There’s nothing quite like a generous pulled pork burger, piled high with sharp, crunchy slaw. The secret to pork that’s actually tender? It comes down to two things: the right cut and a long, slow cook. With the footy finals on this month, it is the sort of thing you can put in the oven at lunchtime and have ready for the crowd by the first bounce, using a rich balsamic braise to create a deep, tangy flavour that’s a nice change of pace from the usual barbecue sauce.
At Church Street Butcher, we can help you select the perfect cut for any recipe. Pop in to see our range of free-range and locally sourced Victorian meats.
Your Guide to the Perfect Pork Shoulder
Great pulled pork starts with a cut that has the right balance of meat and fat. This recipe uses a 1.8 kg pork shoulder roast, which is enough for ten generous burgers. Shoulder comes from a hard-working part of the animal, so it is full of connective tissue and flavour that breaks down beautifully over a long cook.
Here is the part that makes this recipe a little different. Ask us for the shoulder with the skin removed but kept, because the skin goes back on top of the pork while it braises. As the skin renders in the oven it bastes the meat underneath, and you throw it away at the end. It is an old butcher’s trick for keeping a lean-ish roast moist over four hours.
Butcher’s Tip: how much to buy Slow-cooked cuts shrink as the fat renders and moisture cooks off. A 1.8 kg shoulder gives you roughly 180 to 200 g of raw pork per burger across ten buns, which lands as a proper handful once it is pulled. If you are feeding a big finals crowd, go up to a 2.5 kg shoulder and add another cup of water to the pot.
Low and Slow, The Secret to Fall-Apart Perfection
Patience is the main ingredient, but two things matter. First, brown the shoulder. Sit it in a heavy, lidded ovenproof pot over high heat and turn it every few minutes for about 15 minutes until every side is deeply coloured. We always do this; the crust it builds is where most of the savoury depth in the finished sauce comes from.
Then coat the browned pork in the balsamic mixture, add a cup of water, bring it to the boil, lay the reserved skin over the top, put the lid on and bake at 150°C for 3 hours. Take the lid off for a final hour so the pork colours and the sauce thickens.
The reason this works is collagen. At a gentle oven temperature held for hours, the tough connective tissue in the shoulder slowly converts to gelatin, which gives pulled pork its soft, shreddable texture and glossy sauce (Wikipedia, Gelatin). Rush it with a hotter oven, and the outside dries out before the inside lets go.
The Perfect Counterpoint: A Zesty, Crunchy Fennel Slaw
Against a rich, sweet-sour braise, you need something sharp and crisp, and this slaw could not be simpler. Slice two fennel bulbs as thinly as you can (a mandolin helps) and toss them with a cup of bread-and-butter pickles, a couple of spoonfuls of the pickling liquid and a generous handful of dill. No dressing to make. The pickle juice does the job, and the aniseed note from the fennel is made for pork.
One tip: mix the slaw while the pork rests, not earlier, so the fennel keeps its crunch.
The Grand Finale: Assembling Your Masterpiece
When the pork comes out, lift it from the pot and rest it for 10 minutes. Spoon two tablespoons of the cooking juices into a cup of mayonnaise; that becomes the sauce for the buns. Then use two forks to pull the meat apart and push it back through the rest of the reduced balsamic sauce so every strand is coated.
For the buns, lay thin slices of red Leicester on the cut sides of ten brioche buns and put them under a hot grill for about a minute, checking every 20 seconds, until the cheese melts and the edges toast. Pile on the warm pork, a heap of fennel slaw and a spoon of the balsamic mayo, and put the lids on.
We have a feeling this one will become a finals-day fixture in your house. For the pork shoulder and the skin to go with it, visit us at our Church Street shop or find us online.