, the fire was a bit too hot so I removed some of the coals taking a shovel end (or whatever tool you use to adjust the coals), placed them in a safe spot and let them burn out (I used the kettle grill I wasn't cooking with that day.

I won't waste much time on this part of it because people use many different grills and many (unlike this one) without a themometer. One way I guage the temperature with no themometer is once the coals a prepared, I placed my hand about 6 inches away from the grill and counted 1000-1, 1000-2, and so on until you feel the heat. The faster you feel the heat, the hotter the fire is (yeah, right?). If you do it this way, you should be able to count between 1000-2 and 1000-3. 

Now for the meat of the matter:

a. Keep temperature between 225-240 degrees. This way it will cook slowly.

b. By keeping that temperature, I cook it for 3 1/2-4 hours under normal circumstance (ideally, you want the internal temperature should be between 170-185 degrees). On this night, I cooked on pork shoulder roast and 2 slabs or ribs.

c. Every 30-45 minutes, I would suggest either the mop sauce or your choice or baste with a liquid like stock (I placed my mop sauce in the BBQ ribs post).

d. PLEASE do not add sauce until the last 15 minutes or so. If you do, the sauce will burn and this cut won't taste right. In other words, you might ruin the meat.

Then after all is said and done, the payoff-

I would encourage you to let the meat "rest" (let it sit on a plate or platter before cutting) for 15-30 minutes. My family and friends will verifiy I can BBQ pretty well. That way, all the time you spent creating this masterpiece won't dry out for future meals. Now if you really wanted to shred this, you could. As I said already, I prefer to not do so.