Slow cooked pork

Slow cooked pork

This is incredibly simple and you can leave it to cook all night (if you can stand the smell)

Most recipes will tell you to stand the meat on an onion that’s been halved. This is fine if you want it to taste like stew! But if you just like slow cooked pork to taste like melt in your mouth pork then do not put an onion under the meat.

I go for a cheap cut of shoulder pork, it usually has a fair amount of fat on and this adds to the flavour.

All you need to do is place the pork in your slow cooker and add half a cup of cold water, that’s it! Don’t faff around with it, let the natural juices flavour the meat. My slow cooker has 3 settings, I start it on high for 2 hours and then turn it to low for at least another 4 hours, generally I cook it for 7 hours in total but it really depends how big your joint is. I usually go for one to feed 8.

Half way through the cooking, I turn the meat so all those lovely juices soak in all over. Apart from turning the meat once DO NOT open the lid again or you have to add 20 minutes to the cooking time each time you do this.

When the meat has cooked and falls off the fork, switch it off and leave it to stand for 10 minutes before you attempt to cut it.

Most of the fat that runs through the meat would have ‘melted’ away And any of the fatty rind will just lift off now. Actually you won’t even need a knife, you would be able to cut it with a spoon it will be that tender.

I sometimes cook this a day earlier and put it in an ovenproof dish. I sprinkle a vegetable cube over the meat add some gravy and cover until ready to go in the oven.

This is such a lovely tasty meal and is so cheap. Even the slow cooker only takes the equivalent of a light bulb on to run. I usually serve it with mash, roasted vegetables, roast potatoes and Yorkshire puddings (I add them with everything, well I do live in Yorkshire!)