Instructions
There is, it seems, no shortage of appropriately-named people in the world. I run into them all the time.
There’s the TAFE patisserie teacher John Baker, or the salmon farmer Roger Scales. There’s a butcher called Peter Butcher, and the plumber named Albert Leak. On top of this we’ve all heard of the apocryphal Dr Death (pronounced Deeth, I’m sure).
More recently, on a trip through western NSW, I was introduced to a local farmer named Sean Shepherd. His agrarian specialty? Sheep, of course.
I had been invited to help judge a cookery competition, where the locals battled it out for the glory of the best country recipe. There were scones aplenty, and a wall of fruit cakes, but it was the meat section that intrigued me most of all. From homemade prosciutto and artisan chorizo, to meatloaves and a variety of roasts, some of which defied identification.
The camp oven cookery was particularly impressive, and the winner in this division was none other than my new acquaintance Farmer Shepherd. So, what does a sheep grazier cook in a camp oven? Well, pork actually.
But it was more than just roast pork. This remarkable meal was so delicious it seemed to have a tinge of gastronomic divinity. The butter-soft meat made my teeth redundant, while the shards of crackling shattered like glass. In the manner of genuflecting monks we judges chewed in blissful reflective silence, broken only by soft groans of pleasure and the occasional burp, both of which are considered prayerful utterances in the church of cuisine.
In large part the success of his pork roast lay in the chosen cut. Whether beef, lamb or pork, shoulder cuts are always the best choice for slow-cooking. The plentiful connective tissue in shoulders is tough if cooked quickly, but melts into an unctuous and yielding mass of marvellous meat when roasted gently.
Ideally, shoulders should be roasted in a dry heat, with no humidity – camp ovens are the best example of this. That said, a cast-iron French oven can do similarly delectable things in your home kitchen, although the lid may need to be slightly ajar.
After several hours of cooking gently, upturn the pork onto a hot griddle to finish the crackling, or grill lightly until crisp.
Is it perfect? Well, you be the judge. But just on that, I forgot to mention the other two judges in the country cook-off. They were, upon my oath, a local Chinese restaurateur Patrick Chu, and the regional Farmer’s Federation representative Brian Swallow.
Chu and Swallow? Will it never end!
Slow-roasted pork shoulder