Low and slow. There is no better way to cook a nice, big pork shoulder roast–one that you have marinated in a delicious rub of garlic, rosemary, mustard and miso. At 250°, the oven seems barely on. But as the hours pass, four… six…seven, the house fills with the most delicious aroma. And when you pull that roast from the oven and slice it, the meat falls off the bone, breaking up into tender morsels of savory goodness. Eaten that way, sauced with juices, and paired with vegetables, it’s irresistible. But you can also fill tacos with the meat as we like to do, adding some pickled onion and cotija cheese crumbles on top.
To make this roast, we used a seven-pound, bone-in pork shoulder (also known as pork butt) with the fat cap scored, searing it for 20 minutes at 450° and then turning it down to 250° and roasting uncovered for the remainder of the time. If using a smaller-than-seven-pound roast, start checking for fall-off-the-bone tenderness at the four-hour mark. If larger than seven pounds—say, in the nine-to-10 pound range, you’ll roast from 8 to 10 hours. Recipe adapted from Katie Workman, with kudos to Tyler Wolff-Ormes for the idea of adding miso to the marinade.
Ingredients
- FOR PORK ROAST:
- 7 lb. bone-in pork butt roast, with fat cap on
- 4 large sprigs rosemary, divided (You will remove stems from two of the sprigs, mincing leaves to make 3 Tbsp. Save two remaining sprigs to place on top of roast)
- 3 Tbsp minced garlic (7 or 8 cloves)
- 1 Tbsp white miso paste
- 1 Tbsp anchovy paste
- 1 tsp Kosher salt
- 2 tsp freshly cracked black pepper
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 3 Tbsp country Dijon (coarsely ground) mustard
- FOR TACOS
- 1 package fresh corn tortillas
- 3 cups shredded pork from roast recipe
- 1 cup pickled onion (recipe follows)
- 1 cup crumbled cotija cheese
- Fresh cilantro, optional
- Hot sauce, optional
- FOR QUICK-PICKLED RED ONION
- 1 large red onion, peeled, with ends discarded
- ¾ cup white vinegar
- ¾ cup water
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 Tbsp. sugar
- 1 clove garlic
- 3 whole peppercorns
Instructions
- MAKE MARINADE: In the bowl of a food processor, combine garlic, miso and anchovy pastes, minced rosemary, salt, pepper, and olive oil. Pulse to create a paste, scraping sides of bowl as necessary. Stir in mustard. Pat pork roast dry. Place in a large Dutch oven, fat side up. Using a very sharp knife, score fat in a diamond pattern. Rub roast all over with the marinade. Place two remaining sprigs of rosemary on top. Cover and refrigerate roast for 2 to 24 hours. (Note: We marinated the full, 24 hours)
- ROAST PORK: Remove Dutch oven from refrigerator to bring roast up to room temperature. Preheat oven to 450°. Place pork in preheated oven for 20 minutes to brown the top. Reduce heat to 250° and continue to roast for 7 to 8 hours, until a meat thermometer slides into the roast with no resistance and registers 180°. Remove roast from oven and allow to rest for 20 minutes before slicing, or shredding. Note: Slices will break up into tender pieces.
- MAKE QUICK-PICKLED RED ONIONS: In a small pot over medium-high heat, combine vinegar, water, salt, and sugar. Heat to boiling stirring until sugar and salt have dissolved. Remove pot from heat and set aside. Slice onions into thin rings, toss in a bowl to separate. Fill jar with the onion rings; pour hot brine solution over the onions. Add clove of garlic and peppercorns to the jar. Allow open jar to cool on the counter. Within an hour, the onions will have taken on a beautiful pink hue and are ready to use. They are even better chilled for a few hours. Cap jar and store unused pickled onion in the refrigerator. The color will continue to deepen over time.
- MAKE TACOS: Preheat oven to 325°. Wrap tortillas in foil and heat in oven until tortillas are soft and warm. Fill tortillas with shredded or chopped pork. Top with cheese, pickled onion, cilantro and hot sauce (if using.) Serve hot.
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